August 10 Friday – Melvin L. Severy wrote from Arlington Heights, Mass. to ask if he might quote from Sam’s “King Leopold’s Soliloquy” for a publication he was preparing [MTP]. Note: The MTP catalogs Sam’s reply as “on or after 10 August.”
Clemens’ A.D. this day included: Clipping from Westminster Gazette, criticizing statement in “Diary of Eve” and calling it irreverent—Clemens replies to this—Calvin Higbie‘s MS— Clemens’s reply to him—Extract from Higbie’s essay [MTP: Autodict2].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The King says ‘Damn Nietzsche’ when I offer a quotation for the King’s approval. First he damns—but then he approves with his head on one side in his quaint listening attitude” [MTP TS 105-106; also Gribben 508].
Samuel Hopkins Adams for Collier’s Weekly wrote to Sam. “Your extremely interesting collection of Oppenheimer letters reached me safely, and I thank you heartily for them. That an extraordinary exhibit it is of mixed vanity and carelessness.” Adams wasn’t sure he had a “definite understanding” of how he might “rightly make use of this material,” but would get “at” the material within ten days [MTP]. Sam wrote on the env., “Oppenheimer fraud—S. Hopkins Adams”
Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote from Lexington, Mass. to ask Sam if he would “unite with Gilder & myself in nominating Mrs. Julia Ward Howe for membership in the National Institute of Arts & Letters?” Robert Underwood Johnson also approved [MTP].
Elizabeth Jordan for Harper & Brothers wrote to Sam. “A letter as definite as yours should be accepted as final. Nevertheless, both Mr. Howells and I are so disappointed that I am moved, with his encouragement, to say just one thing: why not drop the whole matter of the boy for three or four months—say until the first of the year? Then let me send you all the chapters that have been written” [MTP]. Note: on the collaborative story; see prior entries.
David A. Munro of the N.A.R. wrote to Sam. “The Colonel wished to send these proofs to you yesterday himself, but they were not to be had from the printer until this morning…What a chapter it is! There were tears and laughter as I read it” [MTP].
Melvin L. Severy wrote from Arlington Heights, Mass. to Sam.
I am preparing for publication a work treating of present social conditions and would like to favorably quote from your “King Leopold’s Soliloquy.” Is it your pleasure that I may? I shall be very grateful for the permission I feel sure you will grant [MTP]. Note: on the letter Sam wrote, “I am quite willing / must also write to the Congo Reform. Believe they will be glad.”
August 10 ca. – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to Melvin L. Severy’s Aug. 10 request: “I am quite willing. Must write also to the Congo Reform. Believe they will be glad” [MTP].