August 17 Monday – At noon in Guildford, Sam finished his Aug. 16 letter to Livy.
Monday noon. Chatto is evidently off on his vacation. I do not hear from him.
I enclose a letter received this morning, about the photos. It has no signature, but I suppose it is from Miss Blood — so I have answered it.
August 18 Tuesday – At 7:07 p.m. in Hartford, Olivia Susan (Susy) Clemens, age 24, died of spinal meningitis in the Farmington Ave. house [MTA 37; Sept. 6 to Hutton]. Katy Leary, longtime servant and helper to the family, was with her, as was Charles Langdon and Sue Crane. Joe Twichell had come from the Adirondacks to comfort Susy, but it’s not clear if he was with her at the end (see Sept.
August 19 Wednesday – In Guildford, England, Sam wrote two notes to Andrew Chatto, the first before receiving news of Susy’s death, the second afterward. First,
August 21 Friday – In Guildford, England Sam wrote again to Livy.
August 22 Saturday – The S.S. Paris arrived in New York. Clara Clemens recalled the events:
August 23 Sunday – Thomas Kinnicut Beecher, minister of the Park Church in Elmira, conducted the funeral of Olivia Susan (Susy) Clemens in the Langdon home. Susy was laid to rest at Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira. Livy, Jean, and Clara Clemens were all at the graveside, along with Sue Crane and members of the Langdon clan.
August 24 Monday – Sam and Robert S. Smythe went house-hunting [Aug. 25 to Livy].
Poultney Bigelow sent a letter of condolence about Susy’s death [MTP].
August 25 Tuesday – In Guildford, England Sam wrote to Livy:
Livy darling, your cablegram came yesterday [not extant] asking after my health. I was unspeakably glad to get it, for it swept away a fast-gnawing burden of apprehension concerning your own state; I judged that its inner meaning was a message to me to say “Do not be uneasy about me.”
August 26 Wednesday – In Guildford, England Sam began a letter to Livy that he finished Aug. 28.
August 28 Friday – In Guildford, England Sam finished his Aug. 26 letter to Livy:
Noon, Friday. There is yet time to add a line before posting this for tomorrow’s steamer.
August 29 Saturday – In Guildford, England Sam began a letter to Livy that he finished Aug. 30.
I wonder if she left any little message for me, any little mention, showing that she thought of me. I was not deserving of it, I had not earned it, but if there was any such word left behind for me, I hope it was saved up in its exact terms & that I shall get it.
August 30 Sunday – In Guildford, England Sam finished his Aug. 29 letter to Livy.
Sunday, mid-afternoon, 30th. Not a line yet, not a single line. It seems as if I cannot bear it.
The Human is a Fool, Hypocrite & Humbug – Contract at Last
London: “Chartless, Adrift Derelicts”– Victoria’s Jubilee – Orion Dies
N.Y. Herald Fund – Twain’s Death an Exaggeration – Peaceful Weggis & Writing Vienna &
“Leschy” for Clara – Stirring Times in Austria – FE Published
1897 – Sam recorded he was paid $11,398.65 this year by the American Publishing Co and
noted “Equator” by the entry. He estimated the Co. “cleared say $3,000” [NB 46 TS 17].
December 1 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook entry: Slam at Geoffrey Hamlyn [Gribben 374; NB 39 TS 29]. Note: see Jan. 8, 1896 entry about this book of Henry Kingsley. Another entry: Trials of Mutinous Convicts (book) [Gribben 713; NB 39 TS 28]. Note: this is an unidentified book titled, Trials of Mutinous Convicts.
December 12 Saturday – In London Sam wrote to Col. Andrew Burt whom he’d met at Ft. Missoula on the American leg of his world tour. As were most of his letters from this period, the stationery bore a black mourning border.
We are miserable in our oldest daughter’s death. She died while Mrs. Clemens and Clara were flying (a figure of speech) to her across the Atlantic. She would not have died if we had been there [Koelbel 64].
December 13 Sunday Sam’s notebook for this day:
December 18 Friday – In London Sam wrote through Livy to Chatto & Windus.
Will you kindly send me eight cloth copies of “Joan” two of The Prince & Pauper & two of the Yankee at the Court of King Arthur & charge to my account [MTP].
Sam also wrote to H.H. and Emilie R. Rogers, now blaming Hartford people for Susy’s death.
This is a line to wish you Merry Christmas.
December – Sometime during the month Sam wrote through Livy to Chatto & Windus asking if they’d send him Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery, and charge it to his account [MTP].
Sam also inscribed a copy of Tom Sawyer, Detective (Chatto & Windus 1897) to Bram Stoker: To B.S. from M.T. with warm regards. London, December, 1896 [MTP].
December 19 Saturday – In London Sam added a PS to his Dec. 18 letter to Franklin G. Whitmore, that he’d forgotten to direct the disconnection of certain electric lights on the ombra and in front of Patrick McAleer’s quarters at the Farmington Ave. house.
December 22 Tuesday – In London Sam wrote to Laurence and Eleanor V. Hutton.
I am powerful glad you have spared that poor girl [Helen Keller] over the shoal place. I had every confidence that Mr. & Mrs. Rogers would be found ready for business when the watch was called.
Sam also expressed surrender about the piece, “The Californian’s Tale”:
December 23 Wednesday — Livy wrote to Chatto & Windus, “Will you kindly place to my credit in the City Bank, Old Bond St. one hundred pounds (£100.) deducting the same from the four hundred pounds I have in your hands” [MTP].
December 24 Thursday – In London Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus:
December 25 Friday – Christmas – In London Sam wrote in his notebook:
LONDON, 11.30 Xmas morning. The Square & adjacent streets are not merely quiet, they are dead. There is not a sound. At intervals a Sunday-looking person passes along. The family have been to breakfast. We three sat & talked as usual, but the name of the day was not mentioned. It was in our minds, but we said nothing [MTB 1027].
December 28 Monday
Livy wrote to Mary Mason Fairbanks in Providence, R.I., a letter which seems like a response to one not extant from Mary.
We are going on as well as we can. We even talk to each other and smile and perhaps a stranger coming in would not see that we are a broken-hearted family, yet such we are and such I think we must always remain. This is of course the first terrible staggering blow that we have had and I realize that for me there can be but one worse.
December 30 Wednesday – A man with an indecipherable signature from Ad. Goerz & Co. of Berlin (in London) wrote to Sam noting he was sorry to have missed him “the other day” when Sam called.
Sam wrote on the envelope, “New Zealand & Austral. / unpubl.” [MTP].