1 The enclosed photograph has not been found, but it was doubtless a print, inscribed, of the same image Clemens sent to Jahu Dewitt Miller (see the next letter). Clemens gave Howells’s reply to this letter to Twichell, who preserved it in his journal (Twichell, 1:39):

Twichell kept his promise of a picture for the Howellses (see 18 Dec 74 to Howells, n. 2). Howells sent Olivia a copy of his recently published novel, A Foregone Conclusion (see 21 June 74 to Howells, n. 1; 8 Dec 74 to Howells, n. 4). Francis H. Underwood (1825–94), a Boston lawyer, editor, and author, had conceived of the Atlantic Monthly, helped found it in 1857, contributed fiction and reviews, and until 1859 served as assistant to its first editor, James Russell Lowell. Howells gave Underwood’s novel of “life in Kentucky,” Lord of Himself, a tolerant review in the Atlantic for September 1874 (Howells 1874, 362–63; Atlantic Index, 226). The “fish-symposium” was probably held at the Nautilus Club, site of another dinner attended by Howells, Underwood, Osgood, and Aldrich (12 Feb 75 to Osgood, n. 6; 1 Mar 75 to Howells, n. 1).