November 30 Wednesday – Sam’s 63rd Birthday.

December 2 Friday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote condolences to Mrs. Edward M. Bunce upon hearing of the death of her husband, “Ned” on Nov. 19.

It falls like a thunder-stroke, dear Mrs. Bunce, & is the heaviest I have known in my life, & the costliest loss, except our Susy’s death. It associates itself naturally with that bereavement because in some particulars Ned was nearer & dearer to the children than was any other person not of the blood. …

December 4 Sunday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, from 10 a.m. to midnight, Sam read Sir John Adams’ book (see Dec. 5 entry) to page 232 without a break.

December 5 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Sir John Adams (1857-1934), British Psychologist, who had recently sent his book, The Herbartian Psychology Applied to Education, etc. (1897) . Adams was on the faculty of the Free Church Training College in Glasgow, Scotland.

December 7 Wednesday – E. Potter-Frissell’s article, “Americans in Vienna: Mark Twain,” ran in the Musical Courier. Tenney gives source as The Twainian (Feb. 1943), p.6 [29].

December 8 Thursday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam began a letter to H.H. Rogers that he added to on Dec. 11, 12 and 13.

“It is 12 days since I handled a pen. It seems to be an attack of fatigue, & I tried to rest it off, but that was a failure, so I think it is a touch of malaria or piety or something like that & will go off of itself if let alone. I am letting it alone by lying around in my study reading & smoking all day…” [MTHHR 380].

December 9 Friday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote one sentence on a postcard to James M. Tuohy:

“No, that isn’t any matter” [MTP].

December 10 Saturday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to an Frank Bliss.

I must give you my side of the McClure matter. You were dead opposed to having any part of the book [FE] into print before publication-day. I was of your mind—it could do no possible good, & would do very serious harm (to a subscription book) without the slightest doubt in the world. Your McClure publication cost you & me ten times the McClure check.

December 11 Sunday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam added to his Dec. 8 to H.H. Rogers.

I worked yesterday & day before, & am in trim this morning to continue.

December 12 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam added to his Dec. 8 and 11 to Rogers. Sam made only a date entry for this day in the letter, as if interrupted [MTHHR 380].

Sam also cabled Harper & Brothers: “LACKS 500” [MTP]. Note: See Dec. 10 entry.

December 13 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam finished his Dec. 8 and 11 letter to H.H. Rogers.

Mrs. Clemens wouldn’t let me charge the Harpers a fair price, so I cabled them that ther offer “lacks $500.” I would have made it double that. And she says the cablegram was from you, not the Harpers. Women are full of superstitions, & don’t know anything.

Did the Harpers pay you the $500 they “allowed” me for the Jew article? They didn’t send it here.

December 15 Thursday – Sam also wrote to an unidentified man (the recipient’s name has been mostly erased – “Nash”?) on Hotel Krantz stationery: “It is too late. I am sorry, but this article went out of my hands a couple of months ago / Sincerely Yours / SL Clemens” [Weekes Autographs; eBay 180520623000, June 15, 2010]. Note: the sender likely was inquiring about an article for submission to some publication, so was likely an editor. Jodee Benussi caught this one.

December 17 Saturday – Joe Twichell wrote to Sam and Livy:

Yours of the 2nd inst. about Ned Bunce came this morning, and found me on the point of mailing you the enclosed. Yes, as you say, the old fellowship is now at the dissolving stage and we are writing one another’s obituaries. How could life ever have seemed anything but the stuff that dreams are made of. Only to hope andto grief it is long.

December 19 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow.

I was astonished at the handwriting & took it to mean extreme age until I referred to the signature; then I judged it meant rheumatism and would presently disappear, you being young, as yet, and no proper subject for permanent infirmities of that nature.

….

December 23 Friday – H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam, letter not extant but referred to in Jan. 3, 1899 to Rogers.

December 24 Saturday – Sam related this family’s evening to William Dean Howells in his Dec. 30:

December 25 Sunday – Christmas – The New York Times, ran “Hearst’s Borrowed Shirt,” a story about Sam Clemens loaning George Hearst a “biled shirt” back in Virginia City days. Hearst, unable to find a shirt to wear to a wedding, borrowed one of Sam’s, something greatly frowned on in those days, but was exposed after a fight. Just why the Times ran this story on Christmas is anyone’s guess. Roughing It, p. 416 (Chapter LVII): “For those people hated aristocrats.

December 26 Monday – Louisa Wohl wrote to Sam; the letter not extant but referred to in Sam’s Dec. 28 to Gilder; see entry [MTP].

December 27 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote and cabled H.H. Rogers.

December 28 Wednesday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder.

December 29 Thursday – Sam wrote on Dec. 30 of Livy’s financial calculations:

December 30 Friday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria Sam began a letter to William Dean Howells that he added a PS to on Jan. 3, 1899.

January – Edwin Wildman’s article “Mark Twain’s Pets,” ran in St. Nicholas Magazine, p.185-8. Tenney: “Describes a visit to MT’s study at Elmira, New York, by E.M. Van Aken, to take pictures of his cats. Two photographs are here reproduced, together with one of the ‘Quarry Farm’ house, and there are engravings of the outside of MT’s octagonal study (here called the ‘Pilot House’; it is covered with vines) and of MT at work inside (‘Drawn from a photograph by E.M. Van Aken’).

January 1 Sunday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam’s notebook:

NEW-YEAR, 1899. Note from Schelsinger [not extant], asking another month’s delay. … He would like me to promise the use of my name in advance, I think, & unconditionally.

It will be a marvel if he produces a play which I can work into a shape which will satisfy me, after all his delays. I shan’t allow my name to be used in connection with it unless it shall in all ways warrant the risk [NB 40 TS 52-3].

January 3 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria Sam added a PS to his Dec. 30, 1898 letter to William Dean Howells.

P.S. Jan. 3. I forgot to say, don’t reveal to any one that I have turned the corner & am prospering. It might get into the papers; & if there is one thing that is more fraught with annoyance than the repute of being in financial straits, it is the repute of being the other way.