June 25 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Susan Crane.
We are in the throes of packing, these days, & it is awful. But we are advancing. I am pretty sure we shall leave for Elmira per DL & W at 1 p.m. next Wednesday.
George W. Perkins will send an Erie tug up here for us to take Livy down to Hoboken.
Livy was determined to go up in the ordinary parlor car, for economy’s sake, but I won’t allow that—it would be the worst kind of economy. Tomorrow I shall hire a special sleeper for the trip.
Livy expects to ascend to the farm as soon as she arrives, & have the journey over [MTP]. Note: On July 1, the Kanawha, not an Erie tug, came to transport Sam and Livy from Riverdale to the Lackawanna pier in Hoboken, N.J. [MTHHR 535n1].
Sam’s notebook: “Mr. Jacobs, 10 a m / ‘Whenever a copyright law is to be made or altered, then the idiots assemble” [NB 46 TS 19].
Two hours after the arrival of Frank Bliss and major stockholder Ward Jacobs, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers about an offer he had made them involving the “Hillcrest edition,” old sheets, books, and plates, Vol. 23 of the uniform edition, Collier’s entry into selling sets of Mark Twain’s books, and other issues.
The contracts, both with Collier & with Harper to be limited to 5 years.
I did not understand Mr. Duneka to object to this. I must have this kind of command over my books if it can be achieved. There is nothing unreasonable about it. The Col. has canceled that, long ago, but thought he ought to uphold a contract made before his time. All right, but this is an entirely new contract.
While I was arranging with Mr. Duneka, his lawyer telephoned from Hartford to say he should open the case against the Am. Pub. Co to-day. He was ordered by telephone to hold on for a week.
I had a perfectly gaudy time in Fairhaven—I wouldn’t have missed that orgy for anything.
With love to you all [MTHHR 531-2].
Sam wrote one forgotten detail for Frank Bliss and Ward Jacobs: “…the Hillcrest must not be marketed at a price below $36.50 pr set. It escaped my mind” [MTP].
Samuel L. Clemens was included in a list of fifteen gentlemen inviting Edmund Clarence Stedman to a dinner on Oct. 8, or any later date that was agreeable. The men were: Henry M. Alden, William Dean
Howells, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Robert Underwood Johnson, Edward L. Burlingame, Thomas R. Lounsbury, Samuel L. Clemens, Hamilton Wright Mabie, Richard Watson Gilder, Brander Matthews, John Hay, Bliss Perry, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Francis Hopkinson Smith, and Henry Van Dyke [MTP: Laura Stedman, Life and Letters of Edmund Clarence Stedman 1901, p.474].