July 22 Monday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam.

All right. /Of course you are lonesome. / You never told us if the other machines accepted your challenge. / We shall be glad to hear at any time any thing about the machine. / I read your last letter to Ma, and explained to her. She said you always were very quick. / She is suffering today with rheumatism [MTP].

July 21 Sunday – In Cambridge Mass., Howells wrote Sam, “extremely sorry” he’d not been able to come to Hartford for a short visit, but “one trivial thing after another” had interfered.

July 20 Saturday – Webster & Co. Sent Sam ten Daily Report slips for July 15 to 20 [MTP].

July 20 Saturday ca. † – Sam sent Thornton’s July 19th letter to Franklin G. Whitmore:

Please mail my enclosed letter to him (read it,) & put in one of those heliotype pictures of me. SLC [MTP]. Note: Sam’s letter to Thornton is not extant.

July 19 Friday – In Richmond, Va., Arthur C. Thornton (1865- ) wrote to Sam, spelling his name wrong. Thornton extended “a true old Virginia welcome” for Sam to visit in his “summer rambles.” Thornton referred to himself as the “forgotten writer of the horrible conglomeration of puns, which” Sam “rec’d some two years since…” Note: He was from an old Virginia family; his comedy book is not further identified.

July 18 Thursday – In Cambridge, Howells sent Sam a postcard that he could not leave home. Could Sam “run up Saturday and spend Sunday”? (July 20-21) [MTHL 2: 606].

G.P. Davis wrote from Hartford following up on Sam’s contribution to the YMCA [MTP].

William Mackay Laffan wrote to Sam asking if he would be in N.Y. all day Saturday [MTP].

July 17 Wednesday – In Cambridge, William Dean Howells responded to Sam’s invitation of July 13. There was a chance he might be able to come for a day, perhaps even the next day. He would telegraph if he could come.

July 16 Tuesday – † In the evening in Hartford, Sam dined with the Charles Warners and then wrote a “response” not an “answer” to his daughter Clara’s letter of the previous day.

July 15 Monday – In Elmira Clara Clemens wrote to her father in Hartford of a new kitten, the growing puppies, their horse rides and her violin teacher, Professor John C. Bostelmann (see Sept 13 to same). Clara called her father “Buf” and obviously inherited her mother’s “original” spelling [MTP].

July 13 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to his old friend, William Dean Howells about the death of Theodore Crane and the “heart-breaking” atmosphere at Quarry Farm. In Hartford since at least July 11, Sam brooded about the house, empty save for the servants. His letter is one of the few from this period that is not an obvious response, but a request.

July 12 Friday – In Hartford, at the family home, Sam wrote to Livy still in Elmira;