July 23 Sunday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam replied to Richard Watson Gilder (incoming not extant). Sam praised the cure they’d been taking—“it takes all the old age out of you & sends you for the feeling like a bottle of champagne that’s just been uncorked” [MTP].
July 21 Friday – Robert G. Ingersoll died in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. of congestive heart failure, age 65. Sam admired Ingersoll, called the “Great Agnostic” for views Sam couldn’t publicly take himself. Audio recordings Ingersoll made at Edison’s Menlo Park laboratory survive and are accessible online. See Sam’s letter of Nov. 12 to Eva L. Farrell, Ingersoll’s niece. Also, Schwartz’s May 1976 article, “Mark Twain and Robert Ingersoll: The Freethought Connection” in American Literature Vol. 48, No. 2, p. 183-93
July 20 Thursday – Sam’s notebook:
5 p.m. 20th. Jean fell in a spasm striking her head on the slop jar. A bad convulsion; she lay as if dead—face purple & no light in the eyes. I ran & brought Harry; his father soon followed. They are working at her now. She is better [NB 40 TS 58].
July 19 Wednesday – Joe Twichell wrote to Livy, this day or the next, July 20 [MTP].
July 18 Tuesday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to Mollie Clemens. His letter is not extant but was transcribed in a letter from Pamela A. Moffett to her son, Samuel on Aug. 3. Sam wrote of the biographical sketch that his nephew had done of him for the Uniform Edition of his works. He wrote they would return to England in the fall and sail for American before spring [MTP].
July 16 Sunday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, asking that he send “a couple of the very best of Clark Russell’s sea-tales.” He also wanted some smaller pictures of himself, and asked if they hadn’t heard from daughter Clara to please write her. He ended with, “Jönköping is pronounced Zhenshepping—think of that!”[MTP].
July 15 Saturday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam replied to Daniel Willard Fiske (incoming letter not extant).
Then inside of 3 weeks we shall see you! Good! God could not arrange it better. Except in one way; to reduce the 3 weeks to 3 days. That would increase my reverence & compel my praise.
July 14 Friday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to Robert Lutz, sending him the finished biographical sketch which his nephew, Samuel E. Moffett had completed from Sam’s draft. Sam informed him it would be published in the 22-volume Uniform Edition of his works. “It is plenty long enough, & I shall be glad to see it take the place of the longer one you are now publishing” [MTP].
July 13 Thursday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to Laurence Hutton in London in care of Chatto & Windus.
So you sail Sept. 1st —and we shan’t get a glimpse of you two, for which we are very very sorry. We are here till October taking the Swedish movement-cure. I am taking it myself, for the mental & physical refreshment it furnishes, though there’s nothing the matter with me. We left Clara in London (c/o Chatto & Windus); she will sail for here July 28.
July 12 Wednesday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote out his daily routine to daughter Clara, who had remained in London to continue her voice lessons: “Hell, July 12/99 / (Sanna Branch), Sweden”
This is the daily itinerary: