June 9 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Elisha Bliss, asking him to send an enclosure with a “nice copy of the book” to Edward H. House, Occidental Hotel, San Francisco. House was traveling to Japan. When he was critic for the New York Tribune he wrote an important and glowing review (May 11, 1867) of Sam’s first NY lecture, and Sam was thankful. Sam stated that “we shall return home Saturday” (Buffalo, on June 11.) Sam liked Bliss’ idea for a book, probably on his Western adventures, but Sam wasn’t ready:

“…the inspiration don’t come. Wait till I get rested up & rejuvenated in the Adirondacks, & then something will develop itself sure” [MTL 4: 148-9 with notes].

Charles Dickens died in Gadshill, Kent. Sam never met Dickens, although he attended his reading in Dec. 1867, the same day he first met Livy. Sam did visit Dickens’ grave in Westminster Abbey in 1872, [Rasmussen 111-12] but the two did not converse.