December 7 Monday – Back in Hartford, probably over the weekend, Sam wrote to Howells about the “Library of Humor” book. Sam suggested Howells write the preface now, and then:

“…we can put the Library away, with cheerful souls, knowing that at any time now or far away, there’s nothing in the way of her coming out whenever we want her to.”

Sam confided that he’d had “that $5,000 invested” for Howells and didn’t tell him because he knew Howells wouldn’t let him make it good should it go “to the devil.”

“Well, at last when the Grant book actually emerged from the press, with all its immense sale laid bare to the public, I recognized the bald ridiculousness of trying any longer to keep up the pretense of being short of money—so I gave it up, & let my dream go.”

Sam closed with a wish that Howells had been with him to relate the “14-months’ history” of “Gerhardt & the Nathan Hale statue,” one he called “the funniest in the whole history of art” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Laurence Hutton. After some teasing about being his son-in-law that-was-to-have-been (Hutton was fond of young Jean Clemens), Sam thanked him for his birthday congratulations. About being 50, Sam added,

“In public I say breezily that I don’t care a damn. This deceives. It is intended to deceive. But let it not deceive you” [MTP].

Sam also wrote a short note to John Russell Young, also thanking for birthday congratulations [MTP].

William Tecumseh Sherman wrote after reading Vol I of the Grant Memoirs: “On the whole the book is admirable” [MTP].