April 21 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote a postcard replying to William Dean Howells’ Apr.

“I forgot to say I made immediate note of that luncheon, & shall be at your house & ready to go with you at 1 p.m on the said date” [MTP]. Note: the lunch date was for Apr. 26.

Sam also wrote a chastening letter to Nathaniel S. Olds, of the Rochester Post-Express.

Between you & me I was also expecting to catch the wise asleep— & it came out just so. In this connection I have your scalp, the Springfield Republican’s & the N. Y. Tribune’s. You all plunge right ahead in the dead– certain way of the wary & deep old hand, who never protects himself by inquiring into things before he commits himself, but knows all about it just by native penetration & inspiration—& (in the present case) I reap the profit, such as it is. The “tragic incident” didn’t fool you old experts, oh not the least little bit! oh no, you-all know how to tell invention from fact at a glance, you wise, wise, people! you complacent serenities, who are always forgetting to remember that a fictionist can’t “invent” a situation (of a possible sort) & get in ahead of history with it. Actual history has always arrived with it by a previous train. You will be obliged to allow that my “tragic incident” could happen. Very well; as soon as you have recognized that & conceded it, you are on unsafe ground—more than unsafe!—if you venture to pay it the compliment of being an invention.

There was one truth in my story, & that was the “tragic incident.” I took nothing from the facts, & added nothing to them. “Truth is stranger than fiction.” In what way? In this: That where it comes to the contriving of extravagances & apparent impossibilities, Fiction isn’t “in it” with Fact.

I know that I am communicating the very ABC of knowledge—infant-class instruction, in fact—but bless you, sir, you need it, you see! Now I charge you to beware, I beseech you to beware, of the ostensible extravagant “invention.” Discount its claim, for if it is a thing which could happen, it has none; it has already happened, in real life [MTP]. Note: which recent story of Sam’s included a “tragic incident”? Likely “A Defence of General Funston,” which ran in the May issue of the N.A R.

Sam also wrote to Hélène Elisabeth Picard, with more discussion of the Juggernaut Club; she was his “Member” for France. He assured her the “Rules are not very exacting—to keep in touch with the Chief Servant” [himself] was the main thing. He also reassured her that daughter Jean was not put out by typing of the club’s documents, even though she did not know who was getting them or what they meant.

You are not giving my daughter Jean any trouble, & you mustn’t take any on her account; she likes to do my type-writing, & doesn’t collect anything—except protests against opinions which she finds in my literature: these she brings when her work is done, & suggests modifications & amendments. But I don’t succumb—nobody has any real authority over my manuscript but her mother.

I am going to write, now, to my good friend Tauchnitz, in Leipzig & tell him to send you “Huckleberry Finn” & “The Prince & the Pauper;” & I will attend to it before something occurs to interrupt me & defeat my purpose. I am very grateful for your love, & am venturing to send mine in return—autocratically, & without asking leave, for such are the ways of Chief Servants! [MTP]. Note: after his signature he confirmed he’d written Tauchnitz (letter not extant).

Sam wrote Christian B. Tauchnitz, letter not extant but referred to (and purpose of) in his above to Picard. The proof that he did send the letter is Picard’s thanks of May 9 for the books sent by Tauchnitz.

Livy’s diary: “Miss Burbank came to luncheon” [MTP: DV161].

The Daily Princetonian, p.1, ran “Address by Mr. S.L. Clemens.” Tenney: “MT addressed the Monday Evening Club Saturday night (April 19) at the home of Laurence Hutton. He spoke on ‘Patriotism,’ and spent most of the evening reading from proofs of ‘A Defence of General Funston,’ due to appear in the North American Review“ [MTJ Bibliographic Issue Number Four 42:1 (Spring 2004) p.8].