Vol 3 Section 0956

But perhaps that was just as well, anyway, for as this is your last day in your office for the present you will need all your time in your own affairs, & you have placed mine in a position where a few days’ delay cannot hurt them.

But dead or alive I shall be in New York when you get back, & I will stay there. I know I did not need to tell you how to protect me from Bliss, but I just thought of that, & so I put it in without stopping to reflect that it would be superfluous [MTHHR 538-9].

         Rogers wrote to Sam Clemens.

I have just sent you the following despatch:

“I am compelled to go Fairhaven to-night, and hope to be back not later than Tuesday, although I may be detained because of the law suit. I conclude to send you Bliss’s letter by mail to-day. I have taken no further steps in the matter. Will write you.”

Herewith please find the letter from Mr. Bliss. Of course he is endeavoring now to get all that he can. The suggestion you make as to acquiring the business in the event of Harpers’ failure does not connect itself with the royalties under discussion. We can undoubtedly arrange that feature without paying much for it. The only ground that Bliss has for claiming that you waive royalties from July 1st lies in the fact that that was what you contemplated when the Collier arrangement was under consideration. We have made him a concession from the Collier plan by shortening the time of payments to practically eighteen months instead of twenty-four. However, I think all this can be left until we meet again. I think you had better plan to be here on Tuesday [Sept. 22].

I trust that Mrs. Clemens is improving, and that you are quite recovered from your bronchitis.

Rice has been with me for two nights. We had Colonel Paine on Wednesday night, and Lancaster, of Liverpool, last night. Booker Washington is going down to Fairhaven to-morrow on the yacht with Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin. …/ P.S. Since writing the above, Mr. Bliss has been calling us up, but I told him there was nothing further to say at present. Evidently he is a little uneasy [MTHHR 539-40].

In Florence, Italy, George Gregory Smith wrote to Sam about possible Villas for lease. He added another letter, dated Sept. 20, which is also in the file [MTP].

September 19 Saturday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edward W. Bok.

Whenever it is lawful to issue those photographs I’d like to have 33 of them, according to the accompany numbered list, usual discount off to orphans & authors, & the bill to be sent to me, at the above address (by the end of this month if possible). After which we go to New York, & 3 weeks later to Italy.

If it is Mr. Marr that must furnish them, I beg you to send him this letter & list as I do not know his address [MTP]. Note: Thomas E. Marr, Boston photographer.

Sam also wrote to an unidentified person mentioning “those two sittings” (likely for Thomas E. Marr)

[MTP: Anderson Auction Co. catalog 29 Jan. 1912, Item 26].

September 20 Sunday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Livy at Quarry Farm.

Dear, dear sweetheart, I have been thinking, & examining, & searching & analysing, for many days, & am vexed to find that I more believe in the immortality of the soul than disbelieve in it. Is this inborn, instinctive,

      ineradicable, indestructible? Perhaps so. I will put it out of my mind. Not that I object to being immortal, but that I do not know how to accommodate the thought, nor how to give it welcome. As to what to do with it—well, that I will not bother about, it must take care of itself. It at least cannot appal me, for I will not allow myself to believe that there is disaster connected with it. In fact, no one, at bottom, believes that; not even the priests that preach it.

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