January 24 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote again to Rev. C.D. Crane of Newcastle, Maine asking him to:

Dear Sir:

Please leave out the “B.B.” book and all reference to it. This will save me from having to answer the letters of inquiry.

In the place of it I desire to put “Pepys’s Diary” — the condensed edition. Truly Yours / S.L. Clemens [MTP; this letter was for sale on eBay Item #142058901194 on Aug. 17, 2008]. Note: the “B.B.” book may relate to the Noah’s Ark book as a “Bible” book. (See Jan. 20.)

Sam also wrote to William F. Douglas, responding to some sort of competition (now lost).

My dear Sir: it was 1855, if I remember rightly, and the occasion was not a typesetting contest. It was a struggle over a dinner table. The table did not win.

I thank the Union very much for the compliment of their invitation and I should like to help at the present competition, but it wouldn’t be any use. I couldn’t get the prize, unless 600 leaded bourgeois might fetch it [MTP transcript Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Oct. 1929 p.542]. Note: This may have been an invitation from the Union Club of New York.

Sam also wrote a short note to George Iles, American author and Montreal editor about returning stamps that weren’t negotiable at his post office (most likely Canadian; and likely for a piece by Iles that Sam had sent on to Howells for consideration — see Aug. 7). Sam asked him to send coin if he felt he owed “this estate” anything [MTP].

In Egypt, Henry M. Stanley wrote a long and sentimental letter to Sam. Stanley gave no clues or promises of a book for Webster & Co. To publish. Stanley’s flowery language spoke of his recent stay at the Clemens home, his envy for Sam’s situation, and of the dangers ahead for himself:

You know of course that I am bound on a lengthy venture into mid-Africa. It is not without peculiar perils – but since I have elected to face them they are not to be spoken of. The heaven above me, & the blue waters below me have that in them which makes my blood dance in me — I could not be sad if I would — I will not be sad for every home has its own joys, & I am of a temper to enjoy them [MTP]

Andrew Chatto wrote from London. He’d just seen a report of the Governor’s Island reading for what would become CY (Chatto referred to it as The Autobiography of Mr Robert Smith of Camelot). The report “so stimulated” his “appetite for the remainder,” that he wanted to seek “further particulars.” Chatto enclosed two newspaper squibs (written on bottom of one, “Bloomington, Ill.”) about Young’s company performing The Bad Boy at the Pavilion Theater there. Sam wrote on the envelope, “Somebody has stolen Tom Sawyer.”

PAVILLION THEATER

L..       The “Bad Boy” was given last evening at Pavilion theater by Sam Young’s company to a large audience. The principal characters were all well taken. This “Bad Boy” is not the same as has been played here by Atkinson’s company, but is taken from Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, and has a very strong dramatic plot, with just enough of “Peck’s Bad Boy” sketches to make some of the scenes very funny. Phil Greiner in the title role proved the card of the evening, and little Eva Melville made herself a great favorite…. “Bad Boy” will be given again this evening [No date on clipping; MTP].