October 16 Friday – In London Sam wrote to Edward M. (Ned) Bunce, sharing shock and sorrow over the loss of Susy.
Ah me, you knew how rare she was, & how far you would have had to go to find her peer.
We are so glad you had that last talk with her — it will be a grateful memory with us. …I have not forgotten, & shall not forget, that time that you and Henry Robinson offered to help me when all others failed [MTP].
October 19 Monday – Sam signed a “Reader’s Guarantee Form” for the Chelsea Public Libraries, in effect, a library card, giving his address as 23 Tedworth Square and his occupation as “private.” See a reproduction of the form in the Fall, 1998 MTJ p.31
October 20 Tuesday – In London Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus about material (unspecified) he’d sent, asking them to “look it over & see if it will do.” After his signature, some clue as to what he’d sent:
This Diary is full of underscorings (for use on the platform) PAY NO ATTENTION TO THEM [MTP].
Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers.
October 21 Wednesday – In London Sam wrote to Frank Bliss:
As I understand the idiotic law, the renewal of a copyright is not possible until the original one lacks 6 months of running out.
October 22 Thursday – Gribben writes that Sam discovered the book The History of a Slave (not further identified) in the London Library [315; NB 39 TS 32]. Also found, Sir Basil Home Thomson’s The Diversions of a Prime Minister (1894) [702; NB 39 TS 12]. Sam also noted he’d withdrawn a copy of William Knighton’s The Private Life of an Eastern King, etc. from the London Library [Ibid.]. See also Jan.
October 24 Saturday – In London Sam wrote in his notebook:
Wrote the first chapter of the book to-day — Around the World [MTB 1026; NB 39 TS 14]. Note: FE.
October 25 Sunday – In London, Livy wrote to Mary Mapes Dodge.
How well I remember the evening at Puddinhead Wilson your coming into our box. You sat there some time chatting with us before you recognized Susy. Then you leaned forward and said, “Why Susy is this you??” She gave a little pleased self-conscious laugh, and my mother’s heart was proudly touched because the tone of affection with which you said “Susy” [MTP].
October 26 Monday – At the Tedworth Square house in Chelsea, London, Sam began work on the manuscript of Following the Equator [Dec. 18 to Rogers]. Note: he may have started even earlier, as he added a note to Bliss on Oct. 21 that he was working on it.
He also wrote to Chatto & Windus, supposed they hadn’t received the Bourget-Max O’Rell article he’d sent by messenger. He had another piece for them:
October 27 Tuesday – In London Sam sent a postcard to Chatto & Windus asking if they’d received the printed “Californian’s Tale” and the amended Bourget article which he’d mailed [MTP].
Sam also wrote to J. Henry Harper asking him to give only “Care Chatto & Windus” as his address.
We wish to remain strictly in hiding. To make sure of the Monthly, the Weekly & the Bazar, I would like to have them sent to this private address, if you will.
October 29 Thursday – In London Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus.
1. Please send me two proofs of Max O’Rell [Bourget] article. I wish to send one to Harper.
2. When am I to send next cheque for rent? To whose order shall it be drawn? And won’t it be best for me to send it through you? Also, what is the amount?
October 31 Saturday – In London Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus.
Am very much obliged. I enclose the house-rent cheque drawn to your order, for £90.2.0. I believe this completes the payment of the house-rent for the first 6 months. Mr. Garth’s address is — — — damn, I’ve begun on the wrong page — is / 3 Polstead Road / Oxford.
Sam added after his signature a request for them to tell any inquirers that he was “entirely out of the lecture field” [MTP].
November – Gribben writes,
At the end of a list of books that Clemens read in London in November 1896 appears “2 Years in F. — Lytton Forbes” (NB 37, TS 26). Subsequently he quoted from Forbes’ book (merely citing “Forbes’s ‘Two Years in Fiji’”) in chapter 8 of FE (1897), where he presented Forbes’s account of two foreigners who mysteriously appeared in Fiji and whose homeland could never be determined. [235] Note: Arthur Forbes, Two Years in Fiji (1875).
November 1 Sunday – In London Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, thinking that perhaps J. Henry Harper was “disgruntled” because he was “purposing” to give the new book (FE) to Frank Bliss.
November 2 Monday – In London Sam wrote to Bram Stoker, asking that a man be fired:
As you may know, I have lately lost my eldest daughter. For this reason I & my wife go nowhere & see nobody; otherwise I would call upon you or ask you to visit me.
November 3 Tuesday – William McKinley defeated Williams Jennings Bryan in a campaign centering on free silver. Sam had hoped the silver men would win out, thus allowing him to pay his creditors with somewhat devalued currency (H.H. Rogers was a McKinley man).
November 4 Wednesday Sam’s notebook for this day:
Clara went with Mrs. Hopekirk Wilson yesterday & saw a young English girl of 20 (pupil of Letzitinski’s) play before an audience for the first time. The girl’s name is Goodson, Clara says she is not pretty, but has a most interesting face [NB 39 TS 19]. Helen Hopekirk Wilson (1856-1945).
November 6 Friday – In London Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
I am very glad indeed that the contract is accomplished at last, both for your patient indomitable sake and for my sake — I can work the better now. And I am glad of what you say of Harry Harper. He always seemed to me to be a frank and straightforward man and a man of a good heart and an obliging disposition.
November 7 Saturday – Two copies of Tom Sawyer, Detective were received by the U.S. Copyright Office. The earliest copies of the first edition were published in Nov. or Dec. 1896 [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” The Stolen White Elephant and Other Detective Stories, Afterword materials, p.27 1996 Oxford ed.].
November 8 Sunday – In London Sam wrote to Henry C. Robinson, grateful and touched by a speech Robinson made. He remarked how it would have stirred Susy.
It was a beautiful speech, dear old friend, & I am glad you thought of me & sent it to me. I could see you — see you plainly, & hear every note of your voice, every inflection [MTP].
November 10 Tuesday – Katharine I. Harrison wrote to Sam, responding to his Oct. 20 note enclosed with his letter to Rogers.
Dear Mr. Clemens:
November 11 Wednesday – In London Sam heard Israel Zangwill lecture and entered in his notebook:
Went out to Swiss Cottages, per underground RR with Smythe, & heard Zangwill on the Jewish Ghetto. Very fine & bright. Knowledge boiled down. Pemmican in fact. Substance enough in it to furnish forth 5 ordinary lectures [Gribben 796; NB 39 TS 23].
November 13 Friday – In London Sam sent a clipping and short request to Chatto & Windus asking for a copy of A Sketch of the Natural History of Australia (1896) by F.G. Aflalo [MTP]. See Gribben 12.
In the evening Sam also wrote to Andrew Chatto Jr.
Dear Mr. Chatto junior:
You know about bicycles & I and my daughters don’t. We are going up into Regent street to lay in a couple for family use.
November 14 Saturday ca. – In London on or about this day Sam wrote a short paragraph to Frederic W.H. Myers. Significantly he gave his Tedworth Square address, which heretofore he’d kept secret.
6 p.m. Tuesday the 17th will suit me exceedingly well. But it seems very unfair to make you come to me to do me a favor.
Sam suggested he might come to Myers [MTP]. The nature of the favor or Myers identity is not given.
November 15 Sunday — Sam’s notebook for this day:
At Bram Stoker’s, 18 St. Leonard’s Terrace. Anthony Hope was there [NB 39 TS 25].
November 16 Monday – Frank E. Bliss for American Publishing Co. wrote Sam that the copyright for IA “will not be legally ripe for renewal before Jan. 29th 1897.” The former copyright was taken out in the company’s name; this time it would be taken out in Sam’s name with quick assignment made to Livy to avoid complications from the bankruptcy. Bliss asked when the new book might be completed. [MTP]. Note: Sam asked Bliss to refer back to this letter on Jan.