October – In N.Y.C. Sam inscribed a copy of HF to Mr. Holden: “To Mr. Holden / With the compliments of Mark Twain / October /04” [MTP: Park-Burnet Catalogs, 3 March 1938, Item 26].
Sam also inscribed a copy of Extracts from Adam’s Diary to an unidentified person: “With the kindest regards of / The Author / October /04” [MTP].
July 14 Thursday – Livy’s funeral was held in Elmira [July 19 to Collins]. The New York Times reported , July 15, p.7:
Mark Twain’s Wife Buried.
ELMIRA, N.Y., July 14.—The home of Gen. Charles J. Langdon witnessed the gathering of a large number this afternoon to pay their last respects to the memory of his sister, Mrs. Samuel L. Clemens, who died in Italy. Burial was in Woodlawn Cemetery. With Mr. Clemens were his two daughters, Misses Clara and Janet [sic] Clemens.
July – Review of Reviews (NY) published a portrait of Mark Twain, “From a photograph recently taken in Italy,” p. 122 [Tenney 39].
June 28 Tuesday – Sam later wrote of the mix-up of this morning:
In Naples at 10 a.m. sailing-day I sent my courier to the local agent to inquire if all was right. He was told the casket was on board. The ship was to sail at 4. I arrived on board about 3, & was astounded to learn there were no certificates [for the casket], & that if I could not produce them the casket must be put ashore, because without them it would not be allowed to land in America.
June 5 Sunday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence, Olivia Louise (Livy) Clemens died of heart failure at “a little past 9” in the evening. She was 58 years old [June 6 to Aldrich, Howells]. Paine gives a detailed account of the hours before Livy’s death (other reminiscences vary slightly in detail):
June – The Critic for June, p.518-24 ran an illustrated (six photographs) article, “Mark Twain from an Italian Point of View” by Raffaele Simboli, correspondent for the Nuova Antologia. See Nov. 6, 1903 entry for excerpt. Included in the pictures was one of Jean Clemens on her white Italian saddle- horse (see insert), a gift from Livy, which would die in an August trolley accident in Lee, Mass. Also in this issue was Mark Twain’s “Letter to an Italian Editor,” p.
May – Bookman (NY), p. 235-6, ran Harry Thurston Peck’s article, “Mark Twain at Ebb Tide.” Tenney: “A review of Extracts from Adam’s Diary as showing ‘just how far a man who was once a great humorist can fall. We thought when we read A Double-Barrelled Detective Story that Mark Twain could do no worse. But we were wrong’” [40].
Harper’s Weekly ran an interview with Mark Twain by J. M’Arthur [Tenney 39: Henderson (1911) p. 223].
April – A text of Sam’s autobiographical dictation survives made from Isabel Lyon’s notes during this month, that Paine later titled, “Henry H. Rogers,” and joined with a later manuscript (MTA 1: 250-56) [AMT
March – Metropolitan Magazine ran “An Interview with Mark Twain” by Clara Morris, the actress [Tenney 39: The Twainian (Feb. 1943)]. “Recollections of ain interview, apparently years earlier, in Wallack’s Theatre; the conversation with ‘Mr. Twain’ is reconstructed vaguely and imperfectly from memory. Illustrated with a drawing of MT by Edmund Frederick. (NYPL)” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Third Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1979 p. 189]. See Insert.
February – Fernando Fini wrote to Sam, sometime between Feb. and Apr. 1904. The letter is three pages of Italian [MTP].
G. Herbert Thring for Society of Authors, London sent Sam a printed announcement for their dinner at the Hotel Cecil on Apr. 20 [MTP].