February 16 Sunday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka asking for “a travel-book or two,” on the West Indies, preparing for his next yachting trip with H.H. Rogers. He also requested A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom by Andrew D. White (1901). Clemens also referred to a book he was writing:

“You will begin to think the large book I am writing is going to be a mine of learning. Well it is—a little bit distorted, a trifle out of focus, recognizably drunk. But interesting, & don’t you forget it!” [MTP]. Note: see Gribben p.760, which reveals Sam inscribed his copy on Feb. 22. Tuckey writes that after receiving White’s book (above), which was “a major source for the remaining thirty-five manuscript pages of” Sam’s “The Secret History of Eddypus,” Sam took up the MS again until some time in March 1902. He had begun the MS ca. Feb. 1901 [Fables of Man 317].