November 24 Wednesday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam. Fanning sees Orion suffering from a “deliberate slight” at not being told that Sam was writing Connecticut Yankee. He quotes from the letter:

I was greatly surprised as well as pleased that you have written another book, and that extracts from it so amused and entertained a New York audience. It will dissipate the owlish statements that your humor was losing the richness of the Jumping Frog. When will your new book be published? The idea is bran new. I shall be anxious to see the book. I congratulate you on the success of an experiment on a New York audience that you may have anticipated with some anxiety. / I imagine you have been at work on it a good while” [205]. Note: portions added to Fanning’s quote and one word corrected at the MTP. Nothing here to indicate Orion showed he was slighted.

Whatever one may think about such biographical conclusions, no answer to this letter has been found, though it had been Sam’s habit to share his works-in-progress with his brother, which may explain Fanning’s leap.