July 8 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to James B. Pond. He was impatient to contract with Cable, who didn’t jump at $350 per week. Sam didn’t want to consider others; evidently, Pond had suggested Thomas Nast:
“O damnation, I would rather pay Cable $450 a week & his expenses than pay Nast $300. I don’t enjoy roosting around & waiting.”
July 7 Monday – Richard Garvey (1843-1931) wrote on Missouri Wheel Co. letterhead, St. Louis:
Saml. L. Clemens Esq / Friend “Mark”
When yourself and a Companion left the “Quaker City” at Naples in July 67 and came to Rome you there met a young American who roomed at the Via Babuino #68 (Pincion Hill) it was his pleasure to show you some points of the Eternal City.
July 6 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, asking that Richard Irving Dodge’s book (he thought he’d only written one) be sent, though Sam couldn’t recall the exact title. (See Gribben 196-7.)
July 5 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to unidentified persons, who evidently had asked about the cheap (50 cent) paperbacks being advertised by the Coker Co.
“Dear Sirs—They are pirates—& unusually frank & bold, it seems to me. We are after them with a legal gun-boat” [MTP].
Sam wrote twice to Charles Webster:
July 4 Friday – In Boston, Howells wrote Sam that Webster had advised him that John T. Raymond accepted their terms for the new Sellers play. Webster had asked if Raymond could read the play, and Howells wanted to confirm it met with Sam’s approval. Sam answered affirmatively the next day [MTHL 2: 495].
July 3 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to James B. Pond, that he’d only “hitch teams” on the lecture circuit with George W. Cable, “So don’t throw out any feelers toward Riley or make any propositions to him” [MTP].
July 2 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, asking about illustrations not returned with the 1002d Arabian Night tale [MTP]. Note: The 131 pictures, called “grotesque drawings of his own composition” [MTS&B 88] were lost and have never been recovered.
July 1 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, wanting to know how much was paid for the elder Mr.
July ca. – Sam sent a letter of condolence to Ellen C. Taft (Mrs. Cincinnatus A. Taft) on the recent passing of her husband, the Clemens’ family doctor. Evidently Mrs. Taft and her daughter were leaving the area [MTP].
June 28 Saturday – In Elmira, Sam responded to Howells’ request of June 27 for payment of $2,000 on the work he’d done on the Library of Humor. Faced with mounting costs on the production of HF, the first book of Webster & Co., Sam begged off. Besides the financial pinch, Sam was in no mood to be generous.