June 7 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Go with Mr Rogers” [NB 44 TS 11].
At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Charles Erskine Scott Wood, in Portland, Ore. Wood was an old West Point man, and a member of the Anti-Imperialist movement.
I am so sorry you interred that noble poem in an obscure publication. It should have been sent to the North American, whence it would have been copied into even hostile publications purely on account of its merit as a poem.
No, the Hundred Year Book is not a secret and there is no indiscretion,
Sam advised that they were packing for the Adirondacks for the summer and negotiating for another house in the same New York neighborhood. Wood was coming to New York but they’d be leaving just before he arrived, which was “too bad” as Sam would have liked him to get acquainted with Livy. They’d return to the City in October—then they’d have to get together “and set this world right once more” [MTP].
Notes: Jean Clemens took dictation, typed and signed the letter. The “Hundred Year Book” was Sam’s future autobiography; Gribbens speculates the poem was “Ode to Freedom,” published in 1901.
Sam also wrote to Walter H. Beecher in Cincinnati, Ohio. The text is not available, but the subject concerns Sam’s “Sitting in Darkness” article [MTP: Chicago Book and Art Auctions catalogs, No. 30, Jan. 25, 1933, Item 55].