September 18 Tuesday – Edward Greey (1835-1888) wrote from NYC, appreciative that his “daughter received Sam’s amusing note, which she has placed among her treasures.” Greey sent a bottle of sake and some wine [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Author of a lot of Japanese books”; Also a dealer in Japanese art, and an unusual author who ended things with a bullet.

W. D. Howells wrote:

      Osgood gave me your MS. [“1002d Arabian Night”] to read last night, and I understood from him that you wanted my opinion of it. The opening passages are the funniest you have ever done; but when I got into the story itself, it seemed to me that I was made a fellow-sufferer with the Sultan from Sheherazades’s prolixity. The effect was that of a play in which the audience is surprised along with the characters by some turn in the plot. I don’t mean to say that there were not extremely killing things in it; but on the whole it was not your best or your second-best; and all the way it skirts a certain kind of fun which you can’t afford to indulge in: it’s a little too broad, as well as exquisitely ludicrous, at times.

      You’re such an impartial critic of your own work that I feel doubly brutal, and as if I were taking a mean advantage of your magnanimity when I fail to like something of yours. But I fail so seldom that I have some heart to forgive myself. At any rate I feel bound to say that I think this burlesque falls short of being amusing. Very likely, if you gave it to the public, it might be a great success; there is not telling how these things may go, and I am but one poor, fallible friend of yours [MTHL I: 441-2]. Note: see interesting notes in source. The effect of Howells’ and Livy’s Victorian sensibilities on Sam’s writing has been debated, whether for good or ill. Some critics say they toned down his muscular, Western-bred writing; others say they helped.