Yes, it was indeed 3 February 1882, according to the precis I made of Twichell's journal when I was working on the biography. My note:

Feb 3 – dined with MT, meets “Mr. Frechette the poet laureate of Canada.”
“M.T. never was so funny as at this time. The perfect art of a certain kind of story telling will die with him.”

Just in general, circa 2005, after I had spent many months taking notes on Twichell's journal (which runs from 1874 to 1915) at the Beinecke, a helpful librarian mentioned he had found an uncatalogued microfilm version that they were willing to copy for me for about 50 bucks. It's now in the collection of the Mark Twain House. I have no idea if the Beinecke is still willing to copy such an antique medium, or how much they would charge. But it exists!

Steve Courtney, Curatorial Volunteer
The Mark Twain House & Museum
351 Farmington Avenue
Hartford, Connecticut 06105
860-302-8969



________________________________
From: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Leslie MYRICK <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 20, 2023 4:13 PM
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [External] Dinner for Louis Fréchette, Poet Laureate of Canada

The Twichell excerpt reappears in MTDBD under 3 February 1882, when
Frechette was a guest of the Friday Evening Club at the Clemens's home.

On Fri, Jan 20, 2023 at 4:06 PM Scott Holmes <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Thank you, Barbara.  I've made note of this in my Day By Day entry in my
> website project.  Who knows when this will be made public, though.
>
> On 1/20/23 12:47, Barbara Schmidt wrote:
> > Scott,
> >
> > I do not have a copy of Twichell's journals, but it seems Andrews may
> have
> > misdated or misread Twichell's journal entry date.  Other sources,
> > including MARK TWAIN'S NOTEBOOKS AND JOURNALS, VOL. 2 indicate Frechette
> > visited Twain in Hartford in early 1882, (p. 414). In Fatout's MARK TWAIN
> > SPEAKING he reprints a toast Clemens gave to Frechette and indicates the
> > two first met in Montreal in 1881 (p. 166).  Frechette, by the way, was a
> > brother to William D. Howells's brother-in-law.
> >
> > It looks to me like Andrews misdated Twichell's journal entry and then
> DBD
> > compounded the error.
> >
> > Barb
> >
> > On Fri, Jan 20, 2023 at 1:55 PM Scott Holmes<[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> >
> >> Thank you. I actually have an account there but failed to not the
> >> "borrow for one hour" button.  Alas Andrews does not provide a date for
> >> the Fréchette feté.
> >>
> >> On 1/20/23 10:55, Leslie MYRICK wrote:
> >>> Hi Scott,
> >>> You can find a copy of Andrews on the Internet Archive site, where you
> >> can
> >>> borrow it (requires registration).
> >>> This is always my first stop when I can't get to a library quickly.
> >>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__archive.org_details_nookfarmmarktwai0000andr&d=DwIFaQ&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=j9t2VMMrXDxdbXT-nOPF6-ofnQP5HwRGO6Fvdn9gkHQ&m=XHUDP2ebtBW4439xLxPazhcP2oJBcywMYX0eT6ddxwk&s=Xq5opsrIZlAksZSAinpIPUBZynJlr-wFGceZSF0ib0A&e=
> >>> Leslie
> >>>
> >>> On Fri, Jan 20, 2023 at 1:41 PM Scott Holmes<[log in to unmask]>
> >> wrote:
> >>>> I've come across an enigmatic entry in Day By Day for January 12, 1879
> >>>>
> >>>> January 12 Sunday – the Clemenses loved to entertain, something
> expected
> >>>> of many Nook Farm residents. according to Twichell’s journal, a dinner
> >>>> was given at Sam’s for Louis Fréchette, Poet Laureate of Canada:
> >>>>
> >>>> “M.T. /never was/ so funny as this time. The perfect art of a certain
> >>>> kind of story telling will die with him. No one beside /can/ ever
> equal
> >>>> him, I am sure” [Andrews 92].
> >>>>
> >>>> This doesn't make much sense to me as Twichell was not in Munich in
> 1879
> >>>> and Sam was not at Nook Farm.  I believe the Andrews reference is to
> >>>> Andrews, Kenneth R. /Nook Farm – Mark Twain’s Hartford Circle.
> /Seattle:
> >>>> University of Washington Press, 1950.  I don't have access to that.
> >>>>
> >>>> --
> >>>> /Unaffiliated Geographer and Twain aficionado/
> >>>>
> >> --
> >> /Unaffiliated Geographer and Twain aficionado/
> >>
> --
> /Unaffiliated Geographer and Twain aficionado/
>