November 6 Sunday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam began a letter to Richard Watson Gilder that he finished Nov. 13. Sam directed him to reject the MS of “My Platonic Sweetheart” if he hadn’t already. Sam felt the article was a mistake, though he’d liked it when he wrote it [MTP].
Sam also began a letter to H.H. Rogers that he finished Nov. 7.
November 5 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Wrote Pond the Forum check hadn’t come” [NB 40 TS 49]. Note: “About Play Acting” ran in the Oct. 1898 issue of the Forum. “
November 2 Wednesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to James M. Tuohy of the New York World, who had requested a story for Christmas (Tuohy’s letter not extant):
For several months I have been at work a little, at considerable intervals, on two stories; & when your letter came both happened to be very close to the finish; I then added the necessary work and now they are done. …
October 28 Friday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote an autographed aphorism on a notecard to an unidentified person: “Nothing is so ignorant / as a man’s left hand, / except a lady’s watch”
[MTP: Sotheby’s, NY catalog, Oct. 29, 1996].
The New York Times of Nov. 13, 1898, p. 19 ran “In The Austrian Capital” (unsigned) with a Vienna dateline of Oct. 28. The article included this passage on Mark Twain:
A MEDALLION OF MARK TWAIN
October 23 Sunday – William Dean Howells wrote from N.Y. to Sam.
October 22 Saturday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote an inscription and an aphorism to Miss Annette Hullah: “To Miss Annette Hullah from her best friend—/ Oct. 22/98. S.L. Clemens / All of us contain Music and Truth, but the most of us can’t get it out” [MTP]. Note: Miss Hullah was an English pupil of Theodor Leschetizky; she wrote a study of her teacher in 1906, Theodor Leschetizky.
October 20 Thursday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote a letter of introduction for Herr Van Dyke to Laurence Hutton: “any kindness you & Mrs. Hutton may show him is a kindness shown to me.” Sam requested that Hutton introduce Van Dyke to the Players Club and also the Century magazine staff
[MTP]. Note: could this have been Henry Van Dyke, later professor of literature at Princeton?
October 19 Wednesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Edmund Kloieda.
“I am sorry that I am not able to comply, but I shall lecture only once during the next twelvemonth, & for that lecture I have already engaged myself. When I was younger I had no distaste for lecturing, but now that I am old it is to me an almost unendurable distress & discomfort.”
October 18 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.
The 3 books have come. Many Thanks.
October 17 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz, Austria, Sam wrote to Bettina Wirth. He explained the English expression, “So-long,” and the double-standard of its application.