June 4, 1903 Thursday

June 4 ThursdaySam’s notebook: “Hartford. Interview, 4 p.m. with Ward Jacobs” [NB 46 TS 18]. Note: Ward Jacobs was a major stockholders in Am. Publishing Co. Sam sought his support for his buy-out plan. See June 5 NB entry.

In Hartford Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, probably referring to the tribute he’d written to Rogers, who objected to it being published.

I destroyed it. In fact, I know your verdict when you returned from reading it. It is the right verdict; the work was crudely done—& in fact such things can not be inoffensively worded while a man is still alive: there are loving reverences & gratitudes which we can pay the dead without offence—but these are now forbidden in the case of the living, & their absence make a lack which cannot be supplied. You are the last man I should ever select to pay with printed acknowledgments for a service done for affection’s sake. But now & then the newspapers mention the kindnesses that I was wrong in leaving these kindnesses unendorsed & unconfirmed. But I shan’t degrade our friendship again, but keep it up in the high place where it belongs; & I want you to forget this mistake which I have made—made reluctantly & against my judgment.

I am here to put a stopper on the Bliss pair, if it can be done. I have seen two of the 5 directors, & shall see those 2 & a third one this afternoon. The Blisses are the other two that complete the Board. I am glad I came. So are these 3 directors. They were getting very uneasy abut their Company. There was reason for that apprehension. I probably return home to-morrow, but shall return & help them talk to the Blisses if they desire it.

You will be sailing to-morrow, & I am glad of that, for you will surely be a gainer by each day spent in the repose & charm of Fairhaven [MTHHR 530].

Note: Source appendix G contains Sam’s tribute to Rogers, so it wasn’t destroyed. American Publishing Co. had been threatened with a lawsuit by Harpers charging contract violations. Sam pushed Harper & Brothers’ offer to purchase Am. Pub. Co. and the directors agreed to pressure Frank Bliss to negotiate. Harpers would buy out the smaller company in October.

Day By Day Acknowledgment

Mark Twain Day By Day was originally a print reference, meticulously created by David Fears, who has generously made this work available, via the Center for Mark Twain Studies, as a digital edition.   

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