June 14 Friday – On board the Minneapolis en route to England Sam wrote an aphorism for German cartoonist Peter Richards, who was returning to Berlin after working for various US newspapers for two decades: “Taking the pledge will not make bad liquor good, but it will improve it. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / For / Mr. Richards / June 14/07.” [MTP]. Note: see June 16 for more on Richards.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: All day I have been thinking about the little Redding house, and it is a good thing again to have something to take my mind away from loneliness.

Santa is better and I spend every evening in her sitting room, near her. Oh the sweet flower- creature that she is—made all of fire and dew.

I’ve had the mail sent in from Tuxedo, for I cannot go out and stay there alone. I don’t really like the place, anyway, so terribly artificial [MTP TS 69-70].

John Japp, Mayor of Liverpool, wrote to Sam, still lobbying for a visit and encouraged by what Sam had said on the eve of his departure from NY, that his stay might be lengthened [MTP]. Note: Ashcroft replied for Sam on June 19.  

Charles Lancaster, for Hughes & Lancaster, London, sent a letter with his son, Wilfred, from H.H. Rogers, in Vichy, France. Lancaster gave Rogers’ itinerary, arriving Sunday evening June 23 in London. At the end of the typed letter, Lancaster wrote by hand: “It is a greatpleasure to have you in England again. I did not expect it when we parted on the Kanawha” [MTP].

Frank N. Doubleday, for Doubleday, Page & Co.Wrote from NY that one Sam Everett would be staying at Brown’s Hotel beginning June 24. Doubleday asked if Sam could say a word to him and cheer him up. “Perhaps you can advise him about Oxford which he wants to see.” He also hoped Sam had seen Kipling” by the time he read this [MTP].

Helen MacMillan (Mrs. Maurice C. MacMillan) wrote from London to Sam, recalling Sam’s last visit with Livy, and inviting him to join them and a few friends on Monday, June 24 or July 1, July 3, and to dine [MTP].