July 14 Saturday – Sam was at the Rogers’ residence in Fairhaven, Mass. for a weekend stay [July 12 and July 16 to Lyon].

Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):

Here am I reading “Thus spoke Zarathrustra” & I do not pretend to be qualified to say how wonderful I find it.  …

Last evening’s note from Mr. Clemens enclosed within it 2 letters—one from Mr. McClure— that “red hot Presbyterian” and one from Bynner—appreciating the autobiographical ms. that they have been reading. Mr. McClure’s letter was beautiful—a “love letter” to that King [MTP TS 96].

Minnie Maddern Fiske wrote from Santa Cruz, Calif. to Sam. “Dear Mr. Clemmens [sic] / I cannot resist telling you of the particular happiness & consolation you have brought to our home this summer.” Ashton Stevens, the dramatic critic of San Francisco Examiner,  “a very gifted young man” had been ill and staying with the Fiskes. They would read to him nightly, mostly from HF and P&P. Stevens asked her to write Sam and tell him of his enjoyment of the books, and that he had known “the old compositor, [Little] Ward” [MTP]. Note: Sam replied on July 27. Ashton Stevens (1872-1951), drama critic for Hearst newspapers, including the Chicago Herald-American.