April – Sam’s notebook has an entry “Gillette ask Chas W Butler about Mrs. Bruner’s play—‘A Mad World’.” Butler was an actor [Gribben 107]. Sam also jotted notes about Mike Fink [229]. Also in his notebook: “War Diary of Gen. Geo. H. Gordon,” referring to A War Diary of Events in the War of the Great Rebellion (1882) [268]. Another entry reads, “Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason—Max Muller’s translation. Macmillan, N.Y.” [363].
April, early – Sam wrote “Caroline Fox’s Memories” among a list of titles in his notebook prior to going to Boston. Caroline Fox’s (1819-1871) Memories of Old Friends (1882) would have interested Sam for the “vivid portraits of the prominent English authors—Carlyle, Wordsworth, Mill, Coleridge, Macaulay, and others—with whom she associated” (emphasis added.) Also listed is Sebastian Hensel’s (1830-1898) The Mendelssohn Family (1881), and a note to have “Osgood get a Longfellow for Clara’s birthday” [MTNJ 2: 460]