January – As early as this month and as late as Dec. 1887, Sam inscribed the back side of his photograph to Mrs. Pemberton-Hinks: “Quarrels begun with roses breed no bloodshed! / Sincerely Yours / S. L. Clemens / Mark Twain / To / Mrs. Pemberton-Hinks. / Hartford, Saturday [illegible chars.] (It is a most damaged & piratical looking picture, & nothing can excuse it but the fact that it is the only one left on the place SLC)” [MTP].

Sam re-read “the second volume of Pepys” [Jan. 14 to House]. After immersing himself in Sandwich Islands material, He began a book about Bill Ragsdale, a half-caste interpreter who contracted leprosy and exiled himself to the leper colony on Molokai [Emerson 160].