April 23 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Hjalmar Boyesen. He thanked Boyesen for “those pleasant praises” of A Tramp Abroad, and expressed surprise that the first quarter sales were going “as great as that of any previous book of mine.” Sam told of giving a reading at Twichell’s church. He’d planned to use his older books until letters from Howells and Boyesen arrived on the same day praising Tramp, so that he changed the reading to that work. Boyesen had been teaching German at Cornell since 1874 and left the school this year. He would teach at Columbia for fourteen years beginning in 1881.

Well, it is a great pity to lose you out of the educational department of the country, but at the same time I can’t see how a man who can write can ever reconcile himself to busying himself with anything else. There is a fascination about writing, even for my waste-basket, which is bread & meat & almost whisky to me—& I know it is the same with all our craft [MTLE 5: 84].

Sam also wrote to Howells again about the “Telephone” article, requesting an extra proof to send to Chatto, should Howells want the piece [MTLE 5: 85].