March 21 Monday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to James T. Fields, senior partner in Fields, Osgood & Co., a prestigious Boston publishing company. Fields preceded William Dean Howells as editor of the Atlantic Monthly.

“Fields Osgood & Co. does not appear to send us any more books to notice. We haven’t got one lately. Will you be so kind as to kill the person who is to blame, & appoint a more reliable officer in the murdered man’s place?” [MTL 4: 93].