July 11 Saturday – Sam replied to the July 7 from his mother, Jane Lampton Clemens.
The new baby’s name is Clara. We had an anxious & sleepless time during some five months before she was born, trying to decide upon a name for her. We finally chose the name Henry, & were at peace. Till she was born. Then of course we had the same old suffering all over again. (In truth, Susie was named Henry before she was born) [MTL 6: 184].
Notes: Susy Clemens, unable to say “baby,” called Clara “Bay”—the nickname stuck. Sam wrote of the “wonders which the architect & the landscape gardener” had performed on the new house. He was “making up” for being “idle a year, by compulsion,” and had written “157 pages of literature & 25 letters.” During this period Sam worked on the stage play script of The Gilded Age, and also continued writing Tom Sawyer. Only three or four of the 25 letters Sam claimed from this period now exist.
Sam had referred Howells to Charles P. Pope, a theatrical producer, in the matter of translating Ippolito Tito d’Aste’s play Sanson [MTHL 1: 19].
William Dean Howells wrote to Clemens:
My dear Clemens: / Your letter and telegraph came to our mosquitory bower whilst I was away in Canada, and I failed to see Mr. Pope here. But Thursday I ran down to Boston to call on him, and I’ve arranged to translate the play for him. As it is owing to your kindness that I’m thus placed in relations with the stage—a long-coveted opportunity—I may tell you the terms on which I make the version. He pays me $400 outright on acceptance of my version, and $100 additional when the play has run fifty nights; and $1. a night thereafter as long as it runs. When my translation is done, I’m to tell him, and he will send his check for $400 to you, and I’ll submit my Ms to him. If he likes it, you send me the check, if he don’t you return it to him.
You perceive this isn’t hard on Mr. Pope. The terms were my own—he would have given me $500 down, but I didn’t think he ought to buy a pig in a poke, and I felt that I ought to take some risk of a failure. I liked Mr. Pope very much, and I should be glad of his acquaintance, even if there were no money in it. As it is, imagine my gratitude to you!
My regards to all your family. / Yours ever / W. D. Howells [MTHL 1: 19; MTPO]. Note: Charles P. Pope, theatrical producer and actor whom Sam had referred to WDH.