September 1 Thursday – From Sam’s notebook:
Sept. 1 ’87. Two [books] in a year & a half. Loss upon the one, $32,000; profit on the other, $15,000. Expenses, $30,000. Net loss, $17,000 [MTNJ 3: 310&n31].
Note: Sam had hoped that profits from the Pope’s book and others would fuel investment in the Paige typesetter. Instead, Webster & Co. Bled red ink, though the source notes that three books were issued between March 1886, when volume two of Grant’s Memoirs was published, and September 1887: Samuel W. Crawford’s The Genesis of the Civil War, McClelland’s Own Story, and the Life of Leo XIII.
Orion Clemens wrote to Sam that he’d received his monthly $155 check. He thanked for photographs which arrived and commented on Susy’s beauty. “The faces are all pleasant to look at” [MTP].
Check # Payee Amount [Notes]
3804 John O’Neil 60.00 Gardener
3805 Patrick McAleer 50.00 Coachman