October 21 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward House about P&P and the delay of his planned visit due to the “unholy decorators” and House’s attack of gout.
“I am mighty glad your first judgment of the book still holds good. The approval of competent minds is the main thing; I strongly want the book to achieve that; that it should sell well is a very much less important matter” [MTP].
October 20 Thursday – Sam and William J. Hamersley traveled to New York and met with Charles Webster at his engraving office [MTBus 171].
October 19 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood about illustrations for P&P, which had been delayed. Sam thought the canvassing book was “mighty handsome” [MTP].
October 18 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. All of Sam’s prior investment losses in inventions would pale next to the Paige typesetter debacle, which he wrote about:
Mr. Wm. Hammersley, [Hamersley] our City Attorney, will call on you at your Engraving office, at 10 o’clock Thursday morning.
October 17 Monday – Hartford Probate Court sent Sam a printed announcement postcard on the estate of John S. Ives [MTP]
October 16 Sunday – Kate (Kitty) D. Barstow (Mrs. William H. Barstow) wrote from Washington to Sam, who had not heard from her since she “suddenly disappeared from our sky” back in 1870, owing $157.40 for unpaid copies of IA. At that time Sam recommended her to Bliss as an agent for the sale of his books; ultimately he had to reimburse Bliss.
October 15 Saturday – Sam’s July 24 letter to the Australian public, ran in the Adelaide Observer (see July 24 entry).
Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Orion, that “his entire day” had:
…gone to the devil with answering letters…send us another sack of those big hickory nuts, like those that came a year or so ago [MTP]
October 14 Friday – Sam and Joe Twichell walked out to Talcott’s Tower, a wooden structure about five miles outside of Hartford. Sam related their talk in a letter to Howells the next day:
October 13 Thursday – In Belmont, Mass., Howells wrote a follow up of his Oct. 12. He hoped Sam wouldn’t think he was “meddling,” but marked some passages of P&P that he didn’t “think are fit to go into a book for boys,” that the picture Sam created “doesn’t gain strength” from them [MTHL 1: 376]
October 12 Wednesday – In Belmont, Mass., Howells wrote to Sam, sending some pages of P&P with his questions inserted while reading the work for review.