November 6 Saturday — Frank L. Dyer for National Phonograph Co., Orange, NJ wrote to Sam.
Mr. Edison has asked me several times to try to interest you in the subject of making phonograph records, preferably of some original matter. My friend, Mr. Thomas C. Martin, at my suggestion, has already had some correspondence with your Secretary regarding this matter, but nothing seems to have been accomplished. Recently you were kind enough to permit us to dramatize “The Prince and the Pauper” in moving pictures, and it occurs to me that possibly something might be done now with the phonograph record. Are you disposed to take up this matter for discussion? Of course, we are willing to pay very liberally for the record...[MTP].
G. & C, Merriam Co., Springfield, Mass. wrote to ask Sam if they might send a complimentary copy of the Webster’s New International Dictionary, as they were “seeking a verdict” on the work [MTP]. Note: MT:“Yes, send it. / SLC”
Spectator Magazine ran an anonymous review of “Is Shakespeare Dead?” p. 716. Tenney: MT’s ‘quaint humor, to say nothing of his more solid qualities, has won him innumerable friends wherever the English language is spoken. He has been for half a century the chartered libertine of literature, and anything that falls from his pen may count upon an indulgent reception.’ This new book makes ‘a strong demand upon our indulgence. It would be difficult to find any writer of repute less qualified by knowledge, or possession of the critical faculty, to enter upon such an undertaking than Mark Twain” (Tenney, ALR Second Annual Supplement to the Reference Guide (Autumn, 1978) 176].