July 24 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, asking if a small change in the title page to Huck Finn might still be possible. Sam wanted it to say “Time, forty to fifty years ago,” rather than simply “Time, forty years ago.” If printing had started, “let it go” [MTP]. Note: Sam’s change appears on the facsimile Oxford copy.

Sam also wrote to Charles Erskine Scott Wood, who had asked for a letter of introduction, which Sam enclosed “with great pleasure.” As for news from West Point, Sam confessed:

“I tried to get to West Point in June but made a failure of it; so I can’t tell you any news from there. But I’ve brought a bicycle here to this mountain-top, & if you wait a while, that can be made to furnish you some” [MTP].