October – Sam wrote “Private” to Richard Watson Gilder:
“Can’t you send to Professor Henry Ferguson, Trinity College, Hartford, & get him to photograph a page or two of Samuel Ferguson’s Diary for reproduction?”
Sam suggested Gilder write Joe Twichell who would attend to the errand, and also that Gilder might get photographs of the Ferguson brothers and also a current one of Professor Ferguson, to be added to his account of the Hornet survival [MTP]. See Feb. 25 for information about the Ferguson brothers, who survived the disaster in 1866.
“Christian Science and the Book of Mrs. Eddy” first ran in the Cosmopolitan. It was collected in the English edition of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Sketches (London: Chatto & Windus, 1900) and in an edition by Tauchnitz in Leipzig the same year. The essay was incorporated into Sam’s book Christian Science with Notes Containing Corrections to Date (1907) [Budd, Collected 2: 1005].
Alf Doten’s article, “Early Journalism in Nevada” ran in the October issue of The Nevada Magazine, p.182-4. Tenney: “Includes the account of a joke Steve Gillis played, presenting MT with an imitation Meerschaum pipe. (Source: Benson (1938), pp. 88, 90, 162)” [30]. Note: Doten (1829-1903) was a journalist friend of Sam’s in Nevada.
M.S. Levy’s article, “A Rabbi’s Reply to Mark Twain,’ ran in the Overland Monthly, p. 364-7. Tenney: “An answer to MT’s ‘Concerning the Jews’ in the September Harper’s, lists Jewish patriots and their contribution to American freedom, and points to brave Jewish soldiers in American and other armies” [31].
Samuel E. Moffett’s article, “Mark Twain: A Biographical Sketch,” ran in McClure’s for Oct. , included a statement by Sam that the sketch suited him entirely [Tenney 31].
Review of Reviews (NY) ran an anonymous article, “A Sketch of Mark Twain,” p.480-2, summarizing Samuel Moffett’s biographical sketch of Mark Twain, which ran in the Oct. McClure’s. On p. 490 of the same issue there is a brief summary, with quotation, of Sam’s “Christian Science and the Book of Mrs. Eddy,” which ran in the Oct. Cosmopolitan [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Third Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1979 p. 186].
Thomas Wentworth Higginson ’s article, “The Road to England” ran in Atlantic Monthly, p.524. Wells: “Higginson relates the anecdote that he could command the ear of any Englishman ‘by dropping out the fact that I had dined with Mark Twain in his own house and that he had said grace at table’” [25].
October 1 1899 to June 6, 1900 – Sometime during this period, Sam left his calling card for James R. Clemens: “James, I want your address” [MTP].
October ca. – Sometime after Oct. 14, Sam wrote from London, 30 Wellington Court, Albert Gate, to Poultney Bigelow.
Goodbye & pleasant voyage and a safe return. Make a close examination of Osteopathy in New York and tell me wherein it differs from Kellgren when you get back—if it differs at all. I hope it is just the same for we are going home in the spring.
Sam also gave the address of an Osteopath on Madison Ave and 31st Street, and mentioned he tried to see Bigleow the day before but he was out [MTP shows as merely 1899].
Also listed as ca. October, 1899, a telegram from Sam to Frank Bliss: “MUST I SIGN BOTH NAMES / CLEMENS”
[MTP]. Note: This likely relates to the application for copyright Sam referred to in his Oct. 1 to Bliss.
Sam wrote to T. Douglas Murray about changes made to his “Introduction of the English translation of the official trials and rehabilitation of Joan [of Arc], then about to be elaborately issued. Clemens was greatly pleased at being invited to prepare the Introduction of this important volume, but a smug person with pedagogic proclivities was in charge of the copy and proceeded to edit Mark Twain’s manuscript, to alter its phrasing to conform to his own ideas of the Queen’s English.” Sam’s reply is this letter, in part:
Dear Mr. X.:
I find on my desk the first two pages of Miss Z’s Translation, with your emendations marked in them.
Thank you for sending them.
I have examined the first page of my amended Introduction, & will begin, now, and jot down some notes upon your corrections. If I find any changes which shall not seem to me to be improvements, I will point out my reasons for thinking so. In this way I may chance to be helpful to you, and thus profit you, perhaps, as much as you have desired to profit me.
NOTES.
SECTION I. First Paragraph.
“Jeanne d’Arc. This is rather cheaply pedantic, and is not in very good taste. Joan is not known by that name among plain people of our race and tongue….; to be consistent, it will be necessary that you strike out “God” and put in “Dieu.” Do not neglect this.
Second Paragraph . Now you have begun on my punctuation. Don’t you realize that you ought not to intrude your help in a delicate art like that with your limitations? …
Fourth Paragraph. ….you have been so busy editing commas and semi-colons that you overlooked them and failed to get scared at them. It is discouraging to try to penetrate a mind like yours. You ought to get it out and dance on it. …
Fifth Paragraph. Thus far I regard this as your masterpiece! You are really perfect in the great art of reducing simple and dignified speech to clumsy and vapid commonplace. …
….You must really get your mind out and have it repaired; you see yourself that it is all caked together. …
“Breaking a lance” is a knightly and sumptuous phrase, and I honor it for its hoary age and for the faithful service it has done in the prize-composition of the school-girl, but I have ceased from employing it since I got my puberty, and must solemnly object to fathering it here. And, besides, it makes me hint that I have broken one of those things before in honor of the Maid, an intimation not justified by the facts. I did not break any lances or other furniture; I only wrote a book about her. / Truly yours [MTB 1090; AMT 1: 164-180, 518-520]. Note: T. Douglas Murray was editing this proposed book. See latter source for the full letter and particulars. Previously cited by Paine as to “an unidentified editor,” or “Mr. X.” The two versions differ slightly, with the latter replacing Sam’s & signs with “and”s.
October first half – Sam also wrote to John Tatlock.
“We were very glad to hear from you & glad to hear such good accounts of Mrs. Tatlock’s health. We are house-hunting, & haven’t any regular hours for being at home…” [MTP]. Note: MTP has this as “after 23 March 1900” but the Clemens family was entrenched at 30 Wellington Court, London at that time until late May, and not house-hunting. Since the Clemens family found housing by Oct. 14, this note is put to the first half of Oct.