Submitted by scott on

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. Blisswhich 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].

Day By Day Acknowledgment

Mark Twain Day By Day was originally a print reference, meticulously created by David Fears, who has generously made this work available, via the Center for Mark Twain Studies, as a digital edition.