January 16 Thursday – Fatout lists a “talk or reading” for Sam at the Civic Club in Riverdale for this date [MT Speaking 669]. Note: though no particulars are given, a listing in Sam’s NB for 8.15 names the Club [NB 45 TS 2].

January 15 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “G.H. Crosby, 11 a m / Go to Mr. Rogers, dinner” [NB 42 TS 2]. Note: This is likely E.H. Crosby, not G.H., (Ernest Howard Crosby) active in the Anti-Imperialist League.

Samuel Lloyd Osbourne (1868-1947) wrote to Sam.

Lambs Club / New York City / Dear Mr. Clemens,

January 14 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edward W. Ordway in N.Y.C. “I only want to write. But that I shall get the time is not likely. I did hope I was going to get it, but that was a dream” [MTP]. Note: Ordway was active in the Anti-Imperialist League and had pulled some sort of vague promise from Sam to write a piece for the cause.

Sam also wrote to Howard E. Wright of the American Plasmon Co.:

January 13 Monday – Joe Twichell sent Sam a “Yale Alumni Association” printed notice about the Jan. 31 dinner. Joe lined through the bottom section which referred to price, and wrote “there’s no exploitation of M.T. in this, you see / Joe” [MTP].

January 12 Sunday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to William Dean Howells after receiving some poetry from Hydesaburo Ohashi, which he evidently enclosed here.

Say—Howells, don’t you want to discover a Japanese poet & introduce him to the public? It seems to me that his lines about the moon are poetry; also that the satire in the closing lines of the first paragraph exhibits a smart & calculated reserve not found every day in a beginner. …

January 11 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote a postcard to Ernest Howard Crosby of the New York Anti-Imperialist League, N.Y.C. “Make it 11 a.m. any day, but give me 24 hours’ notice by post, so that I may make no interfering arrangement” [MTP].

January 10 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frank Bliss, explaining his grievance against the Boston publisher Small & Maynard, and the letters he’d sent Jan. 9 to the 25 writers to determine which twelve had agreed to be contributors:

The publishers, without my consent, used my name to help advertise a book to which I had neither contributed nor been asked to contribute.

January 9 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam sent 16 form letters to writers (25 were named in the publisher’s list) to determine if they had been asked and did contribute a story to a proposed book (A House Party) by Small & Maynard, a Boston publisher. He was concerned that his name had been advertised as one of the writers without his permission. The recipients all answered in the affirmative: they had been invited to contribute. Thirteen responses survive;. These writers were: John K.

January 8 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to William Dean Howells that he’d lost the letter from Thomas Bailey Aldrich; he still had it the day before but now he couldn’t find it anywhere. He would keep looking [MTHL 2: 738]. Note: see Jan. 3.

January 7 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Brander Matthews: “There’s not a blamed thing in the way, except I’m mortgaged for a lunch already, on that day” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Francis H. Skrine in London:

“Although the Sir William biography, through the (possibly criminal) neglect of your publishers continues to not arrive, that doesn’t prevent these Clemenses from shouting Happy New Year in this most cordial voice across the Atlantic to those well-beloved Skrines.”