October 31 Monday – In Florence Sam wrote to Frank E. Bliss of the American Publishing Co., his old publisher.
I hear you are issuing a $1 edition of Tom Sawyer. I believe I have a 10 per cent royalty on that book. If so, go ahead; but I cannot consent to let your firm reduce the retail price of any other of my books without first making special contracts with me.
October 30 Sunday – In Florence, Sam sent a postscript to Laurence Hutton, consisting of a six-line verse, headed, “Respectfully Dedicated to the Author of the ‘Rhyme of the Guileless Gondolier’” [MTP].
Susy Clemens wrote to Louise Brownell:
October 27 Thursday – Paine includes a “memorandum” of Sam’s with this date:
October 25 Tuesday – Mrs. John C. Pelton wrote from San Francisco in behalf of her husband, Prof. Pelton, asking Sam’s assistance and sending poetry. A recommendation bearing the names of the Governor of California, H.H. Markham, and other dignitaries, accompanied the letter. The flyer notes two books, My Book, and Sunbeams and Shadows [MTP].
October 22 Saturday – At the Villa Viviani in Florence Sam wrote to Sue Crane of their satisfaction with the place and the setting.
October 21 Friday – In Florence Sam wrote to Orion Clemens. Only the envelope survives [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Clara Clemens at Mrs. Mary B. Willard’s school in Berlin.
October 20 Thursday – Miss Fannie Arnold a teacher at Soule College, Murfreesboro, Tenn., wrote to Sam, having been assigned the subject “Mark Twain” for a gathering of the Charles Egbert Craddock Club. Could Sam suggest an idea for her presentation? How did he come by his literary name? [MTP].
Mrs. James McCall sent Sam a wedding announcement for this date in NewYork for her daughter Fannie to Dr. Dillon Brown [MTP].
October 19 Wednesday – From Florence Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder of Century, enclosing “The £1,000,000 Bank Note” story.
Well, you see, what little I have written lately was kind of forced into the Syndicates because they seduce a person by the large wage they pay, which is double & treble what the magazines grant to the laborer in the literary field. Naturally I prefer to be in the magazines, but you see how it is.
October 17 Monday – Chatto & Windus wrote to Sam with “the pleasure of enclosing you a verbatim extract of the note in the last edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica on the literature of ‘Joan of Arc’, which we trust will suit your purposes” [MTP].
October 15 Saturday – The Illustrated News of the World (New York issue) ran a second segment of “The German Chicago.” Other segments ran on Oct. 8 and Nov. 5, 1892 [Willson list, Univ. of Texas at Austin].