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.
June 27 Friday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam, asking if it were “wholly convenient” he’d like to be paid $2,000 on account for his Library of Humor work [MTHL 2: 492].
June 26 Thursday – Homeopathic Doctor Cincinnatus A. Taft died in Hartford at the age of 64. Four decades before he’d been diagnosed with “one lung gone” and given six months to live by two of the best physicians in the country. Taft’s autopsy revealed that his lungs were both perfect, but that he died from a stomach ailment [N.Y. Times, “THE DOCTORS MISTAKEN” June 30 p1].
June 25 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, correcting a drawing of Kemble’s:
“…on the pilot house of that steamboat-wreck he artist has put TEXAS—having been misled by some of Huck’s remarks about the boat’s ‘texas’—a thing which is part of every boat. ….that particular boat’s name was Walter Scott, I think” [MTP].