August 13 Saturday – At the Hotel Kaiserhof in Bad Nauheim, Sam answered a letter (not extant) from Augustin Daly.
I have your letter of June 28, from Chicago. It followed me here — no, beat me here a day or two, for I was in Chicago myself when you wrote it — spent the 28th there under a fictitious name, & left the 29th.
August 12 Friday – At the Hotel Kaiserhof in Bad Nauheim (which Sam called “Bath No Harm”), Sam answered a letter (not extant) from Laurence Hutton, who was planning some traveling.
August 11 Thursday – Yola Zurelli wrote from San Francisco to Sam, sending a MS for his comment — the left side of the letter has been water damaged to the point of illegibility [MTP].
August 10 Wednesday – In Bad Nauheim Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall.
I have dropped that novel I wrote you about, because I saw a more effective way of using the main episode — to wit: by telling it through the lips of Huck Finn. So I have started Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer (still 15 years old) & their friend the freed slave Jim around the world in a stray balloon, with Huck as narrator…. I have written 12,000 words of this narrative….so I shall go along & make a book of from 50,000 to 100,000 words.
August 9 Tuesday – In Bad Nauheim Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall.
…But if he should want it I think a good idea to trade with him, for his magazine is obscure & I don’t want to appear in print in the full glare of the big magazines too often…Of course Walker can take this Romance if he wants it…if he takes Puddnhead, he can’t take this too [MTP].
Note: John Brisben Walker was at this time Howell’s co-worker and editor on the Cosmopolitan.
August 7 Sunday – At the Kaiserhof Hotel in Bad Nauheim, Sam wrote to his brother-in-law, Charles J. Langdon, who had telegrammed him while in New York, a message which was forwarded by mail to Bad Nauheim.
August 5 Friday – Sam’s notebook entry: “Began ‘Huck Finn in Africa’ August 5, 1892” [NB 32 TS 18]. This was to be called Tom Sawyer Abroad and would run serialized in St. Nicholas from Nov. 1893 to Apr. 1894, prior to Webster & Co. publishing it in book form. See Apr. 16, 1894.
August 3 Wednesday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam that he’d been unable to get the August report off, due to a smaller staff and vacations. Hall had received SLC’s letter of July 22; shortly thereafter had received a draft of the contract with Daly to dramatize (CY?), but that he wouldn’t be able to bring the play out this year; so Hall signed “subject to S.L. Clemens’ approval.” Sam wrote on the envelope, “Daly will dramatize in ‘93” [MTP].
August – Sam sent his double autograph to an unidentified person:
Yes indeed & with great pleasure / Sincerely Yours / Mark Twain / ~ / Known to the police & these tax-people as / SL Clemens / ~ / Bad-Nauheim, Aug./92.
Sometime between Aug. 1 and 17, Sam answered W.H. Langhorne’s July 26 inquiry as to a possible family relationship based on Sam’s middle name.
July 29 Friday – In Bad Nauheim, Germany at the Kaiserhof Hotel, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus:
Yesterday I began a book. Please send me one ream of this paper [MTP]. Note: Pudd’nhead Wilson was conceived in Bad Nauheim. This may be the first mention of it. More likely, this was Tom Sawyer Abroad — see Aug. 5 entry.
Chatto & Windus wrote to Sam [MTP cites C&W’s Letterbook, Vol. 26, p.219].