July 27 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara in Norfolk, Conn.

It’s a darling lovely letter, you dear child, & not even Howells can surpass it for charm & grace & expression. I’m having typed copies made for Howells & Joe.

Poor Lewis is dead, & I am so glad he is set free from a world that has certain ungrateful imitation human beings in it.

I got back in time for Jean’s birthday. I never had a delightfuler holiday in my life; & I did hate to leave Fairhaven. Big Mrs. Rogers is too lovely for anything, & so is little Mrs. Rogers; & as for old Henry himself, he is the finest they make.

Mr. Bynner wants to come & see us next week, & we are very willing indeed.

Let Larkin come to the house—you don’t need to go to his office. He is very nice, & you will like him.

With my love & a hug [MTP].

Note: Sam read a long passage from Clara’s letter in his July 31 A.D. It may be found in MTHL 2: 816n1. John T. Lewis, black hero of the runaway carriage at Quarry Farm; Witter Bynner;

see Gribben 120. John Larkin, whom Sam described as “my friend and legal advisor.”

Susan Crane wrote to Sam, relating John T. Lewis’ funeral and his will stating that only Dunker Baptists could give the service, as “he did not recognize as Christians any who did not follow the explicit teachings of the Lord.” She added, “He was deeply and sincerely grateful to you…I am thankful the struggles are ended for the lonely man. / The old hill folks are nearly all gone” [MTP]. Note: Sam included Sue’s letter in his A.D. of Aug. 11, 1906.

Sam also replied to Susan Crane.

Your letter has just come, dear aunt Sue, & I am glad to know that our poor old friend is free. It was a curious idea—that funeral sermon—but it is colored nature! The black man, both here & in savagery, has a gaudy taste in funerals, particularly his own. I am just home from a month’s absence, & find my tribe prospering.

Here’s a romance for you! Forty-eight years, 2 months & 1 day ago I parted from a sweetheart who was 14 years old, & since then I have never seen her nor exchanged a word with her—& to-day I got a letter from her! (I remembered the hand.) She is poor, is a widow, in debt, & is in desperate need of a thousand dollars. I sent it. Still, I am not bankrupt yet, & if you will tell me what sum I ought to contribute to that funeral sermon I will gladly furnish it.

Dear me, the letters I am getting these days! If Livy could only see them! They fairly glow with golden compliments. One is from Clara, & no poet could surpass it.

With ever, ever, ever so much love, … [MTP]. Note: Sam referred to John T. Lewis who had just died, and his old sweetheart Laura Wright (Dake).

Sam also wrote (telegraphed?) to Frank N. Doubleday: “If not too late please put away ten copies in sheets—for I want to put them in special bindings some day / “What is Man—” [MTP].

Sam also replied to the July 14 from Mrs. Minnie Maddern Fiske, actress and inspiration for Twain’s “A Horse’s Tale.”

Oh, I thank you for your lovely letter, & for giving me that good word from Ashton Stevens. I do hope his health is prospering. Poor “Little” Ward! he was a manly boy, & such a fighter! When he passed away I had not seen him for 37 years.

Of course you don’t know the name of the story you asked me to write, & you’ll not recognize it in the current Harper—but that’s the one. It will have no meaning to you till September produces the other half of it. I’ve been away a whole month & am just back. Your letter has been lying neglected, here, a fortnight. It is my fault & I am to blame; I said “Keep all letters till I return”  [MTP]. Note: Lewis P. Ward of San Francisco days d. in 1903; it’s not clear how Fiske knew Ward. “The Horse’s Tale” was published in the Aug. and Sept. issues of Harper’s Magazine.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “We walked up to the mountain trail to pick up a wonderful stone we had hidden on our way up Monadnock last week, and then we found a beautiful mossy bank where we sat & talked for a very long time. We took Orion letters, but we read only 1½ for talk was a plenty” [MTP TS 100]. Note: likely the “we” included Albert Bigelow Paine, with whom she’d been reading letters from Orion.

Elizabeth Jordan for Harper & Brothers wrote to Sam enclosing under another cover the first two chapters of “The Whole Family,” written by William Dean Howells and Mrs. Mary E. Wilkins Freeman. “If they inspire you to write the third chapter, the small boy’s, I shall be delighted” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “ Tell her that so far Mr. Clemens is not inspired & would like to see some of the other instalments.”