July 24 Saturday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam finished his second July 22 letter to Chatto & Windus. Five additional detail items (fixes on the book) were listed and the letter dated at the end, so it’s not possible to tell which were added on July 23 and which this day. Among these was this jewel:
July 23 Friday – In Weggis, Switzerland added a PS to his second July 22 to Chatto & Windus: “Send sheets to Bliss up to the MIDDLE of the book—then don’t send any more without first writing me about it” [MTP].
July 22 Thursday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote two letters to Chatto & Windus, the second not finished till July 24. In the first:
Let us drop this impossible thing. Cable Bliss for sheets.
It will not answer to try to produce the book from the original MS. It cannot be done. It is perfectly lousy with errors and foolishnesses which are not in Bliss’s copy. I can’t endure to read another chapter of it. I must go straight & telegraph you.
July 21 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook:
Took a room at the Villa Tannen as a writing-room. Price 20 francs a month. Paid the first month in advance, & shall move in tomorrow.
———
Our landlady offered me a room in the next house below ours at 60 fr a month.
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July 20 Tuesday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister, apologizing for not hearing the doorbell on the night of July 7. Evidently MacAlister was going to urge Sam to take Pond’s lecture offer:
July 19 Monday – In Weggis, Switzerland a rented piano arrived for Clara to use during their stay.
Locher writes,
Clara still played the piano (though she would later be persuaded that her real strength was her voice), and her father rented an instrument for her in Lucerne. It arrived July 19th, one day after the family settled in Weggis. The transport was arranged by the firm of E.H. Roth- Naf, of Lucerne, who also supplied the bicycles, for Clemens had noted their address and he watched the delivery [Locher 10-11].
July 18 Sunday – The Clemens party arrived in Weggis, Switzerland, where they took residence at the Villa Bühlegg, what Dolmetsch calls, “a pension [boardinghouse] in the village of Weggis, about an hour by paddlewheel steamer up the lake from the city of Lucerne” [21].
Sam’s notebook includes a lot of description of the family’s new surroundings. In part:
July 17 Saturday – The Clemens party was at the Hotel Union in Lucerne, making ready the move to Weggis the next day. Arrangements were made with E.H. Roth-Näf of Lucerne for a rental piano for Clara to be shipped to Weggis. It would arrive on July 19 [Locher 10]; see entry.
July 16 Friday – Sam and his family went to Weggis, a quiet village of less than 1,400 residents about a half-hour from Lucerne by boat. “By chance” he’d been recommended to the Pension (boardinghouse) Bühlegg, which did not advertise as the other hotels and boardinghouses there did. The boardinghouse was run by Alois Dahinden
July 15 Thursday – Lucerne, Switzerland. Sam wrote to Henry M. Stanley. Cue: “Professor Levi of Michigan University” [MTP]. Note: letter UCCL 13296 is currently unavailable at MTP.