April 5 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Sir Richd Farrant, Rowton Houses, 5 pm / Breakfast, 9.30. Lord Avebury (formerly Sir John Lubbock), 2 St. James’s” [NB 43 TS 6a]. Note: Richard Farrant ( 1836-1907), acted with Lord Rowton to establish the Rowton Houses in 1896. At his death he was the Treasure of the University College, London.

At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote a postcard to Kingsland Smith: “Ah, but I am too old for junketing, & too busy more’s the pity…” [MTP: American Art Assoc. catalog, 3 Mar. 1925, Item 96].

Sam also inscribed a copy of TS to an unidentified person: “by / Yours Truly / Mark Twain / London, Apl. 5, 1900” [MTP].

Sam’s notebook: Clemens looked forward to meeting Sir John Lubbock (1834-1913), author of Ants, Bees, and Wasps, etc. (1882), when he was scheduled to breakfast at Lubbock’s London address on St. James Square [Gribben 428; NB 39, TS 40].

Frank Thomas Bullen (1857 -1915) wrote from Camberwell S.E., London, to thank Sam for the inscription from his pen, which he wrote: “is wealth itself” [MTP]. Note: see Gribben p.110; Sam wrote on the env. “Bullen author ‘The Cruise of the Cachelot’”. The Cruise of the Cachalot Round the World after Sperm Whales (1898). The inscription from Sam was not identified.

Maurice MacMillan of MacMillan & Co. wrote from London to Sam.

Allow me to congratulate you on your most interesting important statement before the copyright select committee. I am sure that everybody who is interested in literature is indebted to you for speaking out on this subject. … If you could get some fellow authors to agitate for perpetuity in copyright. I do not feel that the prospect is so hopeless as does Lord Knutsford. But he & the other noble Lords on the committee are not perhaps open to the reception of new ideas. That is not their business or their raison d’etre [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Write the Gutenberg letter & send cheque to Goerz”. For the Gutenberg letter see June entry.