August 14 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Eustace D. Conway, Moncure’s seventeen-year-old son, who evidently had been working for his father and attempting to interest a play promoter named Taylor in producing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer on the stage. Sam agreed, as the story stood it was not dramatizable and explained:

“…but by turning & twisting some of the incidents, discarding others & adding new ones, that sort of difficulty is overcome by these ingenious dramatists. But I haven’t the head to do it…I hope Mr. Byron can & will do the play” [MTLE 1: 100]. Note: H.J. Byron was Sam’s first choice; he is mentioned in Conway’s Aug.10. The episodic structure of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer perhaps made it difficult to dramatize.