January 29 Saturday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper. Sam posed the question to himself, “The Books Which Have Most Influenced My Life?” and then proceeded to answer it by listing ten of his own works! Then he asked Harper to publish the supposedly “private letter” as “from Mark Twain to a friend”:

“Things which can be an intrusion when uttered in a public way often lose the stink of impertinence when exuded from a private letter, & may then be diffused through the parlor without conveying noticeable offense to any” [MTP: Paraphrase: Estates of Mind catalogs, No.6, Item 91].

Saturday Review (London) reviewed More Tramps Abroad, (FE). Tenney: “At his best, MT is ‘the Greatest American Spirit, tongue in cheek, strolling irresponsibly around the universe. And, between its wads of padding, ‘More Tramps Abroad,’ does afford us this spectacle,’ but often it is merely labored and contrived’” [28].