June 23 Saturday – The New York Times article, “New Volumes of Fiction,” included a section, “Stories and Essays by Mark Twain,” p. BR1, which gives insight into the regard the nation held for Mark Twain at this time:

Mark Twain has been for many years a public benefactor. He has shed the sunshine of a clear and truthful, yet good-humored philosophy on most of the things that make life an interesting problem, which is another way of saying most of the things that make it worth living. To read the lessons of the hearts of men and the flying years, to lay bare the depths of humanity without hypocrisy and without malice, to show men and women and even little children to one another as they are, and not as they would like to make one another believe that they think they are, and to chastise all the follies and weaknesses of the race with the sting of hearty ridicule— this has been the mission of Samuel L. Clemens. And now, in the mellow twilight of a sunny life, he reaps the reward of his years of earnest labor at the art of making men laugh at themselves as mirrored in others.

Whatever he writes makes the world glad. If he chooses to touch a subject with the playful flagellation of his humor, the world laughs with him, but in its heart knows the meaning of the lesson. If he elects to treat a topic in perfect seriousness, the world does not mistake the utterance for a joke, for it has learned that there is no man wiser than the true humorist, no philosopher whose aphorisms embrace more of the eternal verity. …

In the present volume, “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg,” Mr. Clemens has gathered together some of the work which has appeared in the magazines recently. The result is the book’s contents are so various in character that a coherent comment on them is extremely difficult. The only practicable plan seems to be to review each item separately.

Sam’s notebook: “Pools & Lord 322 Oxford st. Shirts at 11. / Miss Conolly The Palace Hampton Court” [NB 43 TS 18].