May 16 Wednesday – John Habberton (1842-1921), for 20 years the literary and dramatic critic for the N.Y. Herald, and author of the Sam-detested Helen’s Babies (1876), wrote to Sam offering a 100,000 word war book, “with scarcely a sign of a battle in it, but full of life and incidents over which the old boys of both armies chat most” [MTNJ 3: 390n308]. Sam, no doubt prejudiced by Habberton’s earlier work, declined.
May 15 Tuesday – Hartford doctor Nathan Mayer wrote to thank Sam. “May Mrs. Clemens be much benefited and strengthened” [MTP].
Andrew Chatto wrote to Sam: “I have replied to Herr von Kirschbaum of Posen, whose letter you sent me informing him on your behalf that we would give him authority to translate” P&P “into German for the small sum of £15” [MTP].
May 14 Monday – Sam’s notebook: 4143, Wm Bryan & sons May 14. — $80.20 [MTNJ 3: 385].
Miss Winifred G. Dawson wrote from Montreal to thank Sam for the picture of his cats [MTP].
Webster & Co., per Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam that Dr. Wallace Wood, author of The Hundred Greatest Men had been by with an idea for a series of greatest lawyers, theologians, etc. [MTP].
May 13 Sunday – Zadel Barnes Gustafson wrote from N.Y. to Sam asking to borrow $5,000 [MTP].
May 12 Saturday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam:
“I have made the corrections in the letter to General Howard, and it will go forward to-day” [MTHL 2: 246n6]. Hall also informed: “The ‘Library of American Literature,’ ten volumes, is going well…. I think this book is going to pan out big eventually, as the results attained so far have come without any particular pushing” [MTNJ 3: 361]. Note: The sales of this work were always disappointing, not offsetting the costs.
May 11 Friday – L.H. Hallock of Portland, Maine wrote a follow up hoping to “receive a word from you touching ‘National Reforms’ for our Congregational Club” [MTP].
May 10 Thursday – Charles J. Langdon wrote to Sam, enclosing a draft for $3,649.85 [MTP].
M.N. Mallison, a journalist, wrote from Brooklyn asking to see Sam; he was going to London in June and wanted “a little advise concerning persons and things in London” [MTP].
May 9 Wednesday – John Roddye wrote to ask Sam’s help to get his 950-line poem published [MTP].
May 8 Tuesday – Francis Hopkinson Smith wrote to Sam that it was “delicious to know” he was “all light” with a “copper lining” after a recent feast [MTP].