March 24 Wednesday – The Sharon Times reported that Sam was “about to issue a work of some six hundred pages, ‘The Innocents Abroad, or the New Pilgrim’s Progress’.” The notice confirms that by this time Sam had decided on the new title for the book [MTL 3: 175].

Sam wrote from Elmira to Mary Mason Fairbanks about the final name for the book, the Fairbanks’ visit to the Langdons, working on the proofs (“Livy & I will read them backwards, & every other way—but principally backwards I guess”), the small fire that had happened in Mary’s house, and his intention to go to California by sea [MTL 3: 176-7].