December 10 Saturday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to an Frank Bliss.

I must give you my side of the McClure matter. You were dead opposed to having any part of the book [FE] into print before publication-day. I was of your mind—it could do no possible good, & would do very serious harm (to a subscription book) without the slightest doubt in the world. Your McClure publication cost you & me ten times the McClure check.

That is one item. Another: You bound me not to sell an advance sheet. We were partners: therefore you bound yourself, as well.

Another: You should have consulted me—I was entitled to a voice. I always sent people to you when they applied to me—of course expecting you to say no, & it promptly.

And finally: You sold to McClure at half price. That would not have happened if you had told me you had changed your mind & wanted to make an advance-publication.

Sam thought it good that Brander Matthews was willing to do the “critical Preface” to the Uniform Edition. His three- page introduction was just short enough that Matthews’ would “not be over-bulked” by his. He also liked the etchings Bliss had sent, and noted Frank Warner making a few photos made to look like etchings of their Hartford house. He finished with:

Frank, you know I can’t keep reports out of the newspapers—no man can. I am always writing books (portions of books); but I am not “making the effort of my life,” & I am not finishing any book. And I am not expecting to, very soon.

By & by there will be matter enough for a volume of Sketches—say by next summer—if it goes to Harper, tell me how soon thereafter you would want it for the Uniform, so I can take care of that feature.

You couldn’t run a volume of Sketches by subscription, could you? [MTP].

Harper & Brothers cabled Sam (cable not extant) offering $2500 for “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg” and his account of the “Wreck of the Hornet.” It was $500 less altogether than Sam wanted, and he would telegram that on Dec. 12 [Dec. 11 to Rogers].

National Transit, N.Y. wrote to Sam; only the envelope survives, upon which Sam wrote several calculations of figures [MTP].