February – The London Bookman p. 151-2 reviewed TS,D: “We have liked Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn better in other circumstances,” but there are “much feebler things” in the book: “In ‘Adam’s Diary’ Mark Twain is at his feeblest and vulgarest; he fell no lower in ‘A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur’” [Tenney 26].

Gilbert Burgess wrote to Sam sometime during the month, hoping that sometime during Sam’s stay he might accept honorary membership (club not specified); he would “receive a very hearty welcome” [MTP]. Note in file to see 3 Mar 1897 to Burgess; this likely in response.

Baetzhold writes, One day in February, 1897, another old friend and fellow-author, Poultney Bigelow, persuaded Clemens to take tea with the Bigelow’s neighbor, Lady Mary Monkswell. Lady Mary’s diary account, besides presenting a brief portrait of the humorist, suggests the sort of occasion he enjoyed during these dark days. To make “the dear old man” feel at home, the hostess “carelessly” arranged two or three of his books on the table next to where he would sit. Since he had requested that there be no other guests because he was in mourning for “a lost daughter,” she warned her brother Henry (who was paying his weekly call) to pretend that he lived there with her. The event proved entirely successful. Clemens stayed more than an hour, regaling them with tales of ghosts, and dwelling upon the appeal of “the old legends.” Commenting upon the charm of her guest’s manner, Lady Mary further described him as “about 60, very thin & small…with a profusion of fair hair turned nearly white, a refined, keen face & glittering eyes,” and that he spoke slowly and incisively “with a very strong American accent.” And she doubted that his “eagle eye” had missed the carefully placed books [MT and John Bull 197: Baroness Mary Josephine Hardcastle Collier Monkswell, A Victorian Diarist: later extracts from the journals of Mary lady Monkswell ed. by E.C.F. Collier (1946)].