October 14 Tuesday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Bliss Perry (1860-1954), editor of Atlantic Monthly (1899-1909). “It is quite true & not yet two days old. If it is worth hiding away in the curtained Contributors’ Club, do it. I can’t sign it, as I am a Harper exclusive” [MTP]. Note: Atlantic Monthly had a “Contributors’ Club” section where pieces were published anonymously. The feature was fun for contributors and readers alike, who would guess at who wrote the articles. William Dean Howells had installed this feature in the 1870s. This cataloged as from Riverdale, but the Clemens family did not leave Maine until Oct. 15.
Sam’s notebook:
I once saved him—Dr. Patton—from breaking the Sabbath—by breaking it myself—at his request.
I do nothing underhanded. I am here laying for a D.D.
A place for ever associated with those holy names Jonath Edwards & Aaron Burr.
She is reforming. Dissolving the partnership between the learning—knowledge of the future, which is theology, the knowledge of the present, which is science. For the first time in 150 yr, a Pres. Who confessedly—almost confessedly—knows less about the next world than he does about this one.
The revered—late—Jonath Edwards being dead—I will attack him. “Yes, you’ll get a D.D. a 2 m dash between” [NB 45 TS 31].