December 31 Friday – The Boston Daily Globe, p.8, gave FE a glowing review, and praised the author.
NEW LITERATURE
January – Robert Barr’s sketch, “Clemens, Samuel L. ‘Mark Twain.’ A Character Sketch” ran in the January 1898 issue of McClure’s Magazine, as well as in the Feb. issue of Idler [Tenney 28]. Publishers Weekly (London) Jan. 8, reviewed Barr’s article: “Mr. Barr is a man who himself possesses the secret of devising humorous and grotesque tales, and as he has been the close personal friend of Mark Twain for a long time, he gives an interesting study of him.”
January 1 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Fine sunny day” [NB 42 TS 52].
In Vienna, Austria Sam inscribed a copy of More Tramps Abroad, (FE) to Ida Speiser- Wegenstein: “To / Mrs. Ida Speiser-Wegenstein / Wishing her many Happy New Years. With the kind regards of, / The Author / Vienna, New Years’ Day 1898” [MTP: Sothebys London catalogs, July 13, 2000, Item 48].
He also wrote an aphorism to an unidentified person:
January 2 Sunday – Fatout lists a Vienna dinner and dance where Sam gave a speech or read a story [MT Speaking 665]. Note: Fatout gives no particulars and none were found.
January 5 Wednesday – H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam; letter not extant but referred to in Sam’s Jan. 20 reply.
Sam, and perhaps the family as well, saw the premiere of Theodor Herzl’s play Das neue Ghetto (The New Ghetto) at the Carltheater, a mid-nineteenth century theater. Here Sam may have met Sigmund Freud for the first time. Dolmetsch writes:
January 6 Thursday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Livy wrote for Sam to Frank Marshall White, thanking him for his note which reinforced Sam’s belief that White could not “be guilty of such seeming discourtesy.” Also, Livy passed along Sam’s regrets that the cable from the N.Y. Journal asking for a rundown on “the Reichsrath’s affairs” had come “much too late” [MTP].
January 7 Friday – Katharine I. Harrison wrote to Sam, replying to his Dec. 18 and Dec. 21 letters (neither extant). She sent “the Calcutta letter” to John Brusnahan (foreman at the NY Herald) and would report back what he said.
January 9 Sunday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Livy wrote for Sam to Walter Bliss, replying to Bliss’ Dec. 24 (not extant). Sam verified a quotation on p.619. Receipt of six books was acknowledged; the Clemenses were “very glad the sale of the book has been satisfactory” [MTP].
William Dean Howells wrote to Sam after receiving one of Sam’s 50 printed “In Memoriam” poems with a large picture of Susy Clemens.
January 10 Monday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria Livy wrote for Sam to Chatto & Windus, acknowledging receipt of a six months statement and check for £1095.9.10; they were “greatly pleased with the excellent showing of the statement and the consquent size of the check” [MTP]. Note: in the six-month period from July 1, 1897 to Jan. 1, 1898, Chatto printed 18,000 copies of FE [Welland 238].
January 11 Tuesday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Livy wrote for Sam to Samuel E. Moffett.
“Your Uncle wants me to say that he desires you to keep the letter that I sent you entirely private” [MTP].
January 12 Wednesday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Sam wrote to Henry Loomis Nelson, editor at Harper’s Weekly (1894-1898) .
January 13 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Jan 13 ’98 Sent 3 fables to Century” [NB 42 TS 53].
At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to Henry C. Robinson’s Dec. 29, 1897 letter.
January 14 Friday – Sam’s notebook:
Jan. 14, 1898. Began to write comedy “Is He Dead?” (Francois Millet.)
———
Make Plays—with a German for Principal character (Dutchy) an Irishman, a Scotchman, a Chinaman[,] a Japanese, a negro (George) Uncle John Quarles who was very like the Yankee farmer in Old Homestead.
Write an Old Homestead of the South” [NB 42, TS 53]. Note: Denman Thompson and George W. Ryder’s The Old Homestead (4-act play 1886) [Gribben 700].
January 15 Saturday – Charles De Kay (1848-1935), art and literary critic of the N.Y. Times for eighteen years, wrote a review of FE which was published this day in the Times, “Mark Twain’s Mixed Pickles,” p. BR 40:
Mark Twain’s new book will challenge comparisons with “Innocents Abroad,” because it is cast on similar lines, being a salmi of plain information spiced with wit and humor. With such works each reader must decide whether the mixture suits him or not. …
January 16 Sunday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to James Whitcomb Riley in Indianapolis, thanking him for a book sent in fulfillment of a “promise made …in Washington so many years ago…” He wrote he’d direct his Hartford publisher to send him a copy of his book (likely FE). After his signature he noted, “London weather in Vienna! / —fog to smell & the electric to work by at noon-day” [MTP].
January 19 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook:
January 20 Thursday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
“Yours of the 5th is to hand. It is very good news: that when you have paid Barrow up, & the last 25% div. to the other creditors (except Grant & the Bank) we shall still have about $1,000 left in cash. This is exceedingly bully; the best music we have heard lately.” [Note: there is no extant HHR letter for Jan. 5, but there is one for Jan. 6—possibly Sam refers to the Jan. 6 letter].
January 21 Friday – Sam’s notebook:
Jan. 21. The other day I wrote Percy Mitchell (Paris) & asked him to try & get a copy of “Aurore” for me (containing Zola’s grand letter.) This is his answer:
“I hasten gladly to send you Zola’s letter. I had put it away among my archives under ‘Clean French literature.’ The compartment is empty now” [NB 40 TS 7-8]. Note: L’Aurore. Littéraire, artistique, social. (French periodical) [Gribben 32].
January 22 Saturday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to William Dean Howells’ Jan 9.
January 23 Sunday – Sam read a newspaper article in today’s Tagblatt, which inspired him to write the essay, “The New War-Scare.” [Sotheby’s sale catalog, The Maurice F. Neville Collection of Modern Literature, 13 April 2004, Lot NO7980] Note: source reads in part:
January 25 Tuesday – The New York Times, Feb. 5, p. BR94 ran “Vienna Letter,” by Johannes Horowitz, datelined Jan. 25.
January 26 Wednesday – William H. Payne of the Mt. Morris Bank wrote H.H. Rogers accepting $6,612.46 as a “correct and will be satisfactory to us” amount to settle all notes owed [MTHHR 320-1n1].
January 27 Thursday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam replied by postcard to Miss Clara A. Nichols (her query not extant) at the Chelsea Typewriting Office, Chelsea, London on some question with Chatto, likely about typing some future MS for Sam. “Yes, do it. I am sure Messrs. Chatto will consent, with pleasure. / It may be that I shall have some MS ready before the end of Feb” [MTP].
January 29 Saturday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper. Sam posed the question to himself, “The Books Which Have Most Influenced My Life?” and then proceeded to answer it by listing ten of his own works! Then he asked Harper to publish the supposedly “private letter” as “from Mark Twain to a friend”: