July 18 Thursday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka. Sam inscribed a first English edition copy of AC: “Truly Yours / SL. Clemens / (Mark Twain) / July 18/07” [Christie’s London, 1 June 2009, Lot 203, Sale 5822]. Note: at an angle under Sam’s inscription are three more signatures: Mrs. J. Ian Ansdsale, Josephine Watts, and Herbert Percy, likely shipmates on the voyage over.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mother stays on and we sew and read Bernard Shaw. I corner Mother so she can’t well get away, and read the preface to Shaw’s last book ‘John Bull’s Other Island.’ It’s a wonderful preface and mother is sweetly contented with it, and the place and life generally” [MTP 85].

Laura Hawkins Frazer wrote to Albert Bigelow Paine for a picture of Sam [MTP]. Note: several letters from Frazier to Paine for this period are in the file but are not included.

Harrie Roberts wrote from Kalgoorlie, Australia to ask Sam about a poem he’d read years before that had stuck with him. Where could he get a copy? [MTP]. Note: on top, Lyon: “Answd. / Sept 9”

Noah Wilson wrote from London to Sam after reading an article about Clemens wanting to arrange his own funeral. Wilson told of an old whaler, William Jenkins, who only wished as an old man for all his friends to join hands around his grave and sing “Auld Lange Syne” [MTP].