July 14 Wednesday – Sam purchased books from Estes & Lauriat of Boston, including James Freeman Clarke’s Memorial and Biographical Sketches (1878), and Sara Coleridge’s Memoirs and Letters (1874) [Gribben 145; 153]. A bill in MTP shows a total of $50.55 for a list of 21 books.
Charles E. Perkins wrote to Sam “Yours of 13th inst recd—I should think the investments you mention would be first rate…I got $4000 more from Bliss today and deposited it at G.P.B.” [Bissel’s] [MTP].
Tiffany & Co. wrote to Sam. “We have your list of 18 names—numbered consecutively as far as 9, and commencing again at 11, omitting No. 10. If you wish 19 pins please let us know the name for it” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “About badges”; for the Saturday Morning Club young ladies; see Sept. 1.
Frank Fuller wrote to Sam from NY on his healthfood co. letterhead. “Yes sir! The paragraph especially marked by you, sounds exactly like old Bowers’ talk of a few years ago. The machine is on the identical plan of one which a man down town was anxious to make after the … cast iron edifice of the Woodruff concern was condemned by the undersigned as having…only a magnified copy of the Brooklyn thing.” He added hope that Twain would finish the Prince & the Pauper [MTP].
Willard Fiske (1831-1904), librarian and scholar, sent engraved invitations to his son’s wedding in Berlin [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Marriage of Prof. William Fisk & Miss Jenny McGraw” 13th or 14th?. See also AMT 2: 477 on Fiske.
George Gebbie wrote to Sam with plans to publish a Library of Humor [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Proposition for Cyclopedia of Humor”
July 14–17 Saturday – Sam telegraphed from Elmira to George Gebbie. Paraphrased: “Gebbie’s answer to mine in which I said I might possibly entertain his proposition next January, 1881” [MTLE 5: 135].
Note: Gebbie was a subscription book publisher in Philadelphia who’d written Sam proposing an anthology of American humor, with Sam as the editor. Sam liked the idea and would involve Howells [Powers, MT A Life 445]. The outcome became Mark Twain’s Library of Humor (1888) edited by Samuel Clemens, William Dean Howells, and Charles Hopkins Clark (1848-1926) , managing editor of the Hartford Courant.