November 19 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Conscious humor. Intentional juxtaposi can be wit in unconscious but not in conscious—the word indicates an intellectual effort. Man put 2 expediting stamps on letter he wanted it to go in a great hurry. Irish? No (Bub) | Goldsmith says: For thy sake I admit that a Scot may have humor—I’d almost said wit. | Does the text mean 1. the ability to produce humorous effects—or the ability to perceive them after they have been produced. These are quite different things.

“Not every one is a Franklin who can produce lightning, but all the blind can see it after he has produced it. / That what she said” [NB 44 TS 18]. Note: this likely written after the Carnegie invitation below.

In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mrs. Buckman, thanking her for a cat.

I am very glad to have him & I thank you sincerely. I do not recall him, but I remember Ramses II & Moses very well, for I knew them personally, when I was doing time on my fourth incarnation. Although I do not recall this one I must have known his brother, for the family resemblance is quite familiar to me [MTP: Swann Galleries catalog, 6 Feb. 1997, No. 1747].

Andrew Carnegie wrote a folksy invitation to Sam for the annual “Saint Andrews Society” dinner, “begging you to be one of us on dinner night and speak on what is supposed not to exist, ‘Scotch Humour’”. “You may sail down on the night of the 30th.” He limited speeches to 15 minutes “(except to the gods).” “My regards to that nice woman, your wife: may we see each other more frequently! My moral nature needs this. I feel it. / Ever your friend….” [MTP]. Note: see Sam’s NB entry this day.