July – Sometime after his return to Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick [MTP].
In London Sam inscribed a photograph of himself in front of the House of Parliament, to I. Benjamin Stone [MTP].
After June An unidentified person “G” wrote a spoof to Sam about the stolen Ascot Cup.
“Dere Mark / I return the Cup. You couldn’t keep your mouth shut about it so I cudnt get rid of it. / Tis 2 pretty 2 melt as you wanted me 2. Next time I work a pinch I’ll have a pard what don’t make after dinner speeches / Your disgusted pal. G. / I changed the acorn atop for another nut wth my knife” [MTP].
Edmund Lester Pearson’s article, “The Children’s Librarian versus Huckleberry Finn: A Brief for the Defense,” ran in Library Journal, p. 312-14. Tenney: “‘Extreme Respectability’ in the children’s departments of public libraries is excluding TS and HF, which Pearson defends for honest portrayal: ‘Not Henty’s wooden heroes, nor golden-curled, lace-colored Fauntleroys; but real boys’” [44].
Review of Reviews (London), ran “The Innocents Abroad and How Mark Twain Came to Write It,” p. 167. Tenney: “Summarizes MT’s own account in the installment of his autobiography in the July North American Review; also summarizes William Lyon Phelps, “Mark Twain” in the same issue, and includes comments on what MT could do at his best and most serious from the unsigned “Musings Without Method” (by Charles Whibley) in the August Blackwood’s” [42- 3].
Bookman (London) ran an anonymous review of King Leopold’s Soliloquy, p.150. Tenney: “Brief, notes that ‘There has not in our time been a fiercer satire or a finer instance of the value of humour as an instrument of reform’” [43].
M. Worth Colwell’s article, “Making a Motorthusiast of Mark Twain,” ran in Automobile and Motor, for July. Tenney: “Describes MT’s growing enthusiasm while riding up Fifth Avenue in Colwell’s car recently; he bowed to the attractive young women they passed, and said in answer to a question that ‘I know it to be a positive fact, from my own exclusive observation, that the American girls are the prettiest, most lovable, most intellectual girls in the world!’ Colwell was three when he first met MT in Elmira, N.Y.; MT called him “Filibuster.’ Photograph: ‘Mark Twain riding in “The Crimson Dragon”’” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Second Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1978 p. 175].
Jane Cobden Unwin inscribed a copy of The Life of Richard Cobden by Richard Cobden (1905): “To S.L. Clemens, D. Lit., with grateful memories of his noble work for the downtrodden natives of the Congo. Jane Cobden Unwin.” Both volumes were signed: “S.L. Clemens, London, July/07” [Gribben 149].
Sam signed his copy of The Hungry Forties, etc. (1904) by Mrs. Jane Cobden: “S. L. Clemens / London, July 1907. From Mrs. Unwin” [Gribben 721].
Sam signed his copy of The Churches and Modern Thought, etc. by Harry Vivian Majendie Phelips (pseud. Philip Vivian; 1860-1939): “S. L. Clemens / London, July 1907” [Gribben 542].
Sam inscribed a copy of the 1904 Life of Frances Power Cobbe as Told by Herself, by Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904), “S.L. Clemens, London July 1907.” Marginalia on flyleaf: “To the pure all things are impure. S.L.C.” [Gribben 149].