March 11 Wednesday – William Dean Howells and wife Elinor were visiting the Clemenses when T.H. Macdonald arrived from the New England Phonograph Co. with the phonograph Sam had ordered. Macdonald set it up for him [MTNJ 3: 607&n118]. Note: The exact length of their stay is not clear, but in his Mar. 15 Howells wrote it was “too short for the things I wanted to say,” suggesting it was probably not longer than one night.

Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam that “if convenient” he wished to come to Hartford Saturday morning to “talk over…a number of matters.” Hall touched on the implications of the International Copyright Bill, a possible cheap edition of HF, how to handle Sam’s new book, the lease, and the Sherman book [MTP].