October 18 Sunday ­– Sam wrote from Hartford, answering Howells’ letter of Oct. 16. Howells had rejected Ticknor’s offer to become his publisher, and through Charles Fairchild’s efforts came to an agreement with Harper’s which would pay him a $10,000 per year salary for the serial rights to a yearly 300-page novel, plus other income for articles and a column. Howells had offered to “sell out to you at a sacrifice, and let you call it ‘Mark Twain’s Library of American Humor’—a capital selling title—suppressing my name altogether.” Howells wanted $2,000 for the sacrifice, for a total of $2,500, or half of the original agreement. Sam answered:

“I reckon it would ruin the book—that is make it necessary to pigeon-hole it & leave it unpublished. I couldn’t publish it without a very responsible name to support my own on the title page, because it has so much of my own matter in it” [MTHL 2: 538].

Sam decided to pigeon-hole the manuscript; it wasn’t printed for two years. Sam begged off on paying the $2,000 right away, since it would be 30 days before the Grant book “relief-money” began “to flow in.”

“Mind, I am not in financial difficulties, & am not going to be. I am merely a starving beggar standing outside the door of plenty—obstructed by a Yale time-lock which is set for Jan. 1st”[MTHL 2: 539].