May 4 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall about possible buyers for The American Claimant, which Sam had drafted in a very short time at a 70-75,000-word length.

I don’t think very much of [Edward W.] Bok’s offer. He has engaged a short story of Mr. Howells at $5,000 & Howells has sold the use of a long story to the N.Y. Sun for $10,000.

Sam suggested Hall contact John Cockerill, editor of the N.Y. World to try to sell the story for $10,000. Sam would contact William Mackay Laffan of the N.Y. Sun. He referred to the fact that the World had bought some of Bret Harte’s stories [MTLTP 273]. Note: Sam’s need for quick cash led him to try to syndicate the book before Webster & Co. might canvass and publish it, if they wished.

Sam also wrote to Andrew Lang in London, thanking him for the “beautiful book,” and that he was “proud to be among the specials & have a numbered copy.” Lang’s 1890 work, only 150 copies printed, Old Friends: Essays in Epistolary Parody is likely the book Sam refers to here (see Gribben 395).

It seems odd enough to see mention of Tom & Huck away up there among the high company of the aristocracy of fiction [MTP].

Albert H. Dowell wrote to Sam stuck in Hartford “without a friend or a dollar” asking for help to get back to N.Y. Sam wrote on the envelope, “Send it to Col. Green’s Charity, Brer” [MTP].