1 Piatt was responsible for “The Galaxy Club-Room” in the May–July 1871 numbers of the magazine. During April or May, Clemens acceded to his first request for a contribution (27 Mar 71 to Piatt, n. 1). In his letter of acknowledgement (now lost) Piatt surely requested further contributions and possibly informed Clemens of his intention to soon give up the editorship of the “Club-Room.” Clemens may have responded with this facetious letter—almost certainly after 15 May but before mid-June, by which time he would have seen the June and the July issues of the Galaxy. In the latter of these the “Club-Room” consisted largely of short, humorous items Piatt had gathered, many of them uninspired. Clemens’s letter to Piatt was independent of his response to Francis P. Church’s 13 June request for a contribution. Clemens sent “About Barbers” to Church for the August “Club-Room,” ostensibly edited by Piatt, but probably prepared by Church, who explained in a note:

By September, once he was convinced he would get no further contributions from Clemens, Church probably prepared this paraphrase of the letter to Piatt for the October “Club-Room.”