December 11 Monday – In London, England Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
I didn’t really want to write for the World, but I was loafing for a few days, & they furnished me with a text & asked for only 2,000 words & offered $500, & I thought I might as well put in an afternoon on it.
But in my case if I had sent it to Harpers they wouldn’t have wanted it enough to pay the half of that….
December 10 Sunday – “My First Lie and How I Got Out of It,” ran in the Sunday supplement of the N.Y. World. It was collected in The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays and My Debut as a Literary Person, with Other Essays and Stories (1903) [Budd, Collected 2: 1005; AMT-1: 707]. Note: Sam first drafted the piece on Oct. 28.
December 8 Friday – Henry Ferguson replied from Hartford to Sam’s Nov. 20 offer, giving particulars on names he wished edited in his and his brother’s journals, written during the Hornet saga. He was:
December 7 Thursday – In London, England Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers asking to see if Harpers would agree to Sam having rights to cancel the contracts after ten years, the same rights granted to Harpers under the contract. And, since he’d given the new book to Harpers under the assurance of Samuel McClure who was joining forces with Harpers, and now the union was off under a reorganization plan, wasn’t Sam “morally entitled to withdraw the book”?
December 4 Monday – In London, England Sam wrote to Richard R. Bowker.
Indeed I should like to have a proof -slip of that compilation which I could keep—for although it is not likely that at this time I could find time to write an article, I might get the chance in the bye & bye.
The best of the century for you! [MTP].
J. Henry Harper wrote to Rogers, the letter referred to in Sam’s Dec. 22 PS to Harrison. See in MTHHR 421n4.
December 1 Friday – In London, England Sam wrote a postcard reply to John Y. MacAlister.
“Thank you ever so much.
Dine there—with the L.C.J. & millions of journalists present? No-no, I have lately come of age, & know better. / SLC” [MTP].
December – “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg” first ran in Harper’s Monthly. It was collected in The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays (1900), and My Debut as a Literary Person, with Other Essays and Stories (1903) [Budd, Collected 2: 1005].
Mercure de France for December anonymously reviewed Mark Twain’s Collected Works in an article titled, “Lettres Anglaises” [Tenney 29].
November 30 Thursday – London. Sam’s 64th Birthday.
Sam wrote to Frank Bliss:
“Dear Bliss: / Please send me, care Chatto, a copy of ‘Following the Equator.’
“How does the Harper assignment affect you—to your injury, or otherwise” [David Brass Rare Books; online Oct. 3, 2009; MTPO]
November 29 Wednesday – Thomas Wardle Swainsley inscribed identically 2 volumes of Izaak Walton’s (1593-1683) Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Richd Hooker, George Herbert, &c. Ed. by H.A. Dobson (facsimile editon 1898): “To Mr. and Mrs. Clemens / A little souvenir of a short visit to Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton’s country, Beresford dale, the Dove and Manyfold from / Thomas / Wardle / Swainsley / November 29th 1899” [Gribben 740].
November 28 Tuesday – In London, England Sam inscribed a copy of The Mississippi Pilot:To J. Prince Sheldon: “Hoping this will not be the last time I shall have the pleasure of meeting Professor Sheldon. Mark Twain Nov. 28, 1899” [MTP: John Windle catalogs, 1991, Item 100].