December 3 Thursday – William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.

Dear Clemens: / I am going to Percy Grant’s Milton-fest on the 9th, so let me come any day after to you. Make Miss Lyon tell me all over again where I must stop the train to get off for Redding; and when I leave N.Y. in the morning. 8:30? I breakfast at 6:30 to 7.

      —Now I must go and empty our collaborative vase, It smells horribly. Yours ever / W.D. Howells [MTHL 2: 839]. Note: see n1 source for more on Percy Stickney Grant, Protestant Episcopal minister, rector of the Church of the Ascension, NYC.

 Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The King to the dentist” [MTP: IVL TS 82].

Stoughton Cooley wrote from Maywood, Ill. to ask Sam if he might send a MS about the Mississippi River for his opinion, one that “those eastern publishers” did not appreciate [MTP]. Note “Ans Dec 7 MLH”

Mrs. G.L. Leighton wrote from Los Angeles to Sam, enclosing a horoscope clipping from the Los Angeles Times, and noting that Jonathan Swift was also born on Nov. 30 [MTP]. Note “Ans Dec 21 MLH”

C.M. Lincoln for the NY Times wrote to ask Sam for a “one-hundred word expression of opinion as to…the greatest event of the year” [MTP].

William Murray wrote from Hamilton, Ontario Canada, enclosing a card and verse with clipping about Sam’s birthday pasted to the top from the NY Tribune [MTP]. Note “Ans Dec 7 MLH”

J. Clinton Roraback wrote from Canann, Conn. to invite Sam to address the Litchfield County University Club [MTP]. Note “Ans Dec 9 MLH”

An unidentified person (Mrs. Charles ?) wrote a postcard from Seattle, Wash. to ask where she might find More Tramps Abroad [MTP]. Note: English title of FE.