Vol 3 Section 0355

when it is in my favor, but I am full of prejudices against it when it is the other way [MTP]. Note: the exchange rate at that time was approx. 4:1.

October 31 Tuesday – In London, England Sam replied to James B. Pond (incoming not extant):

No, no, write the book yourself—don’t pad it up with made-to-order puffs furnished by other people. No Pears’ soap business. If you are going to enter our profession you must keep up its dignity. Then I’ll wish you great & rich success! [MTP]. Note: Pond’s book, Eccentricities of Genius would be published by G.W. Dillingham Company, N.Y. in 1900.

Harper & Brothers wrote to Sam that they’d written Frank Bliss (copy enclosed) of no expectation of a royalty on the English deluxe editions Bliss was making for Chatto & Windus [MTP].

October, after – Mollie Clemens wrote to Sam.

Yours came yesterday, it is before me. Every word of each one is satisfactory. I thank you for the good news and dear Livy’s kindness. While I did not need the money for my personal comfort it will help me to get new glasses to help in relieving a sick widow (of my youngest brother who died of cancer of stomach four months after Orion died [MTP] Note: previously undated.

November – Sam’s article about the Hornet wreck, “My Debut as a Literary Person,” ran in the Nov. issue of Century Magazine. It was collected in My Debut as a Literary Person, with Other Essays and Stories (1903) [Budd Collected 2: 1004]. Note: See Feb. 25 entry. See also AMT 1: 127-44 and 501-6.

In London, England Sam wrote an aphorism to an unidentified person: “‘It is never too late to mend.’ There is no hurry. / Truly Yours/ Mark Twain / London, November, /99” [MTP].

James B. Pond’s article, “As to Mark Twain,” ran in The Philistine for Nov. p.174-7. Tenney: “Describes

MT’s warm heart, but resentment when his confidence was betrayed: ‘Once a lecture manager in New York, whom he trusted to arrange the details of a lecture in Steinway Hall, swindled him to the amount of some $1,500.00, & afterwards confesst it, offering restitution to that amount, it being Mark’s share of the plunder, but not until it had been discovered. They were on board ship at the time, and Mark threatened to throw the fellow overboard, and meant it, too, but he fled ashore. In “The Gilded Age” Mark immolated him. (Mr. Griller, Lecture Agent. Page 438. London Edition.) The fellow died soon afterwards, and James Redpath, who was a witness to the scene on the steamboat, and who knew the man well, insisted that “Mark’s” arrow killed him….’ Also, notes a parallel between U.S. Grant and MT in courage and integrity” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Fourth Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1980 p. 174].

Andrew W. Tuer (1838-1900) inscribed a copy of Stories from Old Fashioned Children’s Books, etc. to Sam: “To Mark Twain / from And. W. Tuer / with admiration & apologies./ p. XVI Intro: / Nov. 1899” [MTP]. Note: See also Gribben p.718. In July 1900 Sam inscribed this same book to Percy Spalding of Chatto & Windus. See entry.

November, early – In London Sam wrote to Pamela Moffett [MTP: letter by Pamela to Samuel E. Moffett Nov.

18]. Note: letters from London to California would take around 10 to 14 days, so this letter was likely written in early November; MTP catalogs it as “before Nov. 18”].

November 1 Wednesday – In London, England Sam replied to Edward Everett Hale’s note of Oct. 11. Hale (1822-1909) was an American author and Unitarian minister; Nathan Hale, Revolutionary hero executed by the British was his great uncle. Edward had written Sam about his article on Christian Science.

I thank you ever so much for your note.

SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.