May 10 Monday – Sam bought a copy of Sir Gibbie, by his British friend, George MacDonald [Gribben 442]. Lindskoog compares Sir Gibbie and Huckleberry Finn, identifying twenty plot elements in common [28]. Sam also purchased Jane Austen’s (1831-1894) Mrs. Beauchamp Brown (1880) from the same bookseller, J.R. Barlow of Hartford for $1.00.
May 9 Sunday – Orion wrote from Keokuk, announcing he obtained a position as local news editor on the Keokuk Gate City. He would earn $13 a week to $15 if his work proved satisfactory, and hoped he might get to where he would not need Sam to send any more money. He would still work on his autobiography and send what he could every Monday [MTP].
May 8 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Bliss, denying ever having offered a free book to a man named Wood. “The book to Watson is all right. Wood is apparently a bloody fool” [MTLE 5: 100].
Thomas H. Murray wrote from McKinney, Tex. to Sam
May 7 Friday – Sam finished the May 6 letter to Howells. He’d had a telephone call from Warner that Howells could not come to Hartford due to his own trip to Washington, and Sam told him that he was “doing the right thing; when one is short for time, he should be free to alter arrangements with friends, without prejudice or cussedness” –language he claimed, humorously, that Livy used (he often ascribed his language to Livy).
May 6 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion, helping him with his “autobiography.” Sam added “…the elder Bliss has heart disease badly, & henceforth his life hangs upon a thread” [MTLE 5: 97].
May 5 Wednesday – Sam was invoiced $16.10 by the Put-In-Bay Island Wine Co., in Ohio for a half-barrel (24 & ½ gallons) of red wine. This company advertised N. American native varieties on their invoices: Catawba, Delaware, Norton’s Virginia, Ives, and Concord Grapes. Bill marked paid. Sam had this shipped to Cleveland, probably for the Fairbanks family [MTP].
May 4 Tuesday – Charles Howard Young wrote from Hartford, Mercier to Young Apr. 4 enclosed from Paris, thanking Sam for his autograph [MTP].
May 3 Monday – Christian Tauchnitz wrote from Leipzig. “Many thanks for your kind lines of March 15 and for the proofs of ‘The Tramps Abroad’ ” for which he agreed to pay 700 Marks [MTP].
Chatto & Windus wrote from London. In part:
“Dear Sir / We are on tenterhooks of anxiety for fear of a threatened unauthorised reprint of your ‘Tramp Abroad’ at a shilling, which we shall be powerless to oppose; but by keeping a bold front we hope to scare off intruders and so escape the danger” [MTPO].
May 2 Sunday – In Hartford, Sam inscribed a copy of A Tramp Abroad to Robert Howland: “With the affectionate remembrances of his ancient friend” [MTLE 5: 96].
May 1 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Chatto & Windus. Sam reaffirmed that he left the business end of publishing to others, to Bliss and his lawyer. He sadly explained how if he’d ordered the electrotypes in the beginning he couldn’t recall it. The TS bungle allowed Canadian pirates to bring out a cheap version two months ahead of the U.S.