November – Sam’s article about the Hornet wreck, “My Debut as a Literary Person,” ran in the Nov. issue of Century Magazine. It was collected in My Debut as a Literary Person, with Other Essays and Stories (1903) [Budd Collected 2: 1004]. Note: See Feb. 25 entry. See also AMT 1: 127-44 and 501-6.
October 31 Tuesday – In London, England Sam replied to James B. Pond (incoming not extant):
No, no, write the book yourself—don’t pad it up with made-to-order puffs furnished by other people. No Pears’ soap business. If you are going to enter our profession you must keep up its dignity. Then I’ll wish you great & rich success! [MTP]. Note: Pond’s book, Eccentricities of Genius would be published by G.W. Dillingham Company, N.Y. in 1900.
October 30 Monday – In London, England, Sam replied to Henry M. Alden, whose incoming letter is possibly that of Oct. 12. Alden had enclosed letters showing good relations between Harpers and Frank Bliss, which gratified Sam. Alden evidently asked for any unpublished work Sam still had; Sam replied that only two short unpublished pieces remained—“Great Republic’s Peanut Stand,” which Alden already had, and two short chapters in Sam’s planned book on Christian Science. Also, The N.Y.
October 28 Saturday – Sam drafted “My First Lie and How I Got Out of It,” which would run in the Sunday supplement of the N.Y. World of Dec. 10, 1899 [Oct. 30 to Alden; Budd, Collected 2: 1005]. Note: On Dec. 20, 1901 Frederick A. Duneka of the World wrote to Sam and mentioned that the subject for this “First Lie” piece “having been suggested by myself through Mr Tuohy in London in ’99.”
October 27 Friday – Samuel S. McClure wrote from N.Y. to Sam that he’d cabled his brother in London to see if they couldn’t get some articles and stories from Mark Twain for their magazine—“That seems to be the only important magazine that does not get struck by your lightning; you are in Harper’s and the Century, and even in the Cosmopolitan, but you are not with us” [MTP]. Note: every significant editor seemed to notice the unauthorized piece that Bliss had given Cosmopolitan.
October 26 Thursday – In London, England, Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore, who evidently had requested more money for taxes and other expenses.
Such money as is in Mr. Rogers’s hands draws interest & we don’t want to disturb it; so I am enclosing a request that Bliss let you have it. I do it without blushing, for I have been spending a hundred dollars’ worth of time to beguile the Harpers to make a concession or two in Bliss’s favor & by this morning’s mail they have done it & will so inform Mr. Rogers…
October 25 Wednesday – At 30 Wellington Court (Albert Gate) in London, Sam wrote to H. Walter Barnett, photographer, complimenting him on recent pictures taken, writing that they “have the distinctions of their predecessors,” and that Barnett didn’t seem to know how to make a bad one [MTPO].
October 21 Saturday – A New York Times article datelined London, Oct. 21, which ran Oct. 22, p.7, “Gen. Harrison in London,” cites Mark Twain was among the invitees to a banquet on Oct. 25. Sam did not go, as he was declining all public appearances for the present. See Oct. 26 to Whitmore.
Academy (London), p.445 ran a brief quotation from Mark Twain on his Christian Science article in Cosmopolitan [Tenney 30].
October 20 Friday – In London, Sam wrote on his calling card to T. Douglas Murray: “When I made it appear to my wife, My dear Mr. Murray, that you manifested an interest (which I enlarged,) in my portrait, she was mightily pleased, & hopes you will not regard it as an intrusion if she begs you to let her offer you this one” [MTP: ebay.com item #2254961173]. Note: evidently this card accompanied a photo of Sam as a gift.
October 19 Thursday – At 30 Wellington Court (Albert Gate) in London, Sam replied to William Dean Howells’ Oct. 9 letter. Sam told of writing the Introduction to the Official Trial records of Joan of Arc to be published by T. Douglas Murray, and also about Basil Wilberforce asking him to speak “in his drawing room to the Dukes & Earls & M.P.’s” about Joan, which he couldn’t do because it would have taken him out of his seclusion.