December 8 Thursday – In Hartford Sam answered Orion Clemens’ Dec. 5 letter. Sam felt he’d never given an interviewer or biographer any information that he wanted to someday put in his autobiography; he hated “all mention of my private history, anyway. It is none of the public’s business.” He didn’t care how much his parents were “biographied” [MTP]. Note: This may be another case of Sam’s duality, since he’d just worked closely with Sarah Knowles Bolton on a biographical section to Famous American Authors which contains, however brief an exposition, many events and elements that would also appear in his autobiography.