November – Gribben writes,

At the end of a list of books that Clemens read in London in November 1896 appears “2 Years in F. — Lytton Forbes” (NB 37, TS 26). Subsequently he quoted from Forbes’ book (merely citing “Forbes’s ‘Two Years in Fiji’”) in chapter 8 of FE (1897), where he presented Forbes’s account of two foreigners who mysteriously appeared in Fiji and whose homeland could never be determined. [235] Note: Arthur Forbes, Two Years in Fiji (1875).

Sam’s notebook refers to John Gerard’s new book, What Was the Gunpowder Plot? Which re-evaluated the evidence against Guy Fawkes (1570-1606) in a conspiracy against James I. Sam wrote:

A book is just out by a Cath priest which shows (proves) that history has done some large but awkward & unscientific lying in the G.F. matter [Gribben 256; NB 39 TS 20].

Also, Sam’s reading that he undertook in London during November included Arthur Nicols’ Wild Life and Adventure in the Australian Bush: Four Years’ Personal Experience (1887) [Gribben 508; NB 39 TS 26].

Another book in the Nov. list is Berthold Carl Seemann’s Viti: An Account of a Government Mission to the Vitian or Fijian Islands, in the Years 1860-1 (1862). Yet another book listed as recent reading in London, Alfred Russel Wallace’s Australasia (1878).