November – The Century Magazine for November ran Sam’s sketch, “A Curious Experience,” later part of The Stolen White Elephant [Camfield, bibliog.].

Sam’s notebook includes mention of Canadian naturalist and geologist Henry George Vennor (1840-1884) [MTNJ 2: 407, 411]. Sam joked about Farquhar Martin Tupper and his bromides [408].

Sam’s notebook also includes a series of four notes about Francis Parkman’s Pioneers of France in the New World (1874) [Gribben 534]. Also, an inscription: “S.L. Clemens / Hartford, Nov. 1881.” in volume 1 of the 3 volume set of Saint-Simon’s The Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon on the Reign of Louis XIV, and the Regency (translation 1880?) [600].

Sam inscribed two volumes of Cotton Mather’s (1663-1728) Magnalia Christi Americana (1820 first Am. edition): “S.L. Clemens / Hartford, Nov. 1881” [Gribben 457].