April 26 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Eden Phillpotts.

Dear Mr. Phillpotts:

The Human Boy Again has arrived, & I have just begun it & am greatly enjoying it. Meantime (in Bermuda) I read—& re-read—The Mother of the Man, with high admiration. A great book!

I wish I had energy enough to resume work upon one or two of my several half-finished books —but that is a dream, & won’t ever come true. / Cordially your friend … [MTP].

Note: Gribben supplies Phillpott’s dedication of the book: “TO MY DEAR FRIEND, / MARK TWAIN, / FATHER  OF ‘TOM SAWYER’ AND / ‘HUCKLEBERRY FINN,’ / THESE HUMAN BOYS, / WITH SINCEREST REGARD.” The title page quotes Mark Twain’s aphorism from “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar” about the schoolboy who said that “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.” The Human Boy Again (1908), and The Mother of Man (1908), both by Phillpotts [Gribben 544-5]. Note: See Philpotts letter of May 11.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: That last Sunday evening batch was here again and we had a lovely time, for downstairs Margaret Frohman told us how she doesn’t wear any drawers in her first act, and we chatted a cosy lot. The Frohmans left early and then the Waylands stayed until 1:30 and I a-perishing with sleep. But it is lovely to be a-perishing with sleep when the Waylands are here [MTP: IVL TS 49].