July 7 Sunday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore, directing him to send all securities for Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corp. to Charles Langdon in Elmira, as he “has a chance to sell the whole thing out.” Sam added:

It is splendid news from the machine.

I shall arrive Tuesday afternoon [MTP]. Note: the letter was postmarked July 8 and received July 9.

Edmund C. Stedman wrote Sam a “long and enthusiastic” letter about his new book, CY.

My belief is, on the whole, that you have written a great book: in some respect your most original, most imaginative, — certainly the most effective and sustained…You are going at the still existing radical principles or fallacies which made ‘chivalry’ possible once, & servilities & flunkeyism & tyranny possible now [MTHL 2: 609]. Note: remarking that the book was somewhat an “extension” of P&P, Stedman added “ ‘tis very much else besides. The little book was checkers: this is chess” [MTNJ 3: 479].

July 7? Sunday – Sam wrote to Edward W. Bok (1863-1930), editor and columnist for “Bok’s Literary Leaves,” a regular feature of literary chat, about an interview Bok had written on him. (Bok would become editor of the Ladies Home Journal during this year.) In the letter Sam explains why in interviews “men seem to talk like anybody but themselves,” and why most interviews are “pure twaddle, & valueless.” Bok had printed a series of “personality letters” on such figures as Henry Ward Beecher, William Dean Howells, and Rudyard Kipling. Sam urged him to,

…spare the reader & spare me; leave the whole interview out; it is rubbish. I wouldn’t talk in my sleep if I couldn’t talk better than that. If you wish to print anything print this letter; it may have some value [MTP]. Note: the letter ran on July 9 in Bok’s syndicated column. Bok got his start by making contacts for autographs. He would win the Pulitzer in 1920 for best autobiography.