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].

Sam inserted a note inside a copy of FE, probably to his publishers: “Please make a map &
mark on it the courses steered during the 4,000 miles. SLC” [MTP: Sotheby’s catalogs, Apr. 30,
1975, No. 3478, Item 292]. Note: place unknown, but FE published in Nov. 1897.

Sometime from Sept. 27 to Dec. 31 Sam inscribed a copy of FE to Daniel Carter Beard:
“Truly Yours, Mark Twain. Vienna, 1897” [MTP: Swann Galleries Inc. catalogs, Apr. 6, 1950,
No. 258, Item 296]. Note: The Clemenses arrived in Vienna on Sept. 27 [Sept. 29 to Barr].

Sam also inscribed FE to an unidentified person: “Truly Yours / Mark Twain / Vienna, 1897”
[MTP].
Sam also inscribed his photograph with an aphorism to Friedrich Eckstein (1861-1939):

“It is one’s human environment that makes climate. / Truly Yours Mark Twain” [Dolmetsch
271].

Note: Dolmetsch calls Eckstein “a charming, affable dilettante who visited Mark Twain in
Hartford in the early 1880s” and had “fascination with Eastern cultures by traveling widely in
the Middle East and India” [272]. No record of the Hartford visit has yet been found.

Sometime in 1897 in Vienna Sam signed a silk fan of a countess. The fan included other
luminaries’ signatures, such as Sarah Bernhardt in 1893; Felix Dahn (1834-1912, German
historian & novelist); Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945, Italian composer; Bronislaw Huberman
(1882-1947 Polish violinist); Ruggerio Leoncallavo (1858-1919, Italian composer); and
Queen Mary in Salzburg 1901 [ABE books, Sophie Dupre Bookseller Apr. 18, 2009].

Sometime in 1897 in Vienna, Sam used “Vienna Albumen” as it was then called (later
“Plasmon”) to cure a “fiendish dyspepsia of 8 years standing.” He would unsuccessfully try to
invest in Plasmon in 1898, and finally did so in early Mar. 1900 [Apr. 8-9, 1900 to Rogers].
Note: dyspepsia is indigestion.

Sam also wrote to Robert Barr (Luke Sharp)

Let’s leave it where it is, Robert. You know there are some offences that exceed the reach of
compromise. And certainly, trial on a grave charge, verdict rendered on the testimony of a
single witness, & followed by the disgrace of a public posting is one of these. / Yours,

Yesterday, to-day & always / Mark [MTP]. Note: this letter was published in facsimile in the
Sept. 1903 issue of The Pilgrim.

Library of the World’s Best Literature, Charles Dudley Warner, ed., contained a section titled,
“Mark Twain” (p.3787-89). Tenney: “An introduction to excerpts from LOM, CY, and P&P,
emphasizing MT as an important writer as well as ‘the first of living humorists.’ The passages
are selected to support the claim for his place as a writer who, ‘if the fashion of humor
changes…will remain for other qualities—certain primordial qualities such as are exhibited in
his work on the Mississippi—a force to be reckoned with in the literature of this century ’”
[25].

SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.
2

1897

A Woman’s Part in a Revolution by Natalie Hammond (Mrs. John Hays Hammond) , p.152
carries a description of Mark Twain’s visit to the prisoners in Pretoria, May 23, 1896 (see
entry) [Tenney 26-7: The Twainian (Jan-Feb 1958, p.1-3)].

Cheiro’s Language of the Hand included a plate on p.167 of Mark Twain’s right hand, showing
the lines. “Cheiro’s reading is not given, but MT’s response to it is on the second page of the
Appendix (p. 224)”

[Tenney: “A Reference Guide Second Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism,
Autumn 1978 p. 169]. See entries MTDBD Vol. 2 on Cheiro.

Kings of the Platform and Pulpit by Melville D. Landon (“Eli Perkins”) included, “Mark
Twain: Biography and Reminiscences,” p. 348-51. Anecdotal recollection by R.E. Morris of
Hannibal. Tenney questions some of the references given [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Third
Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1979 p. 185].

American Humourists, Recent and Living, by Robert Ford, London (1897) contains a chapter
on Mark Twain (written in 1895; p. 32-60) and eighteen other humorists. Ford calls Artemus
Ward “the foremost of American humorists, and the founder of a school which Mark Twain has
continued and carried to unparalleled success…is far more able, more literary, more intellectual
of the two…” Ford also claimed that Sam’s 1872 lectures in London had not caused “any
particular stir, such as was created by Artemus Ward” [Google books online: accessed Sept. 18,
2010]. Tenney: “In a conventional discussion, much of it quotation from MT’s works, says he is
indebted to Artemus Ward for his comic style of exaggeration and feigned solemnity, though
‘far more able, more literary, more intellectual.’ ‘He occupies a greater space in literature…
being far and away the more accomplished man of letters, having a wider sweep of mental
vision, and possessing a much more vividly imaginative intellect’” [MTJ Bibliographic Issue
Number Four 42:1 (Spring 2004) p.7].

Famous Authors and the Best Literature of England and America, by William Wilfred
Birdsall and Rufus M. Jones included “Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain),” p. 507-511. “A
laudatory, conventional, and party accurate brief sketch of MT’s life and works precedes “Jim
Smiley’s Frog” (only the frog tale), an excerpt from GA, and MT’s speech on “The Babies”
(incomplete) [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Fourth Annual Supplement,” American Literary
Realism, Autumn 1980 p. 173].

Sometime before Apr. 3, Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), German composer, pianist, wrote to
Livy in German expressing regret that he would be unable to accept their invitation for Sunday [MTP].
Note: Brahms would die in Vienna on Apr. 3.