May 14 Sunday – In a bound scrapbook with autographic comments in Sam’s handwriting, dated 1869, there is an entry with this date. The scrapbook calls for “mental” photographic statements and even has a place for an actual photograph, though none is included in the book. Sam answers a series of questions; this is similar to other “surveys” he answered about his favorites and preferences:
May 12 Friday – Frank Bliss wrote to Sam, sending a royalty check for $703.35 [MTP].
May 11 Thursday – James Florant Meline (1811-1873), author of Two Thousand Miles on Horseback: Santa Fe and Back (1867) wrote from Brooklyn asking for publication help in the form of a letter of introduction to Elisha Bliss [MTP]. Note: not in Gribben.
May 8 Monday – Joe Twichell wrote from Hartford to Sam, opening with what Twain would undoubtedly call “drivel” and then asking what had become of him? “Pray let us hear from you soon” [MTP].
May 7 Sunday – Horace Greeley wrote to Sam on NY Tribune letterhead. See MTB p 437 for facsimile of the letter with Greeley’s scrawl and Paine’s comments [MTP].
May 5 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Henri Gerard, a boy who sent Sam a copy of his newspaper, the “Comet.” Sam declined to submit material for the paper but praised the boy’s work and sent him a dollar for 3 subscriptions, one of which he sent to his nephew, Sammy Moffett in Fredonia [MTL 4: 389].
May 3 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Elisha Bliss about Bliss possibly publishing a book from Edward (Ned) House of the New York Tribune, who was in Japan. Sam enclosed House’s letter. He also announced his book was half done (Roughing It) [MTL 4: 389].
Sam’s letter to the editor, “A Substitute for Rulloff,” dated Apr. 29, ran in the New York Tribune [Camfield, bibliog.; MTPO].
May 2 Tuesday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to James Redpath:
Indeed I would like to find that Canadian “Innocents” if you can get it.
I am well & flourishing & hard at work on a book similar to the “Innocents” but my wife is still confined to her bed & has been over three months / Yours / Clemens [MTP, drop-in letters].
May – Sam’s article, “The Old-Time Pony Express of the Great Plains” ran in American Publisher, an in-house promotional pamphlet of the American Publishing Co [Camfield, bibliog.].
April 30 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Orion. Sam put his foot down and would not be included in American Publisher (basically a promotional paper for Bliss’ stable of writers) more often than every six months. He even would have Livy stop any letters asking more of him. He would focus on his books.