April 22 Tuesday – From Hartford Sam replied to Charles Webster’s Apr. 21. He wanted the raft chapter, which was used in LM, “left wholly out” of HF. He badgered Webster about getting official pledges, called “acceptances” out of Osgood for money owed. He wanted pictures for HF sent “by batches of half a dozen or more,”; he wanted “Howells to have carte blanche in making corrections”; and lastly, that a proposed book by Howells wait till after Huck Finn was out, because “thanks to Mr. Osgood, spare cash is main scarce” [MTBus 250].

Sam also wrote to Thomas Aldrich that he’d “never had a more enjoyable visit” than his recent to Boston and stay at the Aldrich home. Sam wrote that Mrs. Aldrich had offered “right & true hospitality, which permits slippers, & general laxity, & unspeakable comfort.” Clemens also wrote:

Look you, sirrah, Mrs. Clemens left that French ‘Mark Twain’ up stairs in the bedroom, at last, instead of packing it. Will you kindly be so good as to put it in a trunk & tie it up & ship it down to me by Adams’ Express, charges paid? (I enclose) That’s a good boy. I will say something fine about you to the Frenchman. I will say it in French [MTP]. Note: Sam signed this letter: S.L.C.M.T. “The Frenchman” was Henri (Willy) Gauthier-Villars, publisher of Mark Twain this year.

The Hartford Courant, page 2 with editorial articles, ran an article, “Mark Twain’s Search for a Rare Book,” which Twichell called “a substantially correct statement of facts” concerning Sam’s search for The Enemy Conquered, a Love Triumphant, by a young Southern writer, Samuel Watson Royston (1845).

The “book” was a 31-page pamphlet with a most melodramatic story, and on Jan. 29 Sam asked Webster to find him a copy. Sam thought it so rare as to be unavailable, and must have mentioned his frustration to Twichell. Remembering a friend who owned a bookstore, Twichell made inquiries and found a huge pile of the work about to be destroyed. He bought six of the pamphlets and on his next visit to Sam’s (on Apr. 17) casually asked what he would pay for a copy. Sam was reported to have answered, “Any amount! It cannot be had.” Joe then presented six copies and dropped the idea that he could easily obtain a hundred more if desired [Twichell’s journal, Apr. 17 entry, Yale, copy at MTP].