July 4 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Moncure Conway, worried that the book and newspaper notice Conway had sent were lost. Communication with Bliss had become difficult at this point, with Sam having to ask Conway if the pictures from Bliss had arrived. They were needed for the English publication of TS. “I can’t find out from him,” Sam complained. Sam was also concerned by extracts of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer which “keep appearing in the N.Y. Evening Post—don’t know where they get them.” Sam ended by nixing the idea of printing a cheap edition in the U.S. “Our money lies wholly in the high-priced edition.” Canadian pirates would cut deeply into his sales [MTLE 1: 79].

Sam inscribed a copy of Horse-Car Poetry. Republished from the New Monthly Magazine “Record of the Year.” (1876): “A Centennial gift—from my beloved nephew, W. H. Marsh, July 4th 1876” [Gribben 324]. Note: Charles Langdon had a cousin named Edward L. Marsh. W.H. may have been related. This magazine contained Sam’s jingle, “Punch, Brothers, Punch!”

July 4-6 Thursday – Sometime during this period Sam traveled to Hartford, probably by way of New York. Explanatory notes on MTPO for the July 6 to Bentley read:

“Clemens was in Hartford to inquire at the American Publishing Company about the shipping of the Tom Sawyer illustrations to Moncure Conway and about the delay in the typesetting of the American edition of the book. Bliss did not have first proofs ready for him until 18 July (see 22 July 76 to Bliss, n. 1).”