April 9 Thursday – The Clemens family was at sea on the S.S. Wardha, bound for Port Louis, Mauritius. Sam wrote:
April 9. Tea-planting is the great business in Ceylon, now. A passenger says it often pays 40 per cent. on the investment. Says there is a boom [ch LXII 611].
Livy wrote to Harriet E. Whitmore: “I have just rec’d word at Columboof the terrible grief that has come to you. How I wish I could put my arms about you….” [MTP].
August 1 Thursday – James B. Pond’s diary recorded the day’s travel to Butte, Mont.:
Thursday, August 1st, Great Falls to Butte, Montana. [100+ miles]
We started at 7:35 A.M. All seem tired. The light air and the long drive yesterday told very much on us all.
August 1-18 Tuesday – Sometime before Sam learned of the death of his daughter Susy, he wrote to an unidentified person, enclosing a short note from Miss Lucy Frelinghuysen. First her note, then Sam’s remarks:
August 10 Saturday – In the morning Sam and J.B. Pond left Portland to rejoin the ladies at the Olympia Hotel in Olympia, Wash.
The Sunday Oregonian of Aug. 11 reported on Sam’s leaving — he’d made quite a hit in the city:
MARK TWAIN TALKS
THE FAMOUS STORY-TELLER DISCUSSES CHARACTERS.
Says That No Author Creates, but Merely Copies
How to Write a Guide Book.
August 10 Monday – In Southampton, England Sam wrote to James B. Pond:
We are busy house-hunting. As soon as we find shelter in some country place I shall put in a few months on a book. I managed to pull through that long lecture campaign, but I was never very well, from the first night in Cleveland to the last one in Cape Town…
August 11 Sunday – In Tacoma, Washington, another rest day for the Clemens party. These were on Sundays or strategically placed to give Livy time to recover from traveling. Whenever it was possible, Sam and J.B. Pond would travel fairly short distances without the ladies for a lecture in another town. This allowed the ladies to limit their travel fatigue.
August 11 Tuesday – At Highfield House, Portsmouth Road, Guildford, England, Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto:
We’ve got ourselves located here an hour from London, for a month: & in the meantime we are spying around for a house for the winter. Mrs. Clemens is out on that quest to-day, in the neighborhood of London.
August 12 Monday – The Clemens party moved from Olympia to nearby Tacoma, Wash., and took rooms at the Tacoma Hotel. J.B. Pond’s diary for this date:
I had trouble in settling at the Opera House; the manager is a scamp. I expected trouble, and I had it.
August 12 Wednesday – In Guildford, England Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
August 13 Tuesday – The Clemens party traveled to Seattle, Wash., where they took rooms in The Rainier Hotel. From James B. Pond’s diary:
August 13 Thursday – Sam began an essay, “Man’s Place in the Animal World” on or just after this day. It was first published in 1962 in Letters from the Earth, under the title, “The Lowest Animal,” supplied by DeVoto [Budd, Collected 2: 1003]. Note: Baender’s article, “The Date of Mark Twain’s ‘The Lowest Animal’” makes a solid case for Aug. 13 as Sam’s beginning and October, 1896 as the completion for this 3,600 word piece [174-9].
August 14 Wednesday – In New Whatcom, Wash., Sam’s notebook:
Aug. 14. Left the ladies there with Sam. Moffett, & Pond & I came on to / New Whatcom. Such a fearful hoarseness I could scarcely talk. We stopped at a fine hotel in Fairhaven, & went over in the trolley. Reception — the line stood, I moved along it.
August 14 Friday – In the morning word reached the Clemenses in Guildford that Susy Clemens was quite ill. Sam cablegrammed Charles Langdon throughout the day for clarification but none came.
August 15 Thursday – The Clemens party of five traveled to, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and took rooms at the Hotel Vancouver. They learned that their ship, the Warrimoo, which was to have sailed Aug. 16, had been delayed by running aground on Aug. 9. Sam faced a week with no engagements after this of Aug. 15 in the Vancouver Opera House. Pond thus scheduled an extra lecture in Victoria, B.C. From Pond’s diary:
August 16 Friday – In Vancouver, Canada, Sam wrote a paragraph to Rudyard Kipling:
August 17 Saturday – In Vancouver, Canada, J.B. Pond wrote in his diary:
Saturday, August 17th, Vancouver.
We are all waiting for the news as to when the Warrimoo will be off the dry dock and ready to sail. “Mark” is getting better. I have booked Victoria for Tuesday, the 20th.
“Mark” has lain in bed all day, as usual, spending much time writing. Reporters have been anxious to meet and interview him, and I urged it, He finally said: “If they’ll excuse my bed, show them up.”
August 18 Sunday – A rest day in Vancouver, B.C. for the Clemens party.
August – The first of two installments of the 23,400 word Tom Sawyer, Detective first appeared in the Aug. issue of Harper’s Magazine. 21 illustrations were included by A.B. Frost. It would be included by Harper’s in book form, together with the 34,000 word Tom Sawyer Abroad in November, 1896. The latter had first appeared in book form in 1894 by Webster & Co., after being serialized in St. Nicholas.
August 19 Monday – From J.B. Pond’s diary:
August 2 Friday – J.B. Pond’s diary recorded the next trip to, Anaconda, Mont.:
August 20 Tuesday – In Vancouver, B.C. before boarding the ship to Victoria, Sam and Livy each wrote a paragraph to Franklin G. Whitmore.
It may be that a full length portrait of Clara will arrive at our Hartford house addressed to you. It will come from the artist, John W. Alexander.
Livy thanked Whitmore for a statement sent of Hartford finances. She disclosed that Sam had been in bed “for a day or two with a cold” but was better [MTP].
August 21 Wednesday – The Clemens party arrived in Victoria, B.C. shortly after midnight and took rooms at the Driard Hotel. From J.B. Pond’s diary:
Wednesday, August 21st, Victoria, B.C. — The Driad [sic: Driard].
“Mark” has been in bed all day; he doesn’t seem to get strength. He smokes constantly, and I fear too much also; still, he may stand it. Physicians say it will eventually kill him.
August 22 Thursday – The Clemens party was still in Victoria, B.C. From J.B. Pond’s diary:
August 23 Friday – In Victoria, J. B. Pond’s diary on the day of departure:
August 24 Saturday – Sam, Livy and daughter Clara were en route to Honolulu on the Warrimoo, captain R.E. Arundel. Sam wrote of the ship and captain in the first chapter of FE: