October 25 Tuesday – Mrs. John C. Pelton wrote from San Francisco in behalf of her husband, Prof. Pelton, asking Sam’s assistance and sending poetry. A recommendation bearing the names of the Governor of California, H.H. Markham, and other dignitaries, accompanied the letter. The flyer notes two books, My Book, and Sunbeams and Shadows [MTP].
October 22 Saturday – At the Villa Viviani in Florence Sam wrote to Sue Crane of their satisfaction with the place and the setting.
October 21 Friday – In Florence Sam wrote to Orion Clemens. Only the envelope survives [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Clara Clemens at Mrs. Mary B. Willard’s school in Berlin.
October 20 Thursday – Miss Fannie Arnold a teacher at Soule College, Murfreesboro, Tenn., wrote to Sam, having been assigned the subject “Mark Twain” for a gathering of the Charles Egbert Craddock Club. Could Sam suggest an idea for her presentation? How did he come by his literary name? [MTP].
Mrs. James McCall sent Sam a wedding announcement for this date in NewYork for her daughter Fannie to Dr. Dillon Brown [MTP].
October 19 Wednesday – From Florence Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder of Century, enclosing “The £1,000,000 Bank Note” story.
Well, you see, what little I have written lately was kind of forced into the Syndicates because they seduce a person by the large wage they pay, which is double & treble what the magazines grant to the laborer in the literary field. Naturally I prefer to be in the magazines, but you see how it is.
October 17 Monday – Chatto & Windus wrote to Sam with “the pleasure of enclosing you a verbatim extract of the note in the last edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica on the literature of ‘Joan of Arc’, which we trust will suit your purposes” [MTP].
October 15 Saturday – The Illustrated News of the World (New York issue) ran a second segment of “The German Chicago.” Other segments ran on Oct. 8 and Nov. 5, 1892 [Willson list, Univ. of Texas at Austin].
October 14 Friday – In Florence Sam wrote a short, three-paragraph note to Clara Clemens in Berlin, directing her to ask William Phelps if she should need help having her trunks delivered. In another letter to A.S. Hogue (Vice-consul) this date, Sam disclosed that two trunks with clothes were lost, though he felt they “must be in Berlin.” He also reported the family’s health to Clara:
October 13 Thursday – At the Villa Viviani in Florence, Sam wrote to Henry M. Alden of Harper’s.
I am going to send you an article entitled “A Curious Book” if I can finish it to my satisfaction; & if you like it & don’t like my price, won’t you make one yourself, so that I can see how far my arguments fail of being sound?
October 11 Tuesday – In Florence, Sam mailed a MS to C.L. Webster & Co. [MTP]. Note: This was probably the second part of Tom Sawyer Abroad.