June 22 Saturday – At Quarry Farm Sam wrote two letters to H.H. Rogers. In the first, an obvious response to one of Rogers, not extant.
I have made some notes, which I enclose. I wish I could come down and talk with you and Colby and the Harpers, but I can’t. I shan’t be able to put my clothes on till — I don’t know when. Carbuncles are extravagantly slow.
My main objection is a the absence of a time-limit.
The subject here is the contract that Bainbridge Colby had made with Harper & Brothers for a Uniform Edition of Sam’s books. Sam didn’t want any money from Rogers, but only wanted to know how much Rogers held for him, in case daughters Susy and Jean might need things. Rogers was to have an eye operation shortly, and Sam related dining in Paris with “the greatest of the French oculists,” who previously had opposed “eye-cutting, but is whacking away at people’s eyes now, with confidence and enthusiasm.”
He questioned that a “Mr. Lawson called?” and didn’t recall him. (Thomas W. Lawson, Boston broker who sold stock for Standard Oil Co.). Also he had a photograph for Urban E. Broughton, but had procrastinated in sending it. He also wished Miss May Rogers to reconsider going on the world tour [MTHHR 154-5].
Sam’s second letter was an obvious afterthought of his first, advising Rogers that Colby thought if Rogers could have “the interview this afternoon it would be a very great help.” This suggests that the “letter” was a telegram, yet the entire text suggests not. (A letter could not go from Elmira to New York City in one day.) Sam then discussed an acceptable royalty of his Uniform Edition for his wife, who owned all the rights. 20 percent “would be a liberal one,” 15 percent “a good one.” To “authors of mere ordinary reputation” 10 percent was “customary,”; 20 percent “has been paid to authors of wide reputation,” and he hadn’t heard of a greater one being paid [MTHHR 155].
Sam also wrote to an unidentified man in England that he would “not be able to visit Britain the coming winter” due to his world tour [MTP].
Frank Mayo’s article, “Pudd’nhead Wilson” in Harper’s Weekly, p.594 related meeting Sam Clemens in Virginia City. Later when Mayo produced Davy Crockett on the stage, he based “all that is sweet, wholesome, and lovable — the happy, frank, open nature in the title role,” on Joseph T. Goodman and “all that is quaint and humorous” on Mark Twain. He also briefly told of encountering Sam in N.Y. and arranging to dramatize PW. Several photos were included [Tenney ALR supplement to the Reference Guide (Autumn, 1977) 331].