April 3 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells about his proposed Atlantic review of Tom Sawyer:

“It is a splendid notice, & will embolden weak-kneed journalistic admirers to speak out, & will modify or shut up the unfriendly. To ‘fear God & dread the Sunday school’ exactly describes that old feeling which I use to have but I couldn’t have formulated it.”

Sam praised the illustrations for the book, “considerably above the American average,” he wrote. He closed by saying that Livy had returned from New York with “dreadful sore throat, & bones racked with rheumatism. She keeps her bed” [MTLE 1: 38].

Note: MTHL 1: 128n2 claims Sam enclosed a note of thanks to Francis Boott for the song (see Apr. 2 entry) in his Apr. 3 letter to Howells, also Apr. 15 from Boott.