February 8 Monday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to to Frederick A. Duneka.
Yes, I prefer that you shall handle the Dog Tale in England. If Chatto inquires, I will explain. I suppose it will be sufficient to say that the Harpers proposed it & that our relations & interests are now so closely united that I naturally want to do anything which in their judgment is best for both.
My magazine work, all typewritten & nearly ready to start for New York a week ago, came to a sudden standstill through a curious episode early on Feb. 2d, whereby my secretary’s life was about frightened out of her—since which time she has lain half-conscious in her bed at home, & the doctors cannot foretell what the outcome will be. This, & Mrs. Clemens’s unfavorable condition have kept me moving day & night To-day we have changed physicians & we expect good results. I cabled New York last night & got the new physician’s address this morning, then discharged the other two doctors at noon to-day. Mrs. Clemens has not been out of her bed for 8 weeks, & we were getting very uneasy. When we first arrived here she was twenty times better than she is now.
I stopped the “Italian With Grammar,” at the last moment, because I wanted to knock out the last few hundred words & use the space thus acquired for a different & more satisfactory ending. I accomplished this the other night—between rushes—& it will do, now.
I am very glad indeed that the books are going well—they are certainly most handsomely advertised. With love to you & the Colonel,
[Added in margins:] Have you received “Sold to Satan”? I don’t find it here. I find “You’ve Been a Damfool” still here. I will send it. I am all balled up by Miss Lyon’s illness. / Miss Harrison will attend to those vouchers. I wrote her [MTP].
In New York, H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam:
I am in receipt of your favor of the 25th inst., together with the pictures of your Hotel and one of its guests. The guest really looks under-fed. Don’t get the reputation of starving people. In the dim distance I see a lady in white. Perhaps the lady has been saying things to the gentleman.
Sorry to hear that Mrs. Clemens does not improve as rapidly as you would wish. I trust, however, the warmer weather will be most beneficial.
Rogers then talked business, including a victory in a Montana suit and the court case in Boston that dragged on. He mentioned family developments. He concluded that a trip to Italy was out of the question as he was unable to get away from business. He also related the shock of the community upon the death of William C. Whitney, former Secretary of the Navy and financier after an appendectomy. He closed with a discussion of politics and how “everybody says that Mr. Roosevelt will be the man, but nobody wants him” [MTHHR 554-6].