November 17 Saturday – Orion Clemens wrote of his change of offices, his being made Secretary of Republicans to publish the proceedings of the primary, thanking Livy for her account of Hall’s death, and of reading extracts of Sam’s Bermuda letters in the Atlantic Monthly [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Preserve”

A.F. Higgs wrote from Chicago admiring Twain’s article in the Dec. Atlantic (“Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion”), and recalling his own Union Army career [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Curiosity”

November 17? Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, who had sent Sam his book (probably The Queen of Sheba and My Cousin the Colonel (1877). “I have read every line of the bewitching thing & have lost my day’s work & am not in the least sorry” [MTLE 2: 197].