February 9 Saturday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam finished his Feb. 8 letter to H.H. Rogers adding a PS. He confided that the idea of “dumping two of our girls” on Sue Crane was one Livy didn’t want anyone to know, since she needed to talk to Sue first. Since Sue and Dr. Rice were great friends, Sam and Livy were concerned Rice might mention the idea to her before Livy had the chance to broach it.

She [Sue Crane] and Rice are great friends. Rice breeds some kind of an animal in her nose — an octopus, I think — and then charges her for letting on to take it out. He is the most ingenious cuss!

I finished revising and completing Joan yesterday evening, and shall take the MS along when I sail the 23d. Will you warn Harry that his uncle Sammy is coming over to see about that wall paper? Sincerely yours [MTHHR 129-130].

Sam also responded in a short paragraph to a Mr. Morgan (whose letter is not extant) offering,

I had a brother & a sister born in Jamestown, but I was reserved for Missouri. [MTP].

Note: Morgan may have been soliciting biographical information. It’s not clear which siblings Sam was referring to. Pamela Ann Clemens was born in Jamestown, Tenn., Sept. 13, 1827, as well as Margaret L. Clemens, b. May 31, 1830 died when Sam was nearly four. But Orion Clemens was born on July 17, 1825 in Gainesboro, Tenn. A brother who died before Sam was born, Pleasant Hannibal Clemens b. ca. 1828 or 9 in Jamestown. Wecter writes, “Jamestown, literally nothing but a cluster of sandy springs along an old Indian trace, had just been chosen as site for the seat of Fentress County, then being organized in these early months of 1827” [30].

Sam also wrote to Mary Mason Fairbanks and responded from memory to a recent letter he’d mislaid.

…I know your main question was the condition of the family. Livy is better & stronger now than she has been for several years; Susy is in pretty good shape, but not robust — she’s never that; the rest of us are robust.

Sam reported he’d finished his book at 7 p.m. the night before, some 170,000 words. It had taken two years, on and off and he’d written two other books in the meantime (PW and TS Detective). He asked her when she’d finish her book (Emma Willard and Her Pupils, or Fifty Years of Troy Female Seminary 1822-1872 [1898]). As for JA, his just-finished book:

Name and subject? Well, I mean to keep those private until I decide whether I will publish it or not.

We can’t have this little house after May 1; & so it may be that the family will go home for the summer — & they may not. An undecided question, as yet [MTMF 276].

Note: Sam had already booked passage for the family to return to the US on May 18 (though would leave on May 11; see Feb. 7 and 8 to Rogers), but he may not have wanted to disclose this. This is the last known letter to Mary from Sam, though a Dec. 28, 1896 from Livy to Mary survives. It’s likely he wrote her from the 1895-6 world tour, though if so, such letters are lost.

Sam also wrote to unidentified persons, “To the Publishers” concerning the Jamestown matter, referred to above in the letter to a Mr. Morgan. In that letter he suggested, “that you precede my letter with your own in the circular — or put mine first if you prefer — & see if anything will result.” Taken together, there was evidently a movement to secure books for some entity in Jamestown, Tenn., and it was mistakenly taken for Sam’s birthplace by some. In this letter Sam even mistakenly puts Jamestown as Orion’s birthplace (it was Gainesboro, Tenn.).

I was always indifferent and careless about where I was going to be born, & left it to others. It might be an argument to state that I had a brother born in Jamestown seventy years ago, if it were true, but it isn’t; I didn’t have him born there, it merely happened; I had nothing to do with it, & cannot claim any of the credit.

Now it may be that there is argument in this: if the publishers gave 7,000 books to an English friend of mine of twenty years’ standing, how can they consistently refuse 7,000 to an American friend of mine of fifty-nine years’ standing?

…With permission, that American friend of mine will sign himself with all respectfulness, Mark Twain [MTP].