Eight Atlantic Ocean Crossings: DBD

May 16 Thursday – The Clemens family was en route on the SS NewYork to New York.

May 17 Thursday – In London Mark Twain gave the speech of the evening at a dinner by Poultney Bigelow for the officers of the US cruiser Chicago. The N.Y. Times, p.5 “Her Troops” reported the dinner and Sam’s speech but did not report its content.

Dr. Halstead Boyland wrote to Sam, inviting him and Livy for dinner on May 26 [MTP].

May 17 Friday – The Clemens family was en route on the SS NewYork to New York. After a concert aboard ship, Sam gave two readings for the usual Seaman’s Fund charity. The Brooklyn Eagle, May 18, 1895, p.2. “MARK TWAIN GAVE READINGS” reported:

At the Concert on the American Line Steamer New York.

May 18 Friday – Sam spent two days in London. Mary Anderson’s agent offered him £2,000 to lecture ten nights in London, but he declined because the season was over in three weeks and there’d be no time to advertise. He promised to consider a fall or winter engagement including a few two-night stands in other cities. He tried to locate Rogers’ daughters at the Brown Hotel, Mrs. Cara Rogers Duff and May Rogers, in order to deliver a letter sent them by Mrs.

May – In Paris before May 12, Sam inscribed a copy of P&P to F.S. Reynolds: To / Mr. F.S. Reynolds / with the compliments of / The Author. / Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economise it. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / Paris, May/95 [MTP].

May 19 Saturday – Sam left London and traveled to Paris, where he joined his family at the Hotel Brighton.

Saturday Review (London) LXXVII, p.535-6 printed a brief summary of Tom Sawyer Abroad, with a few critical remarks, calling the humor “genuine and characteristic, but it is thin.” The Review condemned the ending: “anything more flat and unprofitable or more shabby to the reader was never devised” [Tenney 22].

May 2 Wednesday – Sam was in Elmira at least part of the day and returned to New York in time for a business meeting the following day. He had,

…a glimpse of the folks, including the Stanchfields. Sue [Crane] reminded me of the lace & I sent it to her as soon as I got back. I had a sort of notion to run up to Hartford for an hour, but I don’t get the chance. [May 4 to Livy]. Note: Clara Spaulding married John Stanchfield.

May 2 Thursday – In Paris, the Clemenses may have attended a play in the evening, the “Mr Mapes’s play” referred to in his May 1 to Miss Goodridge. Several other letters in this period do not reveal the answer. Mr. Mapes may have been related to Mary Mapes Dodge.

At the Hotel Brighton, Sam also wrote to Poultney Bigelow, who evidently upon learning of the failure of Webster & Co., had sent a check for a thousand dollars. Sam couldn’t keep it:

May 20 Sunday – Sam and Livy examined a cottage in Etretat, France and rented it for the summer [May 22 to Rogers].

May 21 Monday – Abbie Gifford Rogers, wife of H.H. Rogers, died. Sam wrote of her last days on July 17 to Livy. He would get the news on May 31. Dias writes,

“On May 21, 1894, Rogers’ wife, Abbie, died after undergoing surgery in New York. She had for days been suffering intolerable pain (from an unsuspected tumor). Consequently, she submitted gladly to the operation. After the surgery, however, she began to sink and never rallied” [MT Letters to Rogers Family 14].

May 22 Tuesday – In Paris at the Hotel Brighton Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers. He told about trying to chase down Rogers’ two daughters, Mrs. Duff and Miss May, who had gone to Switzerland. He wrote about his two-day stopover in London and his offer from Mary Anderson’s agent to speak ten nights for two thousand pounds. Then he related the family’s plans and his forecasted return:

May 24 Thursday – Frederick Blackwood (1st Marquis of Dufferin) wrote to Sam at the Hotel Brighton:

My dear Mr. Clemens / How very kind of you to have remembered my request. I am indeed most grateful especially for the charming autograph inscription which the book contains. Very shortly we are having a garden party, and I hope you will still be in Paris when it takes place.” Sam wrote on the envelope, “Lord Dufferin” [MTP].

May 25 Friday – In Paris Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, wondering if the two Rogers girls had gone home, because there was no sign of them and they were not at the Hotel Victoria in London. He repeated that he would take the family to Aix-les-Bains toward the end of June, then sail back from Southampton. If by chance the newest Paige typesetter was completed, would Rogers please cable him in care of Drexel, Paris.

May 26 Saturday – The Athenaeum, No. 3474 p.676 printed a brief review of Tom Sawyer Abroad. Tenney quotes: “A dull book, and ‘a grievous disappointment to admirers of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and of his friend Huckleberry Finn…it is a pity that [MT] should squander himself on such a book as this’” [22].

May 3 Thursday – In the afternoon in New York, Sam and his attorneys met with President William H. Payne of the Mt. Morris Bank and his attorney, Daniel Whitford, who had also been attorney for Webster & Co.

May 30 Wednesday – In Paris, Sam wrote a short note to Robert Underwood Johnson:

My dear Johnson: I reminded Dr. Boyland the other day to forward his MS. to you (about the Commune I think it is) and he said he would. It is the MS. I spoke to you about. Yours in a hell of a hurry. S.L. Clemens [MTP: Am. Art Catalog, Feb. 17, 1926, Item 97]. Note: Dr. Halstead Boyland; “the other day” may have been in London or since in Paris.

May 31 Thursday – In Paris Sam wrote to Henry H. Rogers, minutes after hearing from his secretary, Katharine I. Harrison, of the death of Abbie Gifford Rogers (Mrs. Rogers).

May 4 Friday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy about his quick trip to Elmira (May 1-2), and the conference with Mt. Morris Bank’s Payne and attorney, Daniel Whitford (May 3). Sam said they owed the bank $29,500 but felt “a good half of it is bogus paper.”

May 5 Sunday – In Paris Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus. He’d received “that little book” and thanked them (title not given). He announced they would sail from Vancouver, B.C. on Aug. 16 and begin reading in Sydney or Melbourne in September, then reach India in mid-January, 1896. Livy and daughter Clara would accompany him.

May 6 Monday – Andrew Chatto wrote to Sam that they’d made arrangements with Harper to “take a duplicate set of electros of the illustrations to” JA for the English edition, and would make “the best arrangements…for translations and with Tauchnitz for the Continental edition” [MTP].

May 7 Monday – In his May 8 to Rogers, Sam wrote of this evening:

I invited myself out to dinner last night [May 7], & I’ve got the brooch & a letter for Mrs. Duff. I invited Rice to come out & play billiards, & no doubt he would have come if he hasn’t said he would. However, I took it out of Harry [Rogers’ son] & we didn’t need the doctor [MTP].

May 7 Tuesday – In Paris Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto.

I am very glad you have arranged for Joan, and that I am to remain with you and not go wandering among strangers.

May 8 Tuesday – In New York at noon Sam wrote to Henry H. Rogers, who was on a trip to W. Virginia. Sam headed the letter with Rogers’ office address:

Enjoy your trip; be perfectly tranquil concerning this office. Miss Harrison & I are running its affairs in the most admirable way. I am going up, presently, to eat your luncheon for you, for you need to keep well nourished when on a long trip, & I don’t think much of the West Virginian cuisine.

May 9 Wednesday – Sam sailed again for Southampton, England in the S.S. New York [Brooklyn Eagle, p.4 “Personal Mention”; MTHHR 24]. Sometime during the voyage, which ended on May 16, Sam wrote a thank you note to an unidentified person:

Thank you cordially for your superb performance. / Sincerely Yours / Mark Twain / At Sea, May/94 [MTP].

November 10 Saturday – Sam was down with the “grippe” at the Brighton Hotel in Paris. Sam referred to this night’s treatment in his Nov. 11 to Rogers:

…my back and breast had been painted 4 times with iodine; it was doubtful if either could stand another application, but we chanced it and painted my breast. There was an uncertainty for about 3 minutes, then there was no uncertainty any more. Well, sir, I had to turn over and have a fire built on my back or I should have died.