May 2 Thursday – In Paris, the Clemenses may have attended a play in the evening, the “Mr Mapes’s play” referred to in his May 1 to Miss Goodridge. Several other letters in this period do not reveal the answer. Mr. Mapes may have been related to Mary Mapes Dodge.
At the Hotel Brighton, Sam also wrote to Poultney Bigelow, who evidently upon learning of the failure of Webster & Co., had sent a check for a thousand dollars. Sam couldn’t keep it:
May 1 Wednesday – At the Hotel Brighton, Paris, France Sam wrote to Miss Goodridge, declining an invitation for Livy and him to dine on May 3. He pled being “gout-smitten once more, not able to put my foot to the floor all this day,” and he doubted what his condition would be by then. Another engagement also entered into his decision:
May – In Paris before May 12, Sam inscribed a copy of P&P to F.S. Reynolds: To / Mr. F.S. Reynolds / with the compliments of / The Author. / Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economise it. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / Paris, May/95 [MTP].
April 29 Monday – In Paris at 169 rue de l’Universite, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers. All the trunks and family had left Sam behind in the empty house:
I have been hidden an hour or two, reading proof of Joan, and now I think I am a lost child. I can’t find anybody on the place. The baggage has all disappeared, including the family. I reckon that in the hurry and bustle of moving to the hotel [Brighton] they forgot me. But it is no matter. It is peacefuller now than I have known it for days and days and days.
April 28 Sunday – In Paris at 169 rue de l’Universite, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, announcing that the arrangements for the down under, India and South Africa tour had been made. He was still concerned about creditors hounding him if he lectured in the U.S. — if he could get away with it he would sail from Vancouver, B.C. Aug. 16 without succumbing to them. On the matter of his Uniform Edition:
April 26 Friday – In Paris at 169 rue de l’Universite, Sam wrote two paragraphs to Francis de Winton a friend of the Marquis of Lorne who later was appointed by King Leopold to take Henry M. Stanley’s place in the Congo. He was a recognized authority of central Africa. Sam announced his world tour that he’d signed an agreement for the day before (Apr. 25), and mentioned Stanley and other friends who’d given him letters of introduction for the tour.
April 25 Thursday – At 4 a.m. in Paris at 169 rue de l’Universite, Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow:
April 23 Tuesday – In Paris at 169 rue de l’Universite, Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper, about the planned Uniform Edition of his works, about a 3,000 word short, “Mental Telegraphy Again,” he was sending to Henry Loomis Nelson for Harper’s Weekly, and about a contract he was about to sign:
April 20 Saturday – The New York Times, p.3 “Literary Notes,” ran the following, which shows how quickly Sam’s style was recognized by readers of PW in serial form in Harper’s Monthly:
April 15 Monday – Sam signed the agreement with Harper & Brothers sent by Henry M.Alden on Apr. 3 to publish JA and TS,Detective. At the foot of the third page Sam wrote,
If at any time during the serial publication of Joan of Arc my nom de plume should be appended to it as author, I am to receive, after that, $15 per 1000 words additional, thence to the end. This is the only omission I notice in the above [contract] S.L. Clemens, Paris Apl. 15/95 [MTP].