December 11 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford per Fanny Hesse to an unidentified person:

To the Editor of —— [Sam may have sent several letters to western papers, or specifically the paper that Orion clipped the article from, unknown]

Sir, A fraudulent concern calling itself “the Franklin Publishing Co” of New York is canvassing the West for a book entitled “Elbow Room, or the Innocents at Home by Mark Twain.” I have never written any such book [MTLE 2: 204]. Note: Innocents at Home was the title Routledge gave to an authorized 1872 edition of Roughing It, not to be confused with this work. Note Orion’s Dec. 15 reply.

Sam also wrote to Orion, asking him to discreetly determine an address for a company called “Franklin Publishing” that was canvassing a future book of Sam’s without authorization. The culprits got their books from out West somewhere, Sam thought, not New York [MTLE 2: 203]. (Misdated as Dec. 10; see above to unidentified.)

An Unidentified person wrote from Cloversville, NY. Only the env. is extant; Note: Sam wrote on the env.,
”From that same old Irish ass”; and “Dec 11/79 Poetry”