February 20 Friday – In Hartford Sam was immersed in work. On this day he began again what would become The American Claimant (in his Feb. 10 to Howells Sam disclosed he’d begun on Feb. 8, so he may have started over on this day.) He would write the book in only 71 days, finishing on May 2. He also was hard at work resurrecting the game that would become Mark Twain’s Memory Builder.

Sam’s notebook: Feb. 20. It is more than 2 weeks since I have seen Paige or the machine. Am deep in work — the Date & Fact Game, Col. Sellers, &c [3: 603].

Wrote Chapter I of Col. Mulberry Sellers Feb. 20, 1891 [604].

James E. Rhoads, president of Bryn Mawr College, wrote to Sam that “it would be highly gratifying to our students, and to the faculty…if we could persuade you to give a lecture before the college upon a topic to be chosen by yourself” [MTP].