June 24 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Elisha Bliss. He was ready for the proofs to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but would be “better ready a week or ten days hence.” Sam suggested that American Publishing Co. could show better profits if it tried to do less, print fewer books (meaning more of his as well):

“If the directors will cut the business down two-thirds, & the expenses one half, I think it will be an advantage to all concerned, & I feel persuaded that I shall sell more books” [MTLE 1: 74].

After writing Bliss, Sam wrote a formal proposal to the Board of Directors of the American Publishing Co., asking why the company had not done better and suggesting retrenchment with an eye to a better bottom line. Sam was open about his “selfish interest”:

Tom Sawyer is a new line of writing for me, & I would like to have every possible advantage in favor of that venture. When it issues, I would like to have a clear field, & the whole energies of the company put upon it; & not only this, but I would like the canvassers to distinctly understand that no new book will issue till Tom Sawyer had run 6, or even 9 months. In that case we should all be better off.

Sam wanted only a “fair hearing and a wise verdict” from the board, but had come to some conclusions which would lead him to self-publishing in the future [MTLE 1: 76]. From MTPO a list of the Directors:

“In addition to Clemens and Elisha and Frank Bliss, the directors of the American Publishing Company at this time were: Newton Case [1807-1890], president of Case, [James] Lockwood and [L.] Brainard Company, printers and blank-book manufacturers; Sidney L. Clark, secretary of the Weed Sewing Machine Company; Sidney Drake [1811-1898], of Drake and [James G.] Parsons, bookbinders; and James S. Tryon, of [William E.] Baker and Tryon, insurance agents.” See also AMT 2: 486 for more on Drake; 488 for more on Newton Case.

Sam also wrote to William S. Stokley (1823-1902), mayor of Philadelphia, accepting an invitation to be at Independence Hall on July 1 [MTLE 1: 77].

James H. Trumbull wrote from Hartford.

Dear Clemens: / I have backed out of not going, and wrote Col. Etting, the other day, to count me in. I have n’t yet so much as a rough ashlar to shape into my contribution to his “cenotaph,”—but today & tomorrow I intend to dig up my old revolutionary friend Col. Dyer and see if I can make him presentable. / Yours, / J. H. Trumbull [MTPO]. Note: Frank M. Etting.