May 5 Friday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam replied Ambrose Poynter (1867-1923), who evidently had asked if he might use a story or a passage. Sam had no objections and the story and details were “set down in a book of mine—‘Old Times on the Mississippi,’” he didn’t remember the chapter.
May 4 Thursday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Sam cabled Chatto & Windus:
PLEASE FIND MADAME BLANCHE MARCHESI THROUGH HER CONCERT AGENT ASK HERE WHERE SHE WILL SPEND THE SUMMER AND WILL SHE TEACH MY DAUGHTER TELEGRAPH ANSWER AND KEEP THIS PRIVATE = CLEMENS [MTP]. Note: see May 10.
Sam also replied to John M. Hay, at this time US Secretary of State. (Hay’s incoming not extant.)
May 3 Wednesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam cabled James R. Clemens and Katharine Boland on their marriage: “CONGRATULATIONS KATHARINE JAMES. CLEMENS” [MTP].
Sam wrote on a calling card to Percy Spalding: “Enclosed please find the papers, duly executed” [MTP].
May 1-7 Sunday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Joe Twichell, enclosing a form letter invitation in German for a committee meeting from Bertha von Suttner.
April 30 Sunday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus asking them to spend one pound, no more, to obtain some illustrated books including Jack and the Beanstalk which were for sale at a charity bazaar [MTP].
April 29 Saturday – Wilfred R. Hollister and R. Harry Norman wrote to Sam of their intent to publish a book, Five Famous Missourians (published 1900 by Hudson-Kimberly Publishing, Kansas City, Mo.) Could he provide contacts who might report on “unpublished incidents” in Sam’s life? On May 13 Sam asked his nephew, Samuel E. Moffett, to answer their letter [MTP].
April 28 Friday – Sam’s notebook:
“Miss Harrison—date, Apl. 28/99: To our credit, $ 51,995.29 cash. Invested in American Smelting Co., $5,000—now worth $6,300. 50 pfd & 35 com—selling at 90 & 52” [NB 40 TS 55].
April 27 Thursday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to John Kendrick Bangs.
Dear Sir: Do you think you could persuade Mr. Howells to come out of that polling-booth & let me keep game a while? / Supplicatingly / Mark Twain [MTP: Bangs, Francis H. John Kendrick Bangs. (1941) p.205]. Note: see Apr. 2 to 13 to Howells.
April 25 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Samuel E. Moffett about the biographical sketch of Mark Twain to be used for the Uniform Edition:
Your letter [not extant], with the picture of the cordial boy, has arrived, & I have five minutes in which to answer.
April 24 Monday – Poultney Bigelow wrote a postcard from Vichy, France to Sam.
Just arrived at this city of stinking springs & am vigorously flushing my guts every day while waiting for a water melon, which I hear, ripen in June at Murcia in Spain. I am now on my 12th doctor & he says I must stay here at least one month. We have left the 3 children at a French boarding school near Dinard on the Brittany coast…& we both propose to hire a villa there for 6 mos. & revel in animal delights [MTP].