Vol 3 Section 0672

twelve authors of the stories selected for the book and won $1,000 [MTP]. Note: Sam thought the contest

fraudulently used his name; he sent out his own polling letter on the way it was administered.

January 12 Sunday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to William Dean Howells after receiving some poetry from Hydesaburo Ohashi, which he evidently enclosed here.

Say—Howells, don’t you want to discover a Japanese poet & introduce him to the public? It seems to me that his lines about the moon are poetry; also that the satire in the closing lines of the first paragraph exhibits a smart & calculated reserve not found every day in a beginner. …

I cannot claim to know poetry when I see it, but instinct moves me to think that the talent must be in this Jap, else how could he project even the semblance of it into an alien tongue but partially mastered? [MTHL 2: 739]. Note: see also Gribben p.515 under Ohashi.

In N.Y.C. William Dean Howells wrote to Sam responding to his Jan. 8 letter:

Don’t worry (not that I suppose you would) about Aldrich’s letter. It will be sure to turn up, unless some one has taken it and is trying to unset the jewels and sell them for the value of the stones.

I hope you are surely coming to the Brander Matthews lunch next Saturday; I like now and then to see

you.

Howells included a paragraph on his daughter Pilla, who had left for Bermuda after a successful calendar design that had sold 5,000 copies [MTHL 2: 739-40]. Note: Howells’ plea about the Matthews luncheon implies Sam did not attend the Jan. 9 luncheon at Moretti’s.

Margaret Deland in Boston, wrote to Sam, returning his “House Party” form letter; yes, she’d been invited to contribute a story; no she had not done so [MTP]. Note: postmarked Jan. 12.

January 13 Monday – Joe Twichell sent Sam a “Yale Alumni Association” printed notice about the Jan. 31 dinner. Joe lined through the bottom section which referred to price, and wrote “there’s no exploitation of M.T. in this, you see / Joe” [MTP].

January 14 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edward W. Ordway in N.Y.C. “I only want to write. But that I shall get the time is not likely. I did hope I was going to get it, but that was a dream” [MTP]. Note: Ordway was active in the Anti-Imperialist League and had pulled some sort of vague promise from Sam to write a piece for the cause.

Sam also wrote to Howard E. Wright of the American Plasmon Co.:

I forgot to ask you to give me the name & address of the best gout specialist you know. My wife is a victim of that disorder.

Tell me. Will the American Plasmon Co open books now & call for subscriptions to the stock? I wish to put three friends in, they to hold the stock 14 months & then hand it over to me at what it cost them if

they don’t want it [MTP]. Note: The American Plasmon Co. would be reorganized from the Plasmon Syndicate in March.

Ernest Shipman of Shipman Brothers wrote to Sam.

The season has not been very good for “Pudd’nhead Wilson” and we fear we are going to be stuck for quite a few of those lithographs of yourself, and have taken advantage of the popular demand for them, by disposing of some of them as a work of art.

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