June 21 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Elisha Bliss, sending him three articles, “$125 for the lot,” payable to Orion at one-tenth of the $125 per week until paid. He wanted Bliss to mention his upcoming lecture and told him to say this:

“It is not a fight against Woman’s rights or against any particular thing, but is only a pretentiously & ostentatiously supplicating appeal in behalf of boys, which the general tendency of the times converts into a good-natured satire,—otherwise the lecture would hardly sound like a satire at all—at least to a careless listener.”

Sam asked if Bliss had heard from the English publisher Routledge. Sam also suggested he might go to Canada to get a copyright on the new book, since what he called “re-publishers” there were hard to beat [MTL 4: 410].

Sam also wrote this day to Orion & Mollie. Sammy Moffett’s nervous twitching & shakings were worse. Orion thought highly of the new book. Sam felt that the prospectus alone would sell 50,000 copies before the book was even printed. Sam told Orion about the three articles he’d sent Bliss and that Orion could draw small amounts against them. Sam and Livy were both at Quarry Farm—“Mr & Mrs. Crane stay here with us, & we do have perfectly royal good times” [MTL 4: 412].