February – William Dean Howells published a review of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in the Atlantic. Howells gave Sam high praise for the boy-mind presentation “with a fidelity to circumstance which loses no charm by being realistic in the highest degree.” Howells called The Adventures of Tom Sawyer a book “full of entertaining character, and of the greatest artistic sincerity.” The only thing off about the review was the unintended timing, caused by the long delay in the book’s publication. A nine-month gap between Howells’ review and U.S. publication allowed demand to grow that could only be satisfied by the purchase of Canadian knock-offs.

“Literary Nightmare” or “Punch, Brothers, Punch” ran in the February issue of the Atlantic [Camfield, bibliog.]. It also ran in the Hartford Courant on Jan. 22; see entry.