December 1 Sunday – Sam wrote from Washington, D.C. to John Russell Young about payment and questioned the amount of a $65 check he’d received. He also received a letter from Elisha P. Bliss, which he responded to the next day. Bliss was soliciting a book from Sam, “compiled from your letters from the East, &c, with such interesting additions as may be proper.” Bliss published by subscription, a popular plan in those days with road salesmen pre-selling a book until profitability was ensured to enable publication. Bliss became Sam’s principal publisher until Bliss’ death in 1880. The letter from Bliss was the impetus for Sam’s second book, Innocents Abroad [MTL 2: 118-120].

Sam’s “Holy Land Excursion. Letter from Mark Twain Number Twenty-seven” dated Sept. 11 ran in the Alta California [McKeithan 178-82].