May 12 Thursday – Ten-year-old Benjamin L. Clemens died after a weeklong, unexplained illness. “Bilious fever” they sometimes called such illnesses. Sam was six. He remembered his parents’ grief; Orion recalled that his parents kissed—the only time the Clemens children had seen them do this [MTB 44]; Powers writes that it was Sam who remembered; it’s likely both recalled the event. In her grief, Sam’s mother made all the children approach the bedside of Benjamin and touch his dead cheek.

January 5 or 7 Friday – Sam’s father wrote on his failed trip of being unable to collect debts or even to sell Charlie for $40 in Vicksburg [MTB 43]. Powers suggests he sold Charlie for ten barrels of tar [Powers, Dangerous 124]. Wecter cites the letter date as Jan. 5 and the sale for tar as Jan. 24 [74].

November 30 Thursday – Sam’s second birthday.

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].

Sam inscribed one of the Gessford photos of himself taken at Lee, Mass in July to Ralph W. Ashcroft:

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 – 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 192]. Note: the source gives a 1906 MS typed by Josephine Hobby (1862-1950) and points out that Hobby copied a now lost earlier TS created by Jean Clemens. This is the only of six known Florence A.D.’s that Sam did not include in his final Autobiography. See Jan. 8, 14 entries.