May 14 Saturday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote a long letter to Lawrence B. Evans, who had written (not extant) explaining a review. Sam thought Evans was defending England against him, though he couldn’t imagine why, giving several reasons he did not dislike the country [MTP: Varleriani]. Note: full text not available. Evans had been a professor in Berlin during the family’s 1893 stay there. He was later chairman of the history dept. at Tufts University.

May 13 Friday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus [MTP].

The books came. Many thanks.

The MS too. I still approve of it. But the attitude of mind which moved Mrs. Clemens to want it suppressed, remains. From the beginning the family have been rabid opponents of the war & I’ve been just the other way. I am indifferent about the article now. The time to print it was before Manila.

May 12 Thursday – Laurence Hutton’s book A Boy I Knew and Four Dogs (1898) likely arrived this day or the next, since Sam read some of it before retiring the following night [May 13 to Hutton].

May 11 Wednesday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam inscribed a copy of TS to an unidentified person:

Part of my plan has been to / try to remind adults of what / they were themselves once. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain/ Vienna, May 11, 1898 [MTP: Alan C. Fox catalog, No.1, Item 146].

May 9 before – Sam’s notebook entry right before the May 9 entry:

“During 8 years, now, I have filled the post—with some credit, I trust—of self-appointed Ambassador at Large of the U.S. of America——without salary” [NB 40 TS 20].

May 9 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Today, the Nansens to luncheon” [NB 40 TS 20]. Dolmetsch writes,

May 8 Sunday – Sam’s notebook (May 9 about this day):

Visitors yesterday, Countess Wydenbruck-Esterhazy, Austrian; Nansen & his wife, Norwegians; Freiherr de Laszowski, Pole; his niece, Hungarian; Madame XXX, Hollander; 5 Americans & 3 other nationalities (French, German, English.) Certainly there is plenty of variety in Vienna [NB 40 TS 20]. Note: Dolmetsch points out that Sam referred to Laszowski mistakenly as “Freiherr” rather than “Graf” (count) [147].

May 7 Saturday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam telegraphed Chatto & Windus:

RETURN THE THICK LETTER POSTED YESTERDAY = TWAIN [MTP]. Note: Livy wanted the May 6 article suppressed; see May 13.

May 6 Friday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, enclosing an article intended to “excite public curiosity about the Fable, & make people hunt around & get hold if it and circulate it everywhere.”

listed in American Book Prices- Current Vol. 21 p.753 (1915) . See also Dolmetsch, 187 -9, 337n9 for the claim that this piece was written in Feb. of 1898. The article was about France’s treatment of Monaco. It was for:

May 5 Thursday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore.

He gave his future address the Villa Paulhof in Kaltenleutgeben; Sam often did this when about to move; they would not go to the health resort until May 20.

April 30 Saturday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to ask Chatto & Windus to send one each of his books P&P, JA, PW, TS, and HF for a “vast Fair (benevolent) to be held here May 17”

[MTP: Remember When Auctions, Inc. catalogs, Mar. 21-2, 1998, No. 43, Item 882].