July 21 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Edward House, marking the letter “private.” Sam covered again the events leading to his publication of Grant’s Memoirs, the sales figures and royalties, comparing what the General would have received if he had signed the Century contract vs. Sam’s. He was glad to hear that House and his daughter Koto were returning to the states and that he’d look them up should they be unable to come to Hartford [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Howells, whose ninth installment of Silas Lapham had run in the July Century Magazine.

You are really my only author; I am restricted to you, I wouldn’t give a damn for the rest.

…I can’t stand George Eliot and Hawthorne and those people; I see what they are at a hundred years before they get to it and they just tire me to death. And as for “The Bostonians,” I would rather be damned to John Bunyan’s heaven than read that [MTHL 2: 533-4].

Sam also wrote to his nephew, Samuel Moffett, who had a new idea to become a historian. Sam thought it a “good sound sensible idea.” Sam wished he might help, but until the Grant book was published, he had no leeway on financial matters. Sam suggested a history book for his nephew to write that Webster & Co. could sell by subscription, “Picturesque Incidents in History & Tradition; a 500 or 600-page octavo” [MTP]. There is no evidence that Moffett ever worked on such a book [MTNJ 3: 167n135].

Lizzie C. Grant (Mrs. Jesse Grant) wrote that Gerhardt’s “bust of her baby is the most perfect thing I ever saw, & now that he is succeeding so wonderfully with our statue I want that he should have every advantage” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Mrs. Jesse Grant / Answer”

Thomas Twain, (an obvious pseudonym) wrote with anger about Clemens’ reply to “What Ought He Have Done” in The Christian Union; clipping enclosed. Sam suspected this lengthy insulting letter was sent by the writer called “Father Senior” in the original CU article. The writer was graphic in how he would tie and torture Livy: “I would bare her to the skin, and then proceed to ply a stout leather strap with knotted tails to her buttocks”—sentiment that likely made Sam’s blood boil [MTP]. Note: the clipping told of a girl who had surfaced after three years earlier being petrified by a teacher’s threat of a whipping. The argument for and against corporal punishment wages on even today.

A.H. Warner wrote that while on a train he learned from Clemens that his copy of “Jim Wolfe and the Cats” had been lost. He found a copy and enclosed it. See July 22 [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Jim Wolf & the Cats”

William N. Woodruff wrote, having just returned from Mt. McGregor. He offered three transcribed letters praising Gerhardt, enclosed [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Pleasant words for Gerhardt”