August – Part two of Sam’s “In Defense of Harriet Shelley” ran in the North American Review.

Sometime during the month Sam wrote Frank Bliss about a lost letter. He asked Bliss to let Peter (probably an assistant) go to the New York office & get a copy of it for him.

I had it in my hand with my steamer ticket when I came aboard the ship — I am nearly dead-sure of it; but I have hunted everywhere & cannot find it.

In a week the machine will be in the [Chicago] Herald office! Hope it will anyway.

I am not about to seek France, without a courier or other help save providence–& so there’s going to be a lost child. Sincerely yours, S.L. Clemens.

On the other side of the letter Sam wrote:

I put in some solid hours on those APHORISMS before I left, trying to work them into shape to suit me, but it was a failure. I had to give it up, only two or three were satisfactory [MTP] . Note: from the context this letter seems to have been written en route to France.

William Livingstone Alden’s article, “The Book Hunter” ran in Idler magazine VI p.213-24. Tenney writes: “Contains a brief review of PW (pp.222-23) as primarily a novel, containing ‘a carefully painted picture of life in a Mississippi town in the days of slavery,’ although the twins ‘are as little like Italians as they are like Apaches.’ The extracts from ‘Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Almanac’ leave the reader wanting more. Reprinted in Anderson [Frederick, MT, Critical Heritage], pp.182-83” [22]. Note: Alden (1837-1908) was an American writer and diplomat, whose articles often appeared in Harper’s Magazine.