Olivia Clemens was just a few weeks away from the birth of her second child, and she also had house guests: Clara Spaulding and probably Clara’s sister, Alice—presumably the “domestic duties” referred to here. Clemens was replying, at the latest possible moment, to an invitation from Alvin Jewett Johnson (1827–84) and his wife, Lucia (née Warner), to attend a celebration of Horace Greeley’s sixty-first birthday, that same evening “between the hours of Nine and Eleven,” in their home at 323 West Fifty-seventh Street in New York City (Wingate 1872, 2, 16, 51). Johnson, an intimate friend of Greeley’s, was a prosperous publisher of subscription books, particularly textbooks, scientific works, and reference works like the much-reprinted Johnson’s New Illustrated Family Atlas. The evening began with a small dinner party for Greeley’s closest friends. Clemens, who had met Greeley in December 1870 and corresponded briefly with him in 1871, was invited to the reception following the dinner. The New York World reported that it brought together “one of the largest and most remarkable companies of men and women of letters” ever seen in New York: “Several hundred persons were present, and the ample parlors were soon crowded with animated talkers” (“Horace Greeley’s Sixty-first Birthday,” New York Tribune, 5 Feb 72, 5, reprinting the New York World of 4 Feb 72). Journalist Charles Frederick Wingate, known to Clemens since 1870, produced a detailed commemorative pamphlet about the party. He recalled that at about ten o’clock,

Wingate observed that Bret Harte, Mark Twain, and John Hay “formed a trinity of wit such as has rarely been found under one roof.” They were “looked upon as lions of the occasion, and each at once became the bright particular star of a group of admiring and attentive listeners” (Wingate 1872, 42, 43). In addition to the guests already mentioned, the company included Phineas T. Barnum (1810–91), who had written to Clemens at least once—on 17 December 1870 (CU-MARK)—but probably had not as yet met him; Mary Louise Booth (1831–89), editor in chief of Harper’s Bazar since its inception in 1867; Noah Brooks, an editor on the New York Tribune since 1871, but well-known to Clemens from his years in California; William Conant Church, editor with his brother, Francis P. Church, of both the Army and Navy Journal and the Galaxy; Dr. Titus Munson Coan (1836–1921), then “literary editor of the Independent” (Wingate 1872, 44), who probably wrote the Independent’s 11 April review of Roughing It (see RI 1993 , 886); David G. Croly, managing editor of the New York World; Anna E. Dickinson, currently on a two-day break in her lecture schedule (Chester, 104); Mary Mapes Dodge (1831–1905), the associate editor of Hearth and Home and soon to be editor in chief of St. Nicholas magazine (1873); Edward Eggleston, author of The Hoosier Schoolmaster (issued in book form in December 1871 by Orange Judd and Company) and currently editor in chief of Hearth and Home; John Elderkin (1841–1926), editor of the American Booksellers’ Guide and one of the founding members of the Lotos Club (to which Clemens would be elected in 1873); Murat Halstead (1829–1908), editor and principal owner of the Cincinnati Commercial; Frank Leslie, pioneer publisher of illustrated journals, known to Clemens since at least December 1868; Whitelaw Reid, second in command to Greeley on the New York Tribune; and Richard Henry Stoddard (1825–1903), an established poet and recently appointed editor of the Aldine. On 5 April, Greeley thanked Johnson for the party, observing that to “meet Brett Harte, John Hay, and Mark Twain under the same roof with Samuel Bowles, Murat Halstead, and Joseph R. Hawley, should be reckoned an event in almost any one’s life, even though he were not privileged then and there to greet likewise Anna Dickinson and Mary L. Booth” (Wingate 1872, 57–58, 1–67 passim; RI 1993 , 825–26, 849–50, 852, 866, 868; L4 , 102–3; L2 , 298, 300 n. 4; Chester, 104; New York Tribune: “Books of the Week,” 23 Dec 71, 8; “Horace Greeley’s Sixty-first Birthday,” 5 Feb 72, 5, reprinting the New York World of 4 Feb 72; “Alvin J. Johnson,” 23 Apr 84, 5; “Greeley,” New York Evening Express, 5 Feb 72, 4; “Mr. Horace Greeley’s Birthday—Celebration by His Friends,” New York Times, 4 Feb 72, 1; “Personal,” Hartford Courant, 6 Feb 72, 2; “New York,” Boston Advertiser, 5 Feb 72, 1).