May 22 Saturday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam replied to H.S.W. Edwardes (whose request is not extant). Sam was a hermit and did not go out, but thanked Edwardes “all the same” [MTP].
Note: Sam did go out, but chose his times, places, and persons selectively.
May 23 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “May 23, 1897. Wrote first chapter of above story to-day”
Paine writes of the beginning of “Which Was The Dream?” which was not published in Sam’s lifetime:
May 24 Monday – The ledger books of Chatto & Windus show that 750 additional copies of Tom Sawyer, Detective were printed (totaling 5,750 to date) [Welland 238]. ,
Sam’s notebook:
May 26 Wednesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to advise Katharine I. Harrison that after June 15 letters should be posted in care of Chatto & Windus [MTP: CF Libbie & Co. catalogs, Mar. 3, 1915, Item 367].
Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister: “I have finished the book at last—and finished it for good this time. Now I am ready for dissipation with a good conscience. What night will you come down & smoke?” [MTP; MTB 1041].
May 27 Thursday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam marked a letter to Frank Fuller “PRIVATE” after getting wind of a scheme by friends back home to host a “special benefit” lecture “at big prices for tickets and an auction of a dozen first-choice seats at Jenny Lind prices” as a way of putting him over the top in his efforts to pay his debts. Fuller was the first man he thought of to pull this off, a man who could handle “the engineering of so delicate and so large an undertaking.”
May 30 Sunday – Frank Marshall White, London correspondent of the NY Evening Journal had a “chat” with Sam to inform him of the report in New York that Mark Twain was dying of poverty in London [NY Journal article datelined June 1 and reported by the Hartford Courant, June 3, p. 12, “Mark Twain All Right”]. Note: see June 2.
May 31 Monday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Ainsworth R. Spofford, enclosing his signed application form on American Publishing Co.’ s letterhead for renewing copyright on IA, The form carries a July 12 date [MTP].
Sam also signed the renewal copyright for IA form and returned it to Frank Bliss [MTP].
Sam also wrote a squib to the London correspondent for the N.Y. Journal, Frank Marshall White:
June – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus—a preliminary “page by itself” draft for inclusion in the front of FE, or, as it would be called in England, More Tramps Abroad (due to the past success there of A Tramp Abroad). Only the dedication, slightly changed, to Harry Rogers made it into the book. ,
EXPLANATORY NOTE
June 1 Tuesday – The Hartford Courant carried an article on June 3, datelined London June 1, “Mark Twain All Right – A Chat With Him Day Before Yesterday” from the N.Y. Journal by Frank Marshall White:
Mark Twain was undecided whether to be more amused or annoyed when a “Journal” representative informed him to-day of the report in New York that he was dying of poverty in London. …
June 2 Wednesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote two notes to James R. Clemens, asking the good doctor cousin to meet him at the box office of the Adelphi Theatre on the Strand the next evening, June 3 at eight or five after to see William H. Gillette’s play, Secret Service. If James couldn’t go, would he name another day?
June 3 Thursday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to James R. Clemens confirming he’d be waiting that night (Sam did not mention family) at the Adelphi Theatre and also asked him to Sunday dinner. It was the first time noted that the Clemens family hosted since moving into Tedworth Square:
June 4 Friday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Bram Stoker, thanking for and complimenting him on his book, Dracula, which had just issued; Stoker inscribed a copy of the book to him on June 1 [MTP: Parke-Bernet Galleries catalog].
June 5 Saturday – The N.Y. Times under its “Essays” column, p. BRA3, included a review of Sam’s How to Tell a Story and Other Essays, by Mark Twain. New York: Harper & Brothers. $1.50.
June 8 Tuesday – Clara Clemens’ 23rd birthday [MTP].
June 9 Wednesday – The Hartford Courant: June 9, p.8, “Mark Twain’s Old House”:
Building Where He Was Born is Being Torn Down.
A dispatch from Mexico, Mo. says that the old house in which “Mark Twain” was born, in Florida, near that town, is being torn down to make way for a new residence. The old house has long been one of the interesting landmarks of the town. Numerous calls have been made upon Mrs. Roney, the owner of the property, for bits of wood with which to make walking sticks and other souvenirs.
June 10 Thursday – Andrew Lang wrote to Sam
I have lost our entire address. Mrs. Lang wonders if you could lunch…alone, with us one day, and Lord Lorne is anxious to see you, if possible—I told him I would write.
June 11 Friday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam replied to the June 10 of Andrew Lang, asking him to name the day and he’d be:
“…very glad to come. I shall be delighted to see Lord Lorne again. I have a bad memory, but I have not forgotten any considerable detail of the pleasant time which he & the Princess gave me in Ottawa” [MTP].
June 12 Saturday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote a postcard to Frank Marshall White: “Come down, now, & let us see if we can invent some way to repair the enormous damage which your cablegram has done me” [MTP].
June 13 Sunday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam began a note to John Y. MacAlister that he finished on June 14.
June 14 Monday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to William Carey, of Century Magazine.
Oh, bless your heart, that’s been attended to long ago. It was merely a reference, but I was glad I happened to mention it in time for you to get in the protest.
Love to Riley; it was good to hear the voice of him again. Tell him to prepare for the next world while he still has his faculties about him: I mean, tell him to get into debt; then if he goes to hell he will like the change [MTP].
June, mid – Sometime before June 19, the Hearst Newspaper Syndicate asked Sam to write several dispatches covering Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee Celebration. The initial dispatch was datelined London, June 19. See entry. Likely the agent of the request was the London correspondent of the NY Journal (Hearst’s second newspaper after the S.F.
June 15 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Sent Chatto MS down to & including page 1024—little Ceylon boy with a twine string for clothes. / Shall deliver Bliss duplicate of above, concluding with 14th package & page 405” [NB 41 TS 31].
The Hartford Courant, p.1 “Mark Twain, ‘Innocent’,” reported:
June 16 Wednesday – H.H. Rogers cabled Sam about the NY Herald’s fund to help Mark Twain:
“All friends think Herald movement mistake withdraw graciously Langdon approves this / Rogers” [MTHHR 282].
At 23 Tedworth Square in London Sam replied to H.H. Rogers’ cable:
June 17 Thursday – The Hartford Courant ran an article on p.6, “Mark Twain,” from the Hartford Times.
June 18 Friday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam replied to Helen Skrine’s invitation (not extant) that with her “kind leave” he would “come Wednesday June 30th—7.30” He thanked Helen for inviting Clara but “she feels her bereavement still so heavily that I am not able to persuade her” [MTP].