April 5 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to the Gerhardts, advising when they return to America, to make some connection with Augustus Saint-Gaudens or John Quincy Adams Ward [MTP].

Sam’s letter to Karl Gerhardt was sold at auction by Sotheby’s on June 19, 2003, and this addition expands the short explanation at the MTP:

A lengthy letter in which Clemens gives the artist advice:

So the long letter which I wrote at the time the new letter of credit went, never reached you, & I must write it over again. It’s hard luck, for you know letter-writing & tooth-ache rank together in my affections. The new letter finishes the stipulated sum, & so I wanted you to so plan that half of it would be left for you to get home on, in case you decided to come home. If I may advise, I would strongly advise that you now write A. St. Gaudens & V.Q.A. Ward, & ask them if they can give you employment in New York. If they can & will, that is a certainty; it is sure bread & butter I have talked with Warner, & the above is what he suggested. He said it was the course which Ward followed when he returned from his European studies: he worked in a New York sculptor’s studio for wages until he became able to set up for himself. Warner says there is a world of work in this country of a modest sort soldier-monuments, portrait busts, &c humble work, maybe, but affording plenty of bread & butter; & that for this reason New York is probably a better field than Paris for a beginner. [Y]ou must not take [this] as anything weightier than a suggestion. You ought, & must, do the thing which shall seem wisest & best to you. Keep us informed of your movements & purposes, & always let us know when we can help you in any way. I am broken in upon by an irritating telephonic message from Meriden which has taken the last rag of patience out of me & raised my temper to feverheat; & so I need not try to finish my letter. Imagine all I would say that is loving & kind & pleasant, & believe that you will still fall short of the affectionate regard in which I hold you. [Sotheby’s Lot 57].

The New York Critic reported the April Fool’s joke of 150 notables writing for Sam’s autograph [Tenney 13].

Henry G. Carleton wrote on Life note paper: “I know you are in need of something soothing and emollient….I send you the accompanying copy of my great humorous work” [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote to Clemens: he asked him to write to Howells, whom he suspected thought Sam was offended at him; trouble obtaining Bayard Taylor’s translation of Goethe’s Faust: more on hiring an illustrator—did Sam want him to run up with specimens Tuesday? [MTP].

Karl Gerhardt wrote to Sam and Livy: more about his work which he hoped to send photos of, and of still being torn about going to Florence to study, which meant he’d have to leave Josie & the baby behind [MTP].