January – Sometime during the month Sam inscribed a copy of JA to Sir Samuel Swinton Jacob (1841- 1917), English architect, engineer, and writer; active in India: Colonel Swinton Jacob

Now if I could only foregather with you again! There is no such good fortune for me; but neither I nor the rest will forget that we have had that privilege once. / Sincerely Yours / Mark Twain

London, January 1897 [MTP].

Sam’s notebook entries:

Sam recalled that Susy “was fond of Browning” [NB 39 TS 48].

Sam wrote lines from Thomas Haynes Bayly’s (1797-1839) song, “Long, long ago” [NB 39 TS 57].

Sam “constructed a burlesque anatomy of the ant; though he does not mention [John] Lubbock[‘s Ants, Bees, and Wasps, etc. (1882)] this book is obviously the inspiration” [Gribben 428: NB 39 TS 40].

Sam noted Thomas Moore’s song (1818) “Oft in the stilly night”. Gribben: “Susy Clemens’ death reminded Clemens in January 1897 of lines 5-10 from the first stanza of Moore’s song: ‘The smiles the tears of childhood [Moore wrote ‘boyhood’s’] years / The words of love then spoken, / The eyes that shone now dim’d & gone./ The happy [Moore wrote ‘cheerful’] hearts now broken” [483: NB 39 TS 58].

Sam noted that what was said of Robert Louis Stevenson would apply to the late Susy Clemens: “A soul of flame in a body of gauze” [Gribben 663: NB 39 TS 60].

English addresses for himself, Chatto & Windus, John Bartlett solicitor, Julian Ralph, Andrew Lang, and the Boltons. Also a Paris address for M. Emile Terquem for M. Levi [NB 41 TS 1].

The Book Buyer included an article by Brander Matthews, “Mark Twain—His Work,” p. 977-9. Tenney: “A general estimate of MT, whose true worth has yet to be recognized by a public that still thinks of his early humor—which, good though it is, has been far surpassed by his later work” [27].