July 10 Tuesday – Aboard the S.S. Parisian on his way home, Howells wrote to Sam, reporting on their visit to the Gerhardts in Paris. He described their living quarters as “primitive and simple as all Chicopee, and virtuous poverty spoke from every appointment of the place.” Howells observed that Karl Gerhardt seemed “a little worn with overwork,” suggesting he might learn while resting in Italy [MTHL 1: 434].

Howells also told of meeting Thomas Hardy, the novelist. Michael Millgate, in Thomas Hardy, His Career as a Novelist puts this date as June 25, 1883 at the Savile Club dinner for Sir Edmund Gosse [198]. Millgate also writes,

“During the evening Howells told the story of Mark Twain’s disastrous speech at the Whittier dinner, and Hardy responded with praise of Life on the Mississippi; and admiration of Mark Twain as more than ‘merely a great humorist.’” Note: Howells letter above does not disclose his discussing the Whittier speech.

Jane Clemens wrote to the Clemenses: “Dear children / All sizes & ages”. She talked of activities, old friends who visited, and as old people often do, talked about many others. “Orion lets nothing pass for my comfort & accommodation” [MTP].

S.H. Kent wrote from Westfield, NY asking how to copyright in Canada for a book of poems [MTP].