March 29 Sunday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, enclosing a letter from Bram Stoker. Stoker had just become a director of a new company, Heinemann and Bolectier, Ltd., which was formed to publish books in English for Europe. Sam forwarded Stoker’s letter with this note:

Do you know my friend Bram Stoker, [Henry] Irving’s manager?

I have received the enclosed from him, & have written him that you have charge of my continental business, with plenary powers, & that any arrangement he may make with you will be satisfactory to me [MTP].

Sam then wrote to Bram Stoker, asking if he knew Chatto.

Years & years ago I gave into his hands, without restriction, all my continental business, & he has always conducted it to my satisfaction. Any arrangement which you may make with him will be entirely satisfactory to me. Shall I write him, or will you look in on him? [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Frederick J. Hall asking how many subscriptions of Library of American Literature did a “first-class canvasser capture in a month? I’ve got an advertising scheme.” He added opinion after his signature about “Father Sherman…and his brother’s generous letter to our firm,” should be “held in reserve until somebody complains of Blaine’s absence from the book, then publish it immediately.” Sam didn’t feel they needed James G. Blaine in any issue [MTLTP 271]. Note: The book involved was the reissue by Webster & Co., at the urging of Sherman’s family, a “fourth edition, revised, corrected, and complete” with the text of Sherman’s second edition, a new chapter prepared under the auspices of the Sherman family bringing the general’s life from his retirement to his death and funeral, and an appreciation by politician Blaine (a distant Sherman relative).

Ann Williams wrote from Galveston, Texas asking Sam if she insured her life, would he be willing to buy the policy? Sam wrote on the envelope, “I think perhaps this better not be answered” [MTP].