scott
17 April 2025
April 21 Wednesday — Sam’s new guestbook:
| Name | Address | Date | Remarks |
| F. A. Duneka | New York | April 21, 1909 |
In his copy of Letters of James Russell Lowell, Ed. by Charles Eliot Norton (2 vols.; 1893), Sam wrote a note about his own suicidal impulse in 1866 and dated it this date, 3 a.m.: In part:
It is odd that I should stumble upon this now, for it is only two days ago since something called to my mind my experience of 1866 & I told it at dinner. I put the pistol to my head but wasn’t man enough to pull the trigger. Many times I have been sorry I did not succeed, but I was never ashamed of having tried. Suicide is the only really sane thing the young or old ever do in this life. ‘Feeble Jerusalems’ never kill themselves; they survive the attempt, Lowell & I are instances” [426].
Entry Date
Apr 21, 1909 - Wed