December 2 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, asking to be reminded should Webster forget to send the $2,000 that Howells had requested. Sam made reference to “these first days of publication” of Grant’s Memoirs and gave specific shipping numbers—another argument for Dec. 1 being the correct publication date.
December 3 Thursday – Sam wrote from New York City to Livy. He had received Susy’s letter telling of the death of Mary Burton. He related the night before at Laffan’s, and Mrs. Grant’s, and wrote of the Japanese Village in Madison Square Garden that he wanted to show Livy when she came down the following week [MTP].
December 5 Saturday – In Boston, Howells answered that he’d received the check, but didn’t think he could keep it. His dilemma was that Harpers, whom he’d recently contracted with, would not allow him to have his name on the title page of another publisher’s work, and that if there was no definite plan to publish, he felt the money did not belong to him.
December 6 Sunday – Brander Matthews wrote to Sam: “Bunner is to be married in Jan. So he comes here to breakfast, Thursday, Dec 17th at 1 P.M. Couldn’t you find some imperative business which will demand your presence in this city on the 17th…The breakfast will be very informal—you may wear your slippers!” [MTP].
December 7 Monday – Back in Hartford, probably over the weekend, Sam wrote to Howells about the “Library of Humor” book. Sam suggested Howells write the preface now, and then:
“…we can put the Library away, with cheerful souls, knowing that at any time now or far away, there’s nothing in the way of her coming out whenever we want her to.”
December 8 Tuesday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Orion, sending $25 and a Christmas greeting, saying the money represented,
“…what they would buy & send you if they warn’t so dam busy” [MTP].
Sam also wrote, or allowed to be written in his behalf, from Hartford to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, declining an invitation to some event [MTP].
December 9 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Walter E. Dacrow, who evidently had asked for a small article. Sam’s answer deserves space here:
If anything in the world could tempt me, this letter of yours could certainly do it. But I give myself only five years longer to live, and in that time I must furnish certain books for the betterment of the human race; if I should stop to peddle miscellaneous articles, it would leave the human race insecure [MTP].
December 10 Thursday – Karl Gerhardt wrote more about the death mask matter, Grant to Gerhardt Dec. 7 enclosed [MTP].
December 11 Friday – From Sam’s notebook:
“Howells says [from his Dec. 11 letter to Sam]: I’m reading Grant’s book with a delight I’ve failed to find in novels.” And again: “I think he is one of the most natural—that is, best—writers I ever read. The book merits its enormous success, simply as literature” [MTNJ 3: 217].
December 12 Saturday – The New York Critic printed an interview with Sam’s mother, Jane Clemens: Sam as a boy avoided school, though he enjoyed reading [Tenney 14].
December 13 Sunday – William M. Clemens for Chicago Literary Life Magazine wrote “sorry” Sam was 50 [MTP].
Prof. John Fiske wrote asking if he could “accept your kind invitation for the 23d instead of the 16th?” [MTP].
December 14 Monday – The Monday Evening Club met at the Clemens home with a discussion of “Eloquence.” Susy Clemens attended the meeting. “The essayist of the evening contended that the only form of eloquence was verbal.
December 15 Tuesday – Denis E. McCarthy died in Irvington, Alameda County, Calif. He was 55. The New York Times reported his death on Dec. 18, 1885, p.2. The article mentions his association with Sam, “then a young and comparatively unknown writer.” It also recounted the fake robbery on the “divide,” which may have caused a permanent breach with Sam. McCarthy died as editor and proprietor of the Virginia City Chronicle, which he ran from 1873. Too much demon rum killed him.
December 16 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, again about the “Library of Humor” book.
No, don’t keep the check—collect the check & keep the money…you & I will probably be bald & toothless before the Library is published; for if I get the two books I am expecting to get, they will come in ahead & shove the Library along a couple of years; & by that time other books will intervene again & keep shoving it along.
December 17 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster about the death mask mess, which Sam feared was an impending scandal that would damage book sales “a hundred thousand dollars’ worth.” Gerhardt was “obdurate” about demanding $17,000 for the mask. Sam thought a quick lawsuit would settle things [MTP].
December 18 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his mother, Jane Clemens, hoping she was healthier and telling of Livy’s plans for the family to visit Keokuk in the spring, if possible [MTP].
December 19 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward House about Grant’s Memoirs. “As I was expecting, the book has instantly taken literary rank at the summit of its class of literature” [MTP].
December 20 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, stressing the importance of securing a contract with Mrs. Grant for the publication, now planned a year ahead, of General Grant’s letters to his wife. Sam was afraid there’d be a demand for an even higher royalty or an offer to take in Fred Grant as a partner. Did Webster want Sam “to come down & ask for the letters?” Or, simply to come and consult about a plan.
December 21 Monday – Sam wrote a short note from New York City to Charles Webster, directing him to re-ship a Memoirs, vol. 1 to Mrs. W. M. Laffan, as the first one was lost, and to send tree-calf books to Mrs. Grant for her autograph [MTP].
December 22 Tuesday – The N.Y. Times article of Dec. 5, 1886 recalls this previous New England Society Dinner and the “Trick” Sam played on William M. Evarts. This is in the 1886 entry, but should also be in the Dec. 22, 1885 entry. Sam was in New York on that day, though the 1885 Times article covering the dinner says nothing of Sam or Evarts.
December 23 Wednesday – Julian Hawthorne wrote, Hawthorne to Author’s Club before Dec. 10 enclosed. He enclosed a notice that balloting on Will Carleton would be postponed until after Dec. 31. Hawthorne’s tiny hand shows he agreed and thanked Sam for his proxy and letter [MTP].
December 24 Thursday – From New York City, Sam sent best wishes to Joe and Harmony Twichell:
“Livy & I love you both, & fervently wish you a long & happy life, & eventually a sufficient family” [MTP]. Note: The Twichells had NINE children.
Sam also wrote to Francis Wayland, dean of Yale Law School, asking if he knew Warner T. McGuinn (1859-1937), a Negro student there:
December 25 Friday – Christmas – Sam also inscribed six volumes (originally three but rebound) of Our Living World by Rev. John George Wood, adapted by Joseph B. Holder, M.D., to daughter Clara: In volumes 1, 2, and 4: “Clara Clemens / Christmas /1885. / From Papa”; in volume 3: “ Clara Ben Clemens / Christmas / 1885.
December 26 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, who wrote Dec. 20 that “Mrs. Howells doesn’t foresee her way” to come for the P&P play Sam and the children were re-staging in January, but that he would come and bring his daughter, Mildred (Pilla), a friend of Susy’s and Clara’s. Sam responded.
December 27 Sunday – Charles J. Langdon wrote to Sam & Livy, “hard to sit down and write an acknowledgment of those xmas gifts you and the dear children sent me…I was deeply touched” [MTP].