November 3 Tuesday – Sam was back in Hartford, and wrote to the editor of the Hartford Evening Post, H.T. Sperry. The paper had printed an article “The Drama of the Gilded Age,” which Sam wrote was an erroneous history of the play. Sam corrected the record and the suggestion that he had misused Gilbert Densmore [MTL 6: 267-73].

In response to gossip about Sam adopting Densmore’s version of the play, John T. Raymond, possibly at Sam’s urging, sent a letter to the New York Sun, which ran this day. The letter agreed that Densmore’s work was excellent, but that the production in New York “was entirely the work of Mr. Samuel L. Clemens” [Duckett, p. 120-1, quoting William Winter’s The Life of David Belasco]. Duckett asserts that “The controversy about how much of the play The Gilded Age was written by Mark Twain has never been settled” [121]. Note: William Winter (1836-1917).

Sam Holt wrote from NYC touched by “A True Story” [MTP]. Note: Clemens wrote on the env. “Old Slave Story”