February 23 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his mother, Jane Clemens about Orion’s “wandering, motiveless imitation of the rampaging French lunatic, Jules Verne.” Sam’s letter revealed some anxiety over Orion embarrassing the “family name,” meaning the name of Mark Twain, which he’d spent a lifetime building. It wasn’t decent to imitate an entire book, he wrote. At the end of the letter, Sam added: “…we expect to sail 11th April; in which case I shall expect to see you in Fredonia a week or so before that—I don’t know just what date” [MTLE 3: 19].