June 24 Saturday – Frank N. Doubleday and Edward W. Bok stopped by Sam’s hotel in the morning with a cable from J. Henry Harper wanting to publish a 75 cent edition of Tom Sawyer. He had no objections but referred him to H.H. Rogers [June 25 to Rogers; Aug. 3 to Rogers mentions Bok was along]. , At the Prince of Wales Hotel in London, England, Sam wrote to William Knight. (1837-1916).

Your invitation is most kind, & you may be sure that Mrs. Clemens & I are not going to have any difficulty about keeping it in mind if ever we have the good fortune to get to Scotland.

Since we had the pleasure of meeting you at Mr. Bryce’s our plans have suffered a sea-change into something new & unexpected; & we leave in a fortnight for Sweden, not to see England again for several months. I can hardly believe it, and yet I bought the fare-tickets yesterday & must believe it [MTP]. Note: James Bryce on Portland Place.

[June 24 to Knight]. Note: They would stay in Sanna for a year.Sam also wrote one line to H.F. Russell in the London district of Clapton, N.E. Sam had no objection to Russell using the note he’d written him [MTP].

Sam also wrote a note of thanks to Dr. Henry Walker of Oklahoma City, who had argued that Mark Twain and not Rudyard Kipling was the greatest living writer; Sam’s thank you letter (with some variations) was published in the NY Times for Sept. 9, 1899.

Dear Doctor Walker: / I thank you ever so much for the impulse which moved you to write the article—& for the article, also, which is mighty good reading. And I am glad you praised Kipling—he deserves it; he deserves all the praise that is lavished upon him, & more. It is marvelous—the work which that boy has done: the more you read the Jungle Books the more wonderful they grow. But Kipling himself does not appreciate them as he ought, does not value them as he ought; he read Tom Sawyer a couple of times when he was coming up out of his illness & said he would rather be author of that book than any that has been published during its life-time. Now, I could have chosen better; I should have chosen Jungle Books. But I prize his compliment just the same, of course.

I thank you again & heartily. I haven’t the language to say it strongly enough [MTP].

Livy wrote to Katharine Boland Clemens, asking her and her husband, James Ross Clemens, to “drop in about half past nine and & have a little talk” [MTP].

Sam’s notebook: “Sat. 24th Savage Club 6.00” [NB 40 TS 56].