July 30 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to the June 28 from Charles Orr, librarian, Case Library, Cleveland.
I cannot thank you enough for sending me copies of John Hay’s delicious notes to M . Gunn. In the matter of humor, what an unsurpassable touch John Hay had! I may have known Alexander r Gunn in those ancient days, but the name does not sound familiar to me.
The title of the piece of “1601.” The piece is a suppositious conversation which takes place in Queen Elizabeth’s closet in that year, between the Queen and Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Beaumont, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Duchess of Bilgewater, and one or two others; and is not— as John Hay mistakenly supposes—“a serious effort to bring back our literature and philosophy to the sober & chaste Elizabethan standard”; no, the object was only a serious attempt to reveal to Rev. Joe Twichell the picturesqueness of parlor conversation in Elizabeth’s time; therefore if there is a decent word findable in it, it is because I overlooked it. I hasten to assure you that it is NOT printed in my published writings.
“1601” was so be-praised by the archeological scholars of a quarter of a century ago, that I was rather inordinately vain of it. At that time it had been privately printed in several countries, among them Japan. A sumptuous edition on large paper, rough-edged, was made by Lieut. C. E.S. Wood at West Point—an edition of 50 copies—and distributed among popes & kings & such people. In England copies of that issue were worth 20 guineas when I was there six years ago, & none to be had. I thank you again and am / Yours very truly….[MTP]. Note: Sam likely forgot that Alexander Gunn had printed four copies of 1601 in Cleveland in 1880. See Feb., end entry for 1882.
Sam also wrote to John Larkin. “Larkin draw up a codicil requiring the auto extension of copyright on the books” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Elizabeth Jordan for Harper’s Bazaar.
M . Clemens requests me to tell you that he has just returned from a long & tiring business trip, & that just now he cannot say how much he will be able to do with the small boy chapter; but if you can send along some of the other instalments perhaps when he is rested he will feel more inspired than he does now. He was glad to see the two instalments you sent him last week [MTP]. Note: see May 29 entry for the story Jordan was after. Also ca. May 31 and July 6 entries.
Clemens’ A.D. this day included: Clemens returns to Dublin after a four or five weeks’ vacation spent partly in New York attending to business matters connected with “Library of Humor,” and partly at Fairhaven with H.H. Rogers—The Laura Wright episode; first meeting on Mississippi steamboat, & letter just received [MTP: Autodict2].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Harpers have got to call upon Mr. Clemens’s representative when a book’s copyright is about exhausted for auto notes to be added to extend the copyright for 28 years.
Larkin drew up a codicil requiring the copyright extension by adding the auto notes unless before that day shall happen the copyright laws have been so liberalized as to make it unnecessary [MTP TS 101-102].
Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote to Sam, enclosing “some correspondence bearing on the Plasmon situation.” He announced that the Int’l Spiral Pin Co. was paying a 6% dividend for the first half of 1906, and that “Utah was quoted at 56 ½ on Saturday, so it is coming up again” [MTP].
W.B. McGarvey for International Spiral Pin wrote to Sam, enclosing a check for $109.50 in dividends for the first half of 1906 [MTP].
Benjamin E. Smith of The Century Co. wrote to Sam.
A correspondent has asked that we include the word labrick (used in the first chapter of “Pudd’nhead Wilson”) in the Century Dictionary. Can you tell me anything concerning the origin of the word,or are you willing to be responsible for the first use of it? I judge, however, that it is dialectal. If the matter interests you, will you kindly let me hear from you concerning it? [MTP].