April 9 Friday – Two copies of How to Tell a Story and Other Essays were deposited with the US Copyright Office [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Afterword materials p.21, Oxford ed. 1996]. Note: the title piece, “How to Tell a Story” ran first in the Oct. 1895 issue of Youth’s Companion. Note: M. Johnson gives Mar. 9 as official publication date.
April 10 Saturday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Mr. Maxwell (not further identified), approving some unspecified action of Maxwell’s, which Sam thought a good idea: “What do I think of it? I think you did well & wisely” [MTP]. Note: Again this is a reply to an not-extant letter. It would seem that many incoming letters from this London period were not saved.
April 12 Monday – The ledger books of Chatto & Windus show that 1,500 (3s.6d.) additional copies of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were printed , totaling 32,500 [Welland 236].
April 13 Tuesday – London. Sam claimed another “finished” for FE [Apr. 14 to MacAlister]. Note: This was to be only a draft. Sam’s notebook also registered: “London, Apl. 13, ’97. I finished my book today” [NB 41 TS 21].
April 14 Wednesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus: “Thank you ever so much. The madam wants another one—also a Huckleberry Finn. Will you send them?” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to John Y. MacAlister, that he’d finished his book the day before and that “The Madam edited this stuff out of it—on the ground that the first part is not delicate & that the last part is indelicate.” Would “the boys accept of condemned literature?” [MTP].
April 16 Friday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, curiously heading it PS but with it’s own dateline, salutation and signoff. Was it intended as part of the Apr. 14 letter to Rogers and mailed at the same time?
April 21 Wednesday – The “Critic’s Competition” in the Hartford Courant, p.8 selected Mark Twain’s “Jumping Frog” tale as one of the best dozen short stories by authors dead or alive. The article asked, “Is that as good a specimen as his ‘A Strange Occurrence?’”
April 22 Thursday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Douglas B. Sladen declining an invitation of some sort.
“I do not go anywhere in public, or I should gladly say yes. I am very sorry, for whereas I have so much respect for a mile that I seldom walk one, I would walk five to see Lord Roberts” [MTP].
April 23 Friday – On the day observed and noted by Clemens as William Shakespeare’s birthday (the actual date is unknown), also celebrated as St. George’s day, at 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Miss Ethel Newman, thanking her for “those pleasant words.” If she liked such sentiments he sent along a Pudd’nhead Wilson maxim he’d just written for his new book (FE) that day:
April 24 Saturday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote a short note to Chatto & Windus, advising that Bram Stoker would see them on Monday, Apr. 26 between 11 and 12 [MTP].
April 26 Monday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam began a long letter to H.H. Rogers that he finished on Apr. 28. In his May 3 to Frank Bliss, Sam disclosed he’d received “Mr. Rogers’s letter a week ago,” which would have been this day, so it’s likely this long missive to Rogers is a same-day reply.
April 27 Tuesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to “Friar” Arthur Spurgeon (1861-1938), declining an invitation to the Whitefriars Club, after changing his mind to make only “several engagements.” He would keep only those and not add any.
I am to dine with Mr. Moberly Bell May 4th, but even if I were free I should avoid adding a public engagement.
You will have a good time. Max O’Rell made a delightful speech that other time, & he will do it again [MTP].
April 28 Wednesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam finished his Apr. 26 to H.H. Rogers.
The issue of including South Africa in FE had been settled in the affirmative—by Livy:
“Mrs. Clemens urged that you & Bliss were right. She said—but that ain’t any matter. The only thing is, that I have started in on South Africa, & have done two chapters on it & am moving along” [MTHHR 275-6]. Note: See May 3 to Frank Bliss.
May – Harper’s Monthly May issue included a review of TSA and TS,D and Other Stories in the Uniform Edition of Mark Twain’s works by Laurence Hutton.
May 1 Saturday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Frank Fuller (likely still in N.Y.C.):
I was very glad to get your letter [not extant], & hear your cheery voice again; but I’m going to wait a while before I wrote you, because there’s fully 2 weeks’ writing to do on this book yet, possibly 3—& I am rushing.
But when I get the decks cleared, then I’ll write you a letter which I’ve had in my mind a year & more.
May 3 Monday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam replied to Frank Bliss’s long-awaited letter, not-extant
Now you’re speaking up! Your letter had a virile ring to it. I had concluded weeks ago that your interest in the book was a little pale.
Yes, come over here. I have thought of it fifty times.
May 4 Tuesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to
Richard Edgcumbe : “I shall be very glad indeed to come. With many thanks I am / Sincerely Yours / SL Clemens” [Sotheby’s June 19, 2003 catalog, p.72 Lot 85].
May 6 Thursday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to James Ross Clemens, sorry that he was “having this ill turn,” and offering to do anything to help. Livy had offered to help [MTP]. Note. James’ illness was the source of the rumor that Sam was desperately ill, or dying, or even dead. Paine writes:
May 7 Friday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus: “Please send me Garrett’s book, reviewed this morning: ‘Story of an African Crisis’—Constable & Co” [MTP]. Note: Edmund Garrett. Sam annotated the book throughout in both pencil and ink, and mentioned Garrett’s book in ch. 65 of FE, “characterizing Garrett as ‘a brilliant writer partial to [Cecil] Rhodes’.” Sam praised Garrett’s account of the Jameson raid as “the best one I have met with” [Gribben 253]
May 8 Saturday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam replied to another (not- extant) invitation to dine from John Y. MacAlister. Yes, he would come “pretty soon” and would also like to “get out the manilas and repeat our smokes,” but Livy was ailing and he needed to spend his evenings with her for now. Also, the addition to the book for S. Africa “comes hard” after he’d thought he was done but expected to finish up in about ten days [MTP].
May 9 Sunday – Pushed even farther back in the NY Times on p. 23 was an Assoc. Press dispatch from London Dated May 8, “Mark Twain in Good Health.” The article announced Sam was still working hard on his new book and that his publishers had asked for an additional 30,000 words on Africa. An expanded article ran on June 2, p.7, “Mark Twain’s Health Good.”
May 17 Monday – Frank Andrew Munsey wrote from N.Y. to Sam
My excuse for writing you is to do something, the last thing I can do, for one who admired you deeply. I refer to George Griffin, your old butler. He is dead. He died very suddenly Saturday morning, May 8th , and was buried in New York on the following Tuesday. His wife called him at the usual hour of six o’clock. He threw up his hands and in a few moments was dead. It was heart disease. It seems that he had had more or less trouble from this source for a considerable time.
May 18 Tuesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, “unspeakably glad” to report that “just this minute” he had “finished this book again” (FE). He’d been able to add 30,000 words by “making fun” of the Jameson raid, an account he’d feared would be boring and uninteresting. Evidently Bliss had paid the required $10,000, so Sam thought he would send the MS directly to Bliss.
May 19 Wednesday – The date placed on the typed form for renewal of copyright for IA sent by The American Publishing Co. and signed by Sam on May 31 in London [MTP].
May 20 Thursday – Independent included an anonymous review of American Claimant and Other Stories and Sketches, (volume 21 of the Uniform Edition) p.650. In full: