January 25 Monday – In Berlin, Sam began a letter to Frederick J. Hall, which he added a PS to on Jan. 27. He answered Halls’ Jan. 7 and Jan. 12 letters (neither extant), and added to Livy’s letter of Jan. 23. Sam wrote a laundry list of items for Hall’s consideration and execution. Sam noted first that the “enclosure” referred to in Hall’s Jan. 7 was not there, but he assumed it was the one about Poultney Bigelow and the Kaiser enclosed in Hall’s Jan. 12. Second, Sam thought the “December showing” was “great,” and that the “contrast between LAL receipts for last 9 & months & corresponding 9 in ’90” was “startlingly satisfactory.”
He also noted the letter of credit was there. Yes, Hall might use Sam’s “Century war article,” together with the sketch “Luck,” the “Mental Telegraphy article,” his “Letter to Queen Victoria,” “Meisterschafft,” and his “Article about an old medical Dictionary” from Harper’s “about 2 years ago.” (Note: Hall was putting together a collection known as Merry Tales, which included most of these pieces; it would issue in April 1892.)
Sam would cable his “approval of every proposition” in Hall’s letters of Jan. 7. He was “more than satisfied with the 17,000 sales of HF, which he felt was “good” for “an old book.” He agreed with Hall not to issue CY and P&P and HF at cheaper issues than one dollar, “for a good while to come — if ever.” He asked that his proposed book, “Recent European Glimpses” be suppressed till he got “time to add a lot of chapters to it,” which he meant to do the following summer.
I shall not feel blue again. I am permanently the other way, now.
As to my MSS there — you have ciphered it out right …P.S. You will issue the “Claimant” as a $1 book, won’t you? [MTLTP 303-4].
Sam also wrote to Thomas M. Williams, who had already shown some successes in marketing LAL, as evidence by Sam’s remarks to Hall in this day’s letter.
I am sincerely glad that we have secured your masterly management & energy for the LAL for ten years. The signs have been showing up clearer & clearer month after month that L.A.L., as you had said, contained a fortune; & I am satisfied that you are the man to extract it.
Sam expressed gladness that he and Fred Hall had lost the bet — “That sort of misfortune comes all too soon.” [MTP]. Note: Sam had been skeptical of LAL since it was Charles Webster’s pet project. See also Dec. 16, 1891 entry.
Lillian L. Johnson wrote from Waltham, Mass. asking what was Sam’s favorite flower, for an article she was to write about favorite flowers of prominent people [MTP].