August 30 Saturday – Charles Webster wrote to Clemens: “It seems impossible to make any arrangement whereby the other Gen. Agts. Can sell ‘Huck Finn’ and ‘Tom Sawyer’ together, at a reduced price…” [MTP].
August 24 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to George Iles, Montreal editor:
“I am on the warpath next winter, with George W. Cable—that is to say, on the platform. Therefore I dasn’t accept your & the Snowshoe Club’s kind invitation, for I shan’t know for some time, yet, whether my route is going to carry me through Montreal during the Carnival or not…” [MTP].
August 23 Saturday – James B. Pond wrote from Cottage City, Mass. The circular “brings hundreds of inquiries. All my letters are about Clemens & Cable” [MTP].
August 22 Friday – William M. Laffan for the New York Sun wrote to advise Clemens: “I put her into type and I think her highly amusing and seasonable. She’s on the Boss’s proofs and, I take it, is going in on Sunday” (in the file a copy typeset of “Hunting for H——” unsigned) [MTP].
August 21 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Karl Gerhardt, advising him to get letters of introduction from “Warner; he knows everybody in Washington…” [MTP].
August 19 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, asking for a copy of the Sellers as a Scientist play. Ask Howells or look in the:
“…safe in the billiards room. There must be a copy somewhere. I’m going to elaborate it into a novel. /Gerhardt is completing a most excellent bust of me.”
August 16 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, who evidently had advised that the furnace improvements in the Hartford house could be done for $750. Sam approved, but dictated that no workmen need to go up into the house from the cellar [MTP].
August 15 Friday – Bissell & Co. wrote to Clemens that the Am. Express in Europe would look up his dividend and advise [MTP].
August 14 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster—more about the Huck Finn proofs “If all the proofs had been as well read as the first 2 or 3 chapters were, I should not have needed to see the revises at all. On the contrary it was the worst & silliest proof-reading I have ever seen. It was never read by copy at all—not a single galley of it.” He added that the game had only a year to file patent; see Oct. 9 entry [MTP].
August 13 Wednesday – Bissell & Co. wrote to Clemens trying to reconcile his account [MTP].