December – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Eduard Pötzl in Vienna that he could not “write articles for anybody but Harper’s Magazine—it’s a contract.” Sam conveyed that they thought of and spoke of him often and sent Christmas greetings [MTP].
Clara Clemens wrote of her father’s new status as a sought-after sage on almost any topic and life in the 10th Street house:
And once settled, Father was overwhelmed by an exhibition of the most sensational kind of cordiality from the public, press, and friends. One could never begin to describe in words the atmosphere of adulation that swept across his threshold. Every day was like some great festive occasion. One felt that a large party was going on and that by and by the guests would be leaving. But there was no leaving. More and more came. And the telephone rang so steadily that the butler got no time for other work, except when the faithful Katie offered to relieve him, and reduce a little at the same time, by carrying telephone messages up and down the stairs to Father’s study. It always puzzled me how Mark Twain could manage to have an opinion on every incident, accident, invention, or disease in the world. Merely to read the newspapers enough for a shadowy acquaintance with the bigger topics of the day would have been difficult, considering the many social engagements he had daily, but the questions asked him by the newspaper reporters were by no means limited to important affairs [MFMT 120].
William Dean Howells’ article, “The New Historical Romances,” ran in this issue of North American Review, p.935-48. Tenney: “On p. 946, calls MT ‘our greatest romancer’ and praises CY for its true representation of humanity. ‘His historical fiction is as nobly anarchical as most historical fiction is meanly conventional in the presence of all that wrong which calls itself vested right; and the moral law is as active in that fascinating dream world which he has created as it is in this waking world, where sooner or later every man feels its power. I like Mark Twain’s historical fiction above all for this supreme truth, just as I like Tolstoy’s’” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Second Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1978 p. 169]. Note: Howells took a lot of knocks for his support of Tolstoy.
Current Literature (NY) ran an anonymous article, “General Gossip of Authors and Writers,” p. 708-10. Tenney: “…summarizes ‘a tribute in the New York Times’ by Major J.B. Pond, who describes MT’s world lecture tour and praises his personal traits” [31].