October 23 Sunday – William Dean Howells wrote from N.Y. to Sam.

Last night we were all very low in our spirits, and we fished out a book of your sketches, and read some facts concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut, and laughed our sad hearts light again. John had the book here in the summer, and he says it saved his life, when he was so dreary in the house alone that he wanted to die. You are the greatest man of your sort that ever lived, and there is no use to say anything else. I would have liked to say so in a sort of biographical and critical essay about you for the new edition of your books which Bliss is going to get out, but he had not the courage to pay what I asked for it,—fifteen hundred dollars,—and he wanted something less in quantity than I was willing to do; so the thing is off. All the same, I think it, and perhaps the chance of saying it will offer somewhere again.

….

I got a terrible letter from you at York Harbor, and about a brother author, too; and after getting the worst page of it by heart, I tore that page into a thousand pieces, but I shall be able to reproduce it against you at the right moment. I never knew a man to let himself loose as you do. I am sorry to say that the family enjoyed the letter as much as anything you ever wrote; I really couldn’t say why [MTHL 2: 679-82]. Note: see Aug 16: the torn page likely blasted Charles Dudley Warner.