May 15 Saturday – Sam added to his May 13 scorcher to Howells:

Been interrupted for a day or two. [Probably by Pamela’s visit]

Mrs. Clemens has condemned this letter to the stove — “because it might make Mr. Howells feel bad.” Might make him feel bad! Have I in sweat & travail wrought 12 carefully-contrived pages to make him feel bad, & now there’s a bloody doubt flung at it? Let me accept the truth: I am grown old, my literary cunning has departed from me. I purposed to shrivel you up; & the verdict is as above.

However, I don’t care; I couldn’t have enjoyed it more than a couple of minutes, if I had succeeded. Therein lies the defect of revenge: it’s all in the anticipation; the thing itself is a pain, not a pleasure; at least the pain is the biggest end of it. See May 17 entry.

Boston Literary World ran an interview with Sam titled, “Table Talk” [Scharnhorst, Interviews 87].

If common report is correct, Mark Twain is much better satisfied by his career as a publisher than by his literary success. When asked recently if he would contribute to any magazines this year he said: “No, no. No sum of money however flattering could induce me to swerve from a resolution I have made to enjoy a solid old-fashioned loaf this summer, after which I will visit my country home at Elmira for the balance of the season. Besides there is more money in being a publisher. At any rate that is my experience, and if I perform any more literary work in the future it will be only to ‘keep my hand in.’”

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) died in Boston at age 55. All but a dozen or so of her poems were published after her death. See Oct. 1891 entry and Gribben 193.