May 31 Monday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Ainsworth R. Spofford, enclosing his signed application form on American Publishing Co.’ s letterhead for renewing copyright on IA, The form carries a July 12 date [MTP].

Sam also signed the renewal copyright for IA form and returned it to Frank Bliss [MTP].

Sam also wrote a squib to the London correspondent for the N.Y. Journal, Frank Marshall White:

May 30 Sunday – Frank Marshall White, London correspondent of the NY Evening Journal had a “chat” with Sam to inform him of the report in New York that Mark Twain was dying of poverty in London [NY Journal article datelined June 1 and reported by the Hartford Courant, June 3, p. 12, “Mark Twain All Right”]. Note: see June 2.

May 27 Thursday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam marked a letter to Frank Fuller “PRIVATE” after getting wind of a scheme by friends back home to host a “special benefit” lecture “at big prices for tickets and an auction of a dozen first-choice seats at Jenny Lind prices” as a way of putting him over the top in his efforts to pay his debts. Fuller was the first man he thought of to pull this off, a man who could handle “the engineering of so delicate and so large an undertaking.”

May 26 Wednesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to advise Katharine I. Harrison that after June 15 letters should be posted in care of Chatto & Windus [MTP: CF Libbie & Co. catalogs, Mar. 3, 1915, Item 367].

Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister: “I have finished the book at last—and finished it for good this time. Now I am ready for dissipation with a good conscience. What night will you come down & smoke?” [MTP; MTB 1041].

May 24 Monday – The ledger books of Chatto & Windus show that 750 additional copies of Tom Sawyer, Detective were printed (totaling 5,750 to date) [Welland 238]. ,

Sam’s notebook:

May 23 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “May 23, 1897. Wrote first chapter of above story to-day”

Paine writes of the beginning of “Which Was The Dream?” which was not published in Sam’s lifetime:

May 22 Saturday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam replied to H.S.W. Edwardes (whose request is not extant). Sam was a hermit and did not go out, but thanked Edwardes “all the same” [MTP].

Note: Sam did go out, but chose his times, places, and persons selectively.

May 20 Thursday – Independent included an anonymous review of American Claimant and Other Stories and Sketches, (volume 21 of the Uniform Edition) p.650. In full:

May 19 Wednesday – The date placed on the typed form for renewal of copyright for IA sent by The American Publishing Co. and signed by Sam on May 31 in London [MTP].

May 18 Tuesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, “unspeakably glad” to report that “just this minute” he had “finished this book again” (FE). He’d been able to add 30,000 words by “making fun” of the Jameson raid, an account he’d feared would be boring and uninteresting. Evidently Bliss had paid the required $10,000, so Sam thought he would send the MS directly to Bliss.