December 23 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to William Dean Howells.
The magazine [Harper’s] came last night, & the Study notice [“Editor’s Study” review of CY] is just great. The satisfaction it affords me could not be more prodigious if the book deserved every word of it: & maybe it does; I hope it does, though of course I can’t realize it & believe it. But I am your grateful servant, anyway & always.
December 22 Sunday – Charles D. Poston wrote from Wash. to wish Sam a merry Christmas and a happy new year, thereby “renewing the appearance of many years friendship” [MTP]. See Dec. 28, 1888.
December 21 Saturday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam that his telegram for “6 Morocco ‘Yankee’” was received and they’d been shipped. Enclosed was an audit by Barrow, Wade, Guthrie, & Co., Public Accountants for the period of four months ending Aug. 31, 1889. They found the books in good order. A N.Y. World reporter had been by the previous day asking what was behind a portrait of Jason “Jay” Gould (1836-1892) in CY. Mr.
December 20 Friday – In Hartford, Sam replied to L.E. Parkhurst (incoming not extant) who evidently inquired about the illustration “The Slave Driver” in CY, which was a likeness of robber baron Jay Gould.
December 19 Thursday – In Hartford, Sam wrote compliments to Sylvester Baxter on his “admirable notice” in the Boston Herald for CY. He anticipated the visit of Baxter and Edward Bellamy on Jan. 3.
And I am so glad you said the appreciative word for Beard’s excellent pictures.
December 18 Wednesday – In Boston, William Dean Howells wrote a short note to Sam, enclosing “another letter from my old Tennessee woman” (unidentified) that was “full of fervor and most ‘fortimate’ inventions in spelling.” Howells thought Sam and Livy might want to see the letter and asked for its return [MTHL 2: 624]. Note: Sam would comment on the old woman’s letter in his Dec. 23 to Howells.
December 17 Tuesday – The N.Y. Times, p.2 “Authors’ Readings” included the entire text of Sam’s letter sent to the readings at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, explaining his reasons for not coming. Ex-Mayor Low read Sam’s letter, which complained that of “about twelve Authors’ readings,” not “a single one of them…was rationally conducted.” He decried the running over of allotted time by most readers.
Henry Whitney Cleveland wrote a follow up postcard to Sam:
December 16 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to George Dolby in London informing him that he’d written Henry M. Stanley in Zanzibar. Sam had read a newspaper report that Stanley might not remain in that country until spring, as previously reported. Sam asked Dolby to keep a copy of his letter and get it to Stanley should he reach London and fail to receive the original [MTP]. Note: Dolby had arranged Sam’s lecture schedule in London in Oct. 1873 (see Oct. 7, 1873 entry).
December 15 Sunday – In Boston, William Dean Howells wrote to Sam mentioning Baxter’s notice in the Boston Herald and graciously declining Sam’s invitation of Dec. 13 due to Elinor’s health.
December 14 Saturday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam about books offered the firm and his ideas for each: Henry Clews’ Twenty Eight Years in Wall Street; an authorize biography of Jefferson Davis by Colonel Scharf; and History of the Supreme Court of the United States, author not named [MTP].