April 15 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam sent a note to Joe Twichell:

Dear Joe —

Stepniak is spending the evening with us — an interesting man. Come over, won’t you [MTP]. Note: Sam’s spelling for the pen name of Sergei Mikhailovich Kravchinski.

T. Fisher Unwin, London publisher, wrote to Sam. “As publisher of the English edition of the little book: ‘English as She is Taught,’ I thought you might be interested in reading a companion one on ‘Baboo English’. Please accept it with my compliments.” Sam wrote on the envelope, “Brer, please thank him & will sign SLC” [MTP].

Note: given their hosting of Kravchinski, and of the inscription Sam wrote on a copy of HF to Kravchinksy, Livy would have waited till the next day to leave for Bryn Mawr. Paine writes of his visit and of Livy’s embarrassment, quoting Sam’s later recollections:

He [Clemens] told of Mrs. Clemens’s embarrassment and when Stepniak had visited them and talked books, and asked her what her husband thought of Balzac, Thackeray, and the others. She had been obliged to say that he had not read them.

“How interesting!” said Stepniak. But it wasn’t interesting to Mrs. Clemens. It was torture” [MTB 1350].