March 17 Monday – In Hartford on or just after this day Sam responded to J.S. Butchelder’s Mar. 16’s query about the paper change made in Mark Twain’s Scrap-Book [MTP].
Sam also wrote to thank Andrew Carnegie for books sent, including Carnegie’s Triumphant Democracy: or Fifty Years’ March of the Republic, which Sam claimed “help to fire me up for my last book” (CY).
I am reading it again, now, & firing up for a lecture which I want to deliver on the other side one of these years. I get a little impatient sometimes, waiting for the auction of thrones… [MTP;Gribben 131].
Sam also wrote a short note to Albert H. Walker, thanking him for things said about “the book” (probably CY):
Credits stand level between you & me, now; I always thought the failure of your case against the Courant was a miscarriage of justice [MTP]. See Nov. 21, 1886; Walker sued the Courant for libel.
Sam also wrote to an unidentified man:
I am not now expecting to see London this year; & for that very reason I suppose I ought to expect to see it. Sam had tried to write a lecture for this man’s “working men — but the attempt was a failure.” However, he would keep the theme in mind and preserved the man’s address [MTP].
Sam also wrote to William Thomas Stead (1849-1912), an English reform journalist, editor of London’s Pall Mall Gazette (1883-9). Stead had just established Review of Reviews, which was simply a review of literary reviews, and had chosen CY as “Novel of the Month” in his February issue. Stead’s journal would be published in both London and New York from 1891 on. Sam thanked Stead for giving CY “such a handsome amount of space,” and noted that someone in New York was “borrowing your idea & is going to start a review of reviews” [MTP]. Note: Stead included a facsimile of this letter together with a photo of Sam in his 1890 book, Portraits and Autographs. See Dec.19.
Sam also wrote to Charles W. Thomas of Woodland California, thanking him for his review of CY and for “the loan of the doctor’s speech.”
I hope you will pardon my tardiness in replying; the truth is, I have been at home so little, the past month or two, that my mail has been almost wholly neglected; & now I can’t see over the top of it without a step-ladder [MTP].
Charles D. Gallager wrote to Sam enclosing a prospectus of an excursion to England, Ireland, Scotland, The Holy Land, Egypt, Greece and the Mediterranean Sea. Sam wrote “unanswered letters” on the envelope [MTP].
Isabel Von Oppen wrote to Sam enclosing a MS for Sam’s perusal/purchase/publication. A note in the MTP file: “Von Oppen seems to be a lunatic who is trying to squeeze money out of SLC, even attempting to sell his own inscription back to him (?) for $5” [MTP]. See Dec. 18, 1889 and Jan.3, 1890.