From June 21 to June 27, 1891, Sam was in Annecy. I have found no direct mention of where the Clemens' were while at Haute-Savoie but it is possible they tried the Thermes de Sant Gervais Mont-Blanc. From June 27 to July 27, 1891, he was at Aix-les-Bains. Scharnhorst reports they departed for Geneva on the 28th.
June 21 Sunday – The Clemens party without Susy and Clara migrated south to Annecy trying the baths there. The original plans were to spend the rest of the summer in Annecy, some 22 miles from Geneva, at the Haute Savoie [May 20 to Howells].
June 22 Monday – The Clemens party was in Annecy trying the baths there.
June 23 Tuesday – The Clemens party was in Annecy trying the baths there.
June 24 Wednesday – The Clemens party was in Annecy trying the baths there.
John Cowden wrote a very long (and rather dry, rambling, hard to read) letter from Pittsfield, Ill. to Sam about the history of the Mississippi area and experiences there [MTP].
June 25 Thursday – The Clemens party was in Annecy trying the baths there.
June 26 Friday – The Clemens party was in Annecy trying the baths there. Rodney writes that the Clemens party went to Annecy, “not far over the French border” and stayed a week at a spa there, “convinced that the baths were not restorative” [134]. Note: the chronology for this week based on Rodney.
June 27 Saturday – On or about this day, the Clemens party without Susy and Clara continued on to Aix-les-Bains, France, across the Swiss border and a bath since Roman days, where Sam wrote Susy and Clara on June 28. Baedecker’s 1887 travel guide lists the distance as 55&1/2 miles, a 3&1/2 hour trip by train.
June 28 Sunday – Of this period Paine writes, “The Clemens party went to Geneva, then rested for a time at the baths of Aix” [MTB 921]. Kaplan writes, “Clemens and Livy…looking for relief for the rheumatism that now crippled both of them, visited the fashionable watering places, Aix-les-Bains and then Marienbad.” No letters from Sam are extant until June 28. Powers writes, “…they sank into the pungent sulfuric baths every day for five weeks” [MT A Life 539].
June 29 Monday – In Aix-les-Bains, France Sam wrote again to Susy and Clara Clemens in Geneva. The girls had written.
Dear Sweethearts:
Mamma is a great deal more comfortable this p.m. & I am pretty well satisfied with the way the doctor has got the best of the disease. (Ouch!) Notice to stop using my right hand. Your letters are well done & delightful [MTP]. Note: Livy’s heart condition would not have been helped by the baths, though rest from travel may have helped.
June 30 Tuesday – Mrs. B.H. Campbell wrote from Wichita, Kansas to Sam passing on a “good story about yourself” she came across in “one of your local papers” [MTP].
July – In the July-December issue of Library and Studio Part I of “Life of Mark Twain” was published. (Part II would run in the Jan. to June, 1892 issue.) Will M. Clemens’ report is in The Twainian for Nov. 1940, Tenney citing, p.19. The Twainian bears only the citation of this article with no synopsis.
A copy of Walter Scott’s The Abbot (1860 ed.) inscribed: Jean Clemens Aix les Bains July,. 1891 [Gribben 614].
July 1 Wednesday – In Aix-les-Bains, Sam had a conversation with the doctor about the rash that was tormenting nearly everyone but Sam. See July 3 entry.
July 3 Friday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote again to daughters Susy and Clara in Geneva, with Jean Clemens penning the letter (due to Sam’s rheumatism) and adding a PS asking for them to soak off and save the French stamps for her that came on their letters. Sam wrote of a conversation he’d had with the doctor on Wednesday (July 1) about a rash that everyone had but Sam himself.
July 4 Saturday – Joe Twichell sent a printed circular he’d received from E.B. Dillingham, Chaplain at the Hartford County Jail seeking “suitable books” or funds. Joe wrote on the bottom, “Here’s a gem ‘of purest [illegible word] serene — as you see. I send it to you for a Forth of July present. With love and greeting to all, Yer aff. – Joe.” On the envelope Sam wrote, “Use this in newspaper letter” [MTP].
July 8 Wednesday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, requesting Kipling’s last book, Mine Own People [MTP from Am. Art Assoc. catalog, item 353].
Augustus Jacobson for the Society of Tennessee Army, Palmer House, Chicago wrote to Sam inviting him to the unveiling of the Grant statue in Lincoln Park during the reunion Oct. 7 and 8 [MTP].
July 9 Thursday – W.F. Johnson wrote to Sam soliciting aid for the Brooklyn Howard Colored Orphan Asylum [MTP].
July 10 Friday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. Sam added vertically to the top margin of the letter that he would “be present at eight or ten Wagner operas at” Bayreuth, Germany from July 31 to Aug. 12. Sam wanted Hall to see Robert Underwood Johnson or Richard Watson Gilder of Century Magazine to see if they’d pay $1,000 as Samuel S.
July 11 Saturday – The Illustrated American ran a full-page portrait of Mark Twain, printed in sepia ink from halftone of a crayon sketch by Arthur Jule Goodman [The Twainian 2.8 (Nov.1940) p.4].
A.W. McArthur wrote from N.Y. to Sam asking to use his portrait in a literary game [MTP].
July 12 Sunday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus having just received their check and note. He returned the check and asked them to place it in credit with Brown Shipley & Co., London, to draw upon as he wished or to gain a letter of credit from them. He referred to the “new continental company which has secured Kipling, Howells & others,” and said that he’d advised the company the matter was in Chatto’s hands, whose “powers were unhampered.” Chatto had also sent books (some requested).
July 14 Tuesday – John Habberton for N.Y. Herald sent Sam a clipping from the July 11, 1891 Publishers’ Weekly p.43 that read: “MARK TWAIN, it is reported, intends starting a humourous journal in London.” Was it true? Either way, he’d “gladly print” Sam’s response in the Herald [MTP].
July 18 Saturday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, responding to a letter (not extant). No, Sam said, he wanted a letter of credit from Brown Shipley & Co. for the amount of Chatto’s check, as there was “nothing so convenient & so handy” as one of their “ordinary circular letters of credit.”
July 19 Sunday – In Aix-les-Bains, all was not soaking in the baths and suffering from rheumatism. Paine writes of Sam’s time here and his excursions:
“I’ve got back the use of my arm the last few days, and I am going away now,” he says, and concludes by describing the beautiful drives and scenery about Aix — the pleasures to be found paddling on little Lake Bourget and the happy excursions to Annecy.
July 21 Tuesday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder. Though describing his arm as “still badly crippled with rheumatism” he had to write to introduce,
…this bright & charming young Finnish baroness, & suggest that you drop her a line in case you would like some Finland life sympathetically done, in the magazine. She visited the Warners in Hartford two or three years ago & left a most pleasant impression with us all [MTP]
July 22 Wednesday – Edward Dexter wrote from San Diego, Calif. eager to produce a cheap edition of CY [MTP].