July 8 Thursday — Mrs. Henderson wrote from Ayrshire, Scotland to ask for Sam’s autograph [MTP].
Independent ran an anonymous review of “Is Shakespeare Dead?”, p. 90. Tenney quotes: “It is ill-knowing how to take a humorist when he writes of serious subjects. Otherwise it would be natural to suppose that Mr. Clemens in his skit on Shakespeare had set out to hoist the Baconians with their own petard. At all events for the ingenuous reader he has come pretty near to reducing the Baconian theory to an absurdity. In saying the most that can be said for it, he has delivered a feeble argument with such violence as to make it seem like an exquisite parody....” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Sixth Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Spring 1982 p.11]. Note: it is interesting that even after many years of serious writing and advocating various causes, that Twain would still be regarded here, and presumably by others, as merely a “humorist.”