October 7 Wednesday – In London Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper about the piece “The Californian’s Tale,” which the Authors Club was claiming he gave them for an 1893 publication, The First Book of the Authors Club, Liber Scriptorum. Sam claimed he gave them only a two-year use of the sketch. It was a piece he’d written in 1892 in Bad Nauheim, Germany, but the germ of the story dates back to Angel’s Camp in the winter of 1864-5 [Wilson 11].

In these days of mourning I am not so combative; & so for the present I will not contend with the Authors’ Club for the confiscated property.

      I lent them an article worth four or five hundred dollars. They claim that I gave it — & instance as proof: A circular — which I know nothing about, and which cannot bind me.

Sam added that Arthur Stedman’s claim about not remembering a promise of two years was correct — for it was Sam who made the provision, not Steadman, “not his affair.”

This is the second time that I have been caught. Years ago I lent an article to Gill for the Lotos Club book [Lotos Leaves]. Later, when I wanted to use it he promptly answered my notification with a threat to prosecute me. But I used it all the same.

Sam added after his signature that the Authors Club’s whole case was based on a circular and that “anybody can issue a circular” [MTP]. See also Dec. 22 to Hutton.