February 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edinburgh physician, John Brown, saying he was “delighted” with Brown’s commendations of The Gilded Age. Brown had written thanking Sam for the gift copies of his three books. Sam cites the sale of 40,000 copies of the book in the two months since publication and compared it favorably to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the same benchmark he used to compare sales of Innocents Abroad. The Gilded Age did not sell well in England, however, and the panic of 1873 held down sales of all subscription books in the U.S. Further, critics saw the book as “uneven” and lacking. The play would be much more successful. The title of the book stuck as the label for the period [MTL 6: 53].

Sam also wrote a note to James Redpath. Sam asked to have a room secured at the Parker House, Boston for Thursday, Mar. 5, and informed if his talk would be Friday and what his subject would be [MTL 6: 58].