May 17 Wednesday – With Clara Clemens out of danger from her appendectomy, Sam left N.Y.C. and traveled to Boston, Mass., where he took rooms at the Hotel Touraine. There he wrote on hotel stationery to Thomas Bailey Aldrich and Lilian W. Aldrich.

I came from New York, arriving in time to dine with you, but I couldn’t raise you on the telephone, so I am turning in, disappointed. You are out dissipating, I suppose.

I am leaving early in the morning for Dublin, N. H., for the summer. Jean is already there keeping house these 2 weeks & more. I was to follow her the 2 of May, but Clara caught an appendicitis in her rest-cure in New York & I was detained. The operation (8 days ago) was successful & she is flourishing, now. Great love to you both … [MTP].

In Dublin, N.H. Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Rain and Clouds and Mist to shut out the peaceful view. Only the shrouded evergreens are mysteriously mistily pictured against the fog, but oh the peace of it. It comes from Heaven or from the depths of our hearts, but perhaps they are the same” [MTP TS 58].

Robert Underwood Johnson for the National Institute of Arts wrote to Sam, notifying him of ten more gentlemen elected to the Academy of Arts and Letters. These were: Winslow Homer, Carl Schurz, Alfred Thayer Mahan, Joel Chandler Harris, William James, Daniel Chester French, John Burroughs, James Ford Rhodes, Edwin Austin Abbey, and Horatio William Parker. The typed notice bore Johnson’s signature and “(Confidential)” at the top [MTP].