Vol 3 Section 0766
July 17 Thursday — Harper & Brothers, sent a royalty statement to Mrs. Clemens totaling $5,358.24 due on Nov. 1, 1902 [MTP]. Sam wrote on the env. “Statement to July ’02. (not including sets) $5,400. Preserve”; this was mailed July 17 but dated June 30.
July 18 Friday – In York Harbor, Sam wrote to an unidentified person. The Camperdown Chronicle of Victoria, Australia, p.5, carried this article, which contains Sam’s reply to a gentleman who had discovered a library in Venice, Italy containing thousands of books yet only one in English, LM.
York Harbor, July 18.—Dear Sir.—I thank you very much. That book is even more flatteringly isolated than was one a stranger wrote me about, years ago, from the Far West. He said: ‘In a 400-mile horseback ride through the cattle domain I found but a solitary two books among the cowboys—“The Innocents Abroad” and the Bible.’ And he added, ‘The Bible was in good condition.’—Very truly yours, Mark Twain.
Frank Bliss wrote to Sam from the Grand Union Hotel in N.Y.C. reporting he’d written the Harpers asking for a satisfactory date for him to publish the “Double- barrelled Detective Story”. He was also trying to resolve the Underwood-Newbegin problem and would stay in town to do so [MTP].
July 19 Saturday – Speaker Magazine, p. 441-2 , ran a review of “A Double Barrelled Detective Story.” Tenney: “Chiefly descriptive: ‘…shows Mark Twain’s weaknesses as well as his strengths, but at its worst is a story that ought not to be missed’” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Third Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1979 p. 187].
July 20 Sunday
July 21 Monday
July 22 Tuesday
July 23 Wednesday – Frank Bliss wrote to Sam, that he had to come home (Hartford) “to attend to some matters, but I send this note to let you know that I got that option alright & will see you in course of a couple of days in regard to [it]” [MTP].
American Publishing Co. sent a draft to Livy for $7,364.36, which included $793.35 for sales of old edtions, $4,101.56 for Underwood sets edition, $2,500 colected on sales of “fine limited edtions”—all less $30.55 on books charged [MTP].
July 24 Thursday – Frederick A. Duneka wrote to Sam, enclosing a check for $4,669.20 on the six-book set sold up to June 30, with projected $11,000 additional royalties due Dec. 31, making the total for 1902 of about $16,565.60 [MTP].
July 25 Friday – Livy wrote a short note to Frank Bliss: “The semi-yearly statement and the check for seventy three hundred and sixty four & 36/100 dollars is safely rec’d.Thank you for it” [MTP].
July 26 Saturday – Jean Clemens’ 22nd birthday.
July 27 Sunday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Paul Kester in Accotiuk, Va..
I will refer you to Mr. Erlanger and Miss Marbury. I have told Mr. [Abraham] Erlanger that I would not sanction a Tom Sawyer play until after the staging of Huck Finn (Nov. 2/02) & not then without talking with him about it first. I mention Miss Marbury because she is my agent, & such matters properly pass through her hands [MTP].
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.