February 24 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to William Dean Howells. Livy had been “sick abed for near two weeks” (which would put her return from Philadelphia at about Feb. 12). Sam looked forward to a visit by the Howellses in March. Sam then asked if his new novel stirred an interest in Howells: “Colonel Mulberry Sellers, American Claimant of the Great Earldom of Rossmore in the Peerage of Great Britain,” which would become, simply, The American Claimant [MTHL 2: 636-7].

Sam’s notebook: Wrote Chapter IV of Col. Mulberry Sellers Feb. 24, 1891 [604]. Note: Sam’s prior entry noted that Ch. I had been written on Feb. 20.