September – Sam wrote a parody of the poem by James Leigh Hunt, “About Ben Adhem”. See Sam’s parody “Abou Ben Butler” [MTNJ 2: 372-3]. Sam’s second of three McWilliams sketches, “Mrs. McWilliams and the Lightning” ran in the September issue of the Atlantic Monthly [Wells 23]. Sam copied in his notebook John Sheffield’s famous quatrain:
Read Homer once, & you can read no more;
For all books else appear so mean, so poor;
August 31 Tuesday – Mary Keily finished her July 30 letter to Sam [MTP].
August 29 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Joe Twichell, about the baby and the family. The “stock-quotation of the Affection Board” was the priority the children put upon family and friends.
“Four weeks ago the children still put Mamma at the head of the list right along, where she had always been. But now: Jean / Mamma / Motley /Fraulein [last two are cats] / Papa.”
August 25 Wednesday – Estes & Lauriat of Boston billed Sam $150 for John James Audubon’s The Birds of America from Drawings made in the United States and Their Territories (1860) [Gribben 31]. The bill at MTP shows the plates in 1 volume folio, text in 4 volumes.
August 22 Sunday – Frank Soulé wrote from San Francisco to Sam, enclosed in Howells’ Oct. 31, asking for publishing help with a 200 page vol. of his poetry [MTP].
August 20 Friday – Sophie Degen billed Sam $37.50 for July and Aug. daily milk? deliveries. Bill marked paid [MTP].
August 19 Thursday – Sam wrote a letter from Elmira for baby Jean Clemens to Olivia Lewis Langdon for grandma’s birthday. He attached a lock of the baby’s hair.
August 18 Wednesday – Rose Terry Cooke (1827-1892), poet and prose writer, whose stories Sam admired, wrote from Winsted, Conn.
August 17 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Moncure Conway that the new baby was “3 weeks old, & neither she nor her mother is able to sit up yet.” Sam wasn’t certain of the date the family would return to Hartford but it would be “several weeks before” Conway sailed, and they could coordinate dates for the Conways to visit [MTLE 5: 145].
August 16 Monday – John M. Hay wrote from Wash. D.C. “Here is the Meisterstück. It got into such appreciative hands among the Campfire Club that it was read into rags…it is returned with thanks and laud [1601?]. I would I might see you one day. But I have no hopes until after 4th March week, when I quit the livery of office. / I congratulate you on your new baby” [MTP].