January 14 Sunday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow, thanking him for the “pat on the back.”

Your letter passed through Mrs. Clemens’s hands several weeks ago on its own way to me, and she naturally thanks you too, since you confirm her own judgment. She is head critic over me and Court of Last Resort, and she made me pull the story to pieces and do it over again before she would allow it to be printed. [PW?]

January 15 Monday – In New York a telegram arrived from Chicago (probably from Paige’s attorney Walker); Paige had agreed to terms.

Sam’s notebook: This is a great date in my history — a date which I said on the 5th would see Paige strike his colors. A telegram from Stone says he has done it. Yesterday we were paupers, with but 3 months’ rations of cash left & $160,000 in debt, my wife and I, but this telegram makes us wealthy [MTHHR; NB 33 TS 47-8 (renumbered pages 49-50].

January 16 Tuesday – In the wee hours, Sam wrote again to Livy, this time good news.

January 18 Thursday – Fatout lists an Author’s Club appearance for Sam in New York City; no subject is specified [MT Speaking 661]. Sam’s notebook gives another engagement at Laurence Hutton’s:

January 19 Friday – Sam wrote in his Feb. 11 to Livy that he made a notebook entry on this day of:

To-day, Jan. 19, sent cable, to Livy, “Nearing success.” It was plain, yesterday, at the conference, that a very trifling change or two would make the Chicago contract suit Mr. Rogers. But as this would cost several days, with a delay added for consulting the patent lawyers, I thought best not to cable anything more promising [NB 33 TS 50].

January 21 Sunday – In New York on Players Club stationery, Sam wrote to Mary Mapes Dodge, declining an invitation, and sorry he’d missed her son, James (Jamie) on a recent visit, but his room was “in scandalous disorder” and he wasn’t yet up.

I’m to be in Boston Thursday & Friday — & likewise Saturday, I am afraid. It is just as exasperatingly too bad as it can be — in fact the whole too-badness of it can’t be done justice to without ripping & cussing, & it is Sunday & I dasn’t [MTP].

January 22 Monday – In Boston, William H. Rideing (1853-1918), on the editorial staff of Youth’s Companion and North American Review, wrote Sam requesting he submit an essay on “How to Tell a Story” to the Youth’s Companion [MTHHR 19]. Rideing offered $500 for the story [MTP].

January 23 Tuesday – Georgiana Ratcliffe Laffan (Nannie) wrote inviting Sam to a tea with songs for a “chiefly feminine” get together on Thursday, Jan. 25. Sam wrote on one margin for Livy, “I’ll tell you a howling yarn about this if I don’t forget” [MTP]. Note: See MTHL II p.657-8 for Sam’s account to Howells how he mixed up regrets with two invitations.

January 24 Wednesday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam ordered a wakeup call for 8 a.m. then “ran out” to H.H. Rogers’ home at 9 a.m. and “talked business until half past 10, arranging a scheme for suppressing the remaining royalties.” Such plans were aimed at increasing the value of Sam’s royalties. Sam then caught the 11 a.m. train for Boston, arriving at 6 p.m. He shaved and dressed by 7 p.m.

January 25 Thursday – In Boston at Annie Fields’ home, Sam wrote to Livy.

I had to turn out at 9 this morning & go down town & attend to a matter of business which kept me till 2: then I went to the theatre & talked; left there at 4 & been running and busy ever since.

January 26 Friday – In Boston, Mass. Sam wrote a two-page letter to Jeanne Chalmers of that city.

January 27 Saturday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam got up at 8 a.m. and answered “an accumulation of letters” and a note from H.H. Rogers. He sent five telegrams; had a “tedious interview” with Charles E. Davis, who told of Rogers’ “bombshell” dropped into the Conn. Co.’s camp on Jan. 25:

January 28 Sunday – In New York Sam wrote at 9:30 a.m. to Livy in Paris of the goings on the night before (see Jan. 27 entry). Note: Paine’s volume [MTLP 2:] begins the letter at this 9:30 a.m. addition, but it was added to a letter Sam began at noon on Jan. 27.

Sunday, 9:30 a.m.

January 29 Monday – In New York at Sherry’s, Sam attended a reception held by the Kindergarten Association. From the NY Times of Jan. 28, p.13 “The Social World”:

January 30 Tuesday – Sam finished his Jan. 27 to 30 letter to Livy:

To-morrow (Tuesday) I will add a P.S. if I’ve any to add; but whether or no I must mail this to-morrow, for the mail steamer goes next day.

— —

5.30 p.m. Great Scott!, this is Tuesday! I must rush this letter into the mail instantly.

Just been over to blow up the Century people. Evidently they have neglected to send you the lacking $2,000. It’s too late for tomorrow’s mail, but it will start Saturday.

January 31 Wednesday – Fatout lists a reading for Sam at Mrs. Gertrude Cowdin’s in New York City [MT Speaking 661]. Note: The undated MTP TS of this invitation, however is as follows:

My dear Mr. Clemens

Won’t you come in to a very informal & impromptu spree on Saturday evening about ten thirty. Our friend Mr. Reid is coming & I have warned him not to appear without you.

February ca. – Sam wrote, likely from New York, to decline an invitation to be present for the 400th anniversary of the founding of the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. The school was founded in Feb. 1495 [MTP].

February – Sometime during the month in New York, Sam responded on Players Club stationery to William H. Rideing’s Jan. 23 request for an essay for Youth’s Companion.

February 1 Thursday – At 2:15 p.m. in New York Sam cabled Livy:

A ship visible on the horizon coming down under a cloud of canvas [MTHHR 20]. Note: As he wrote in his notebook, “The great Paige Compositor Scheme consummated” [NB 33 TS 53].

February 2 Friday – Sam and Livy’s 24th Wedding Anniversary. Early in the year, possibly at or after Feb. 2, as he and Livy began their 25th year of marriage, Sam wrote in his notebook:

Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century [MT NB, ed. Paine p.235].

February 3 Saturday – In New York on Players Club stationery, Sam wrote a response to Edwina Booth Grossman, whose request (not extant) concerned Sam’s communication with her late father, Edwin Booth (d. 1893).

If I had a line from his honored hand it would be at your command at any moment; but it happened that your father & I corresponded only with the tongue [MTP].

February 4 Sunday – Sam had breakfast at noon with Madame Nordica, who gave him a signed picture of herself. He had another engagement to dine at 3 p.m. and again at 7 p.m.

February 5 Monday – In New York at Rogers’ office, Sam wrote to daughter Clara at the Hotel Brighton in Paris, France:

February 6 Tuesday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam wrote a note to Francis Wilson, his “fellow-player and neighbor in the next room”:

…greeting and salutation! And therewithal prosperity and peace, and the continuance of our friendship until the end. Amen. / Mark Twain

On Feb. 7 Sam wrote Livy about this nights’ gathering at Robert Reid’s studio:

February 7 Wednesday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy, explaining that he lost a day when sending letters by English steamers, and there was only one French steamer per week from N.Y. Sam told of arranging to sell a big block of his stock in the new type-setter company with J.M. Shoemaker, a representative of the Standard Oil Co. for the Elmira district.

February 8 Thursday – Sam wrote “How to Tell a Story” for Youth’s Companion (which was not published in that magazine until Oct. 3, 1895). At 6 p.m. he went to Richard Harding Davis’ 5 o’clock tea. Davis and “young” Howard Russell shared 5th Avenue bachelor quarters.