May 14 Saturday – Sam’s article, “Our Precious Lunatic,” was published in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 204]. William Ward, in an article, “American Humorists,” for Beacon, wrote:

But, since Irving, no humorist in prose has laid the foundation of a permanent fame, except it be Mark Twain, and this, as in the case of Irving, because he is a pure writer. Aside from the subtle mirth that lurks through his compositions, the grace and finish of his more didactic and descriptive sentences indicate more than mediocrity, though much of his writing has a dash of Bulwer in it [Tenney 3].

In Buffalo, Sam wrote to Elisha Bliss, enclosing a San Francisco letter, which evidently suggested a proposed book dealing with the Civil War:

Is the war worn out & the people surfeited with adventures, blood, scouting & all that sort of thing? Think the matter over & give me an idea of what I had better do with this. It would have been mighty bully chance a few years ago.

     Tell the Chicago agent to send that book (Mrs. Bart Bowen’s,) to “Care John Robards, Hannibal, Missouri.” [MTP, drop-in letters].