February 29 Monday – Miss Emily Katherine Bates (usually seen as E. Katherine Bates) English novelist, travel writer, member of the English Society for Psychical Research, wrote from Rome to Sam.
Dear Mr. Clemmens [sic] / I am writing to you instead of to Mrs Clemens because I think it may be easier to find you!
I wonder if either of you will remember having met me once at luncheon in England at the Albemarle Club when the late Mr. Frederic Meyers was our host & Sir Oliver Lodge and Mr. Andrew Lang were also present? Mr Meyers told me that you had kindly expressed a wish to see me again or I should not venture to recall myself of yr. recollection knowing what a large circle of friends you have & therefore how little time for passing acquaintances.
It seems to me however that we might have some subjects of interest in common & in any case it would be a great pleasure to me to see you & Mrs. Clemmens once more.
I knew you had returned to America shortly after our meeting & it was only yesterday that I chanced to hear from an American lady ‘en voyage’ that you were established for a time in a villa near Florence—I have no idea of the name, nor had she, so must trust to the good offices of the Poste Restante.
I have only just arrived in Rome & expect to be here for 2 or 3 weeks—Then I shall have to pass through Florence en route for Milan & Switzerland before returning to England—In any case I should spend a day in Florence to rest, not being very strong just now—
It would be a great pleasure if I thought there were any chance of our meeting there—say about the 3d. week in March—Perhaps at yr. leisure you or Mrs. Clemens would let me know yr. address & probable movements about that time— / With kind regards, believe me ….[MTP].
Note: Sam had Isabel Lyon write a note about this to Livy and she replied: see entry Mar. 1, after. Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge (1851-1940), English physicist. Lodge strove to reconcile science and religion and was an ardent believer in spiritualism and life after death.: Sam would quote Lodge in “Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes” (1905); see Gribben 415-16. Frederic William Henry Myers (1843-1901), English poet and psychical researcher, founded the Society for Psychical Research in 1882 (See Gribben p.495). Andrew Lang (remembered now mainly for his fairy tale collections) was also active in the Society. The Albemarle Club was a private and rather Bohemian club founded in 1874 open to both sexes. A scandal in 1895 involving Oscar Wilde and the Marquess of Queensberry led to the club’s disrepute and decline. The date of the luncheon mentioned was not determined, but Meyers died Jan. 17, 1901; it’s possible, though doubtful that Sam or the others would have visited the Albemarle after the scandal in 1895. Bates wrote her first novel in 1879.
Julie Lancashire wrote from Didsbury, England to Sam, hoping that he might pay a visit to Manchester upon his return to America [MTP].
Raffaele Simboli for Il Nuova Antologia (a prestigious Italian quarterly) wrote to Sam, sorry to hear he was ill and thankful for his “very kind letter.” (likely of Feb. 26) He would write to the photographer to go to Sam’s villa in a fortnight when he was “completely recovered” [MTP].