June 21 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Early the King said: “No dictating today.”

This was a wonder [two illegible words] telephoned down to telephone Mr. Paine not to fetch up the Hobby horse & then I went back to Mr. Clemens’s room & he read auto-ms. until nearly one o’clock. He read to the finish—almost. He read the interesting baneful story of his publishing experiences & disasters & he finished up with the latest dictation—the blasts at theology & creeds & gods. He was in a great mood & gave that mood full swing.

This afternoon Mr. Paine & I walked up to the sunset rock & there we sat & talked for a long time. Big black ants crawled around us & he would kill them with his heavy heels. But the talk was good. It always is—for we haven’t two topics, but only one. He spoke of the many tragedies in Mr. Clemens’s life & then said “But a King’s life is always a tragedy.” [MTP TS 87]. Note: one may only speculate as to why Lyon struck out the paragraph about Albert Bigelow Paine.

Ben L. Bennett wrote to Sam about Abner Martin, who had been Chief Mate on the Pennsylvania when the boilers blew. He survived and was now 85 or so, with failed eyesight.

Bennett did not ask for help for Martin but it may have been his intent [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote at the bottom: “June 18, 1858 – / Was in the death room 2 or 3 times, but they couldn’t fetch him. Wouldn’t take their sleeping medicines.”

June 21 ca. – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to the June 19 from S.G. Niles “Nobody but the publishers—Harper—can answer your question. The book has been in their hands for 3 years awaiting publication—The first half of the book has already appeared in N. A. Review—” [MTP].