May 26 Friday – Harriet P. Spofford wrote to Sam [MTP].

May 17 Wednesday – Elisha Bliss replied to Sam’s May 15.

      Your favor recd. Am glad to hear from you. Sorry to hear you are not going to call on us to day. However it may be for the best as I think you are in the mood to do good work, at which I heartily rejoice—

      Glad to know you are so pressed with overtures for work.

May 15 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Elisha Bliss, acknowledging receipt of $703.35 royalties of some 3,800 sales of IA (Bliss’ letter not extant). The book was going well, and his daily output even exceeded his best on the Innocents book, going over 30 pages of manuscript daily. The inspiration had found Sam and he “couldn’t bear to lose a single moment” of it.

May 14 Sunday – In a bound scrapbook with autographic comments in Sam’s handwriting, dated 1869, there is an entry with this date. The scrapbook calls for “mental” photographic statements and even has a place for an actual photograph, though none is included in the book. Sam answers a series of questions; this is similar to other “surveys” he answered about his favorites and preferences:

May 12 Friday – Frank Bliss wrote to Sam, sending a royalty check for $703.35 [MTP].

May 11 Thursday – James Florant Meline (1811-1873), author of Two Thousand Miles on Horseback: Santa Fe and Back (1867) wrote from Brooklyn asking for publication help in the form of a letter of introduction to Elisha Bliss [MTP]. Note: not in Gribben.

May 8 Monday – Joe Twichell wrote from Hartford to Sam, opening with what Twain would undoubtedly call “drivel” and then asking what had become of him? “Pray let us hear from you soon” [MTP].

May 7 Sunday ­– Horace Greeley wrote to Sam on NY Tribune letterhead. See MTB p 437 for facsimile of the letter with Greeley’s scrawl and Paine’s comments [MTP].

May 5 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Henri Gerard, a boy who sent Sam a copy of his newspaper, the “Comet.” Sam declined to submit material for the paper but praised the boy’s work and sent him a dollar for 3 subscriptions, one of which he sent to his nephew, Sammy Moffett in Fredonia [MTL 4: 389].

May 3 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Elisha Bliss about Bliss possibly publishing a book from Edward (Ned) House of the New York Tribune, who was in Japan. Sam enclosed House’s letter. He also announced his book was half done (Roughing It) [MTL 4: 389].

Sam’s letter to the editor, “A Substitute for Rulloff,” dated Apr. 29, ran in the New York Tribune [Camfield, bibliog.; MTPO].