December 12 Friday – Sam gave his “Roughing It on the Silver Frontier” lecture at the Queen’s Concert Rooms, London [MTPO]. Afterward at the Scotch Morayshire Dinner, London, Sam responded to a toast “The Visitors” (text not available, but MTL 5: 509-10 paraphrases).

Sam finished the letter to Livy at 2 AM and told her of his speech at the Scotch dinner, which he said was “received with prodigious applause—but I thought ‘if Livy were only here, I would enjoy it a thousand times more.’” [MTL 5: 508].

Sam also wrote from the Langham to Mr. Shirley Brooks about a squib Sam had sent to newspapers, one that was taken as an advertisement and not printed [MTL 5: 510].

Sam also dictated through Stoddard to Robert W. Routledge, agreeing to whatever price the publisher wished to sell first a cheaper version of GA in order to boost sales. The purchase price is the publisher’s affair, not the author’s, Sam responded. Bliss had put $3.50 and $5.00 on the book for each type of binding. Routledge was issuing the book in 3 volumes, and had initially set a price of 31s 6d. for each part, or $7.88 for the trio. The suggestion was to lower each volume to 25s 6d.,or $6.38 [MTL 5: 511].

Bliss released the first “library style” bindings of The Gilded Age, though the official publication date in America was Dec. 23 [MTL 5: 463n1].

Robert Routledge wrote from London to Sam, advising, “after careful consideration” to publish GA at 25/6 rather than 31/6, a price adopted by the “late Lord Lytton for his last novel” [MTP].