August 1 Thursday – Sam left the family at Lake Saranac, N.Y. and traveled to N.Y.C. arriving late in the evening [July 31 to Rogers]. He took rooms on the first floor of the Grosvenor Hotel, and complained that “the bed was hard as Maryborough” [Aug. 2 to Livy].
Check # Payee Amount [Notes]
292 George VW Durquee 250.00 Saranac Cabin rent
December 24 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Lake wood? / With Harvey?” [NB 43 TS 32].
Sam’s note of Christmas wishes (catalogued: written sometime before Dec. 25) to an unidentified person appeared in the N.Y. Tribune on Jan. 25, 1901, p.8 [MTP].
At 10 a.m. the Clemenses left N.Y.C. for Elmira for Christmas. The trip occupied most of the day. They planned to stay until Dec. 29 [Dec. 22 to Gurlitz; Dec 23 to Whitmore].
October 7 Sunday – The Clemens family was en route from London to New York on the SS Minnehaha.
Inserts: S.S. Minnehaha and its Upper Promenade deck (where Jean took walks for her health.)
September 15 Saturday – The Clemens family was on a weekend jaunt to visit “some English friends” in Cromer, Norfolk, on the coast [Sept. 14 to Pond; Sept. 25 to Fiske].
July 2 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Drove out to Dollis Hill (4.35 to 5.10) in the rainstorm & took possession. It is certainly the dirtiest dwelling-house in Europe—perhaps in the universe. / Plasmon 12? / Goerz, 7.30” [NB 43 TS 20].
The Clemens family moved to the Dollis Hill House on the outskirts of N.W. London.
Sam gave a private reading, place and time unknown; he may or may not have stopped by John Y. MacAlister’s home [July 1 to MacAlister].
April 13 Friday – The Clemens family were at Henry M. Stanley’s country place for a “few days’ visit”. They returned to 30 Wellington Court by Apr. 17 [Apr. 17 to James]. Note: on Jan. 10, 1899 the Stanley’s took possession of a house named “Furze Hill” in Pirbright, Surrey, some 30 miles from London [The Autobiography of Henry M. Stanley, p.507 (1909)].
January 19 Friday – Sam also wrote to Henry Ferguson.
I tried to get that new book out of the Harpers’s hands, but you will see by the Enclosed [HHR’s of Jan. 9, top of] that they say it is in press—& therefore too late.
However, there are two volumes—the shipwreck [Hornet, 1866] is to be in the second one, I believe; so your emendations will reach New York plenty early enough, I have no doubt. They go by tomorrow’s steamer.
January – In London, England Sam wrote an aphorism to an unidentified man:
“We ought never to do wrong when any one is looking. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / London, Jan. 1900”
[MTP: Charles Hamilton catalog, 21 May 1965, No. 4, Item 31].
October 6 Friday – A bill was given to Sam from Queen Anne Residential Mansions & hotel for this date in the amount of £25.11.8 for the period Sept. 30 to Oct. 6; it was paid on Oct. 12 [1899 Financial file MTP]. Note: there is no other bill in the files for the Queen Anne; it is assumed they moved after this day to 30 Wellington Court (Albert Gate).
September 30 Saturday – In his Oct. 1 to Franklin G. Whitmore, Sam detailed the Clemens’ family arrival in London: