January 16 Sunday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to James Whitcomb Riley in Indianapolis, thanking him for a book sent in fulfillment of a “promise made …in Washington so many years ago…” He wrote he’d direct his Hartford publisher to send him a copy of his book (likely FE). After his signature he noted, “London weather in Vienna! / —fog to smell & the electric to work by at noon-day” [MTP].
January 15 Saturday – Charles De Kay (1848-1935), art and literary critic of the N.Y. Times for eighteen years, wrote a review of FE which was published this day in the Times, “Mark Twain’s Mixed Pickles,” p. BR 40:
Mark Twain’s new book will challenge comparisons with “Innocents Abroad,” because it is cast on similar lines, being a salmi of plain information spiced with wit and humor. With such works each reader must decide whether the mixture suits him or not. …
January 14 Friday – Sam’s notebook:
Jan. 14, 1898. Began to write comedy “Is He Dead?” (Francois Millet.)
———
Make Plays—with a German for Principal character (Dutchy) an Irishman, a Scotchman, a Chinaman[,] a Japanese, a negro (George) Uncle John Quarles who was very like the Yankee farmer in Old Homestead.
Write an Old Homestead of the South” [NB 42, TS 53]. Note: Denman Thompson and George W. Ryder’s The Old Homestead (4-act play 1886) [Gribben 700].
January 13 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Jan 13 ’98 Sent 3 fables to Century” [NB 42 TS 53].
At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to Henry C. Robinson’s Dec. 29, 1897 letter.
January 12 Wednesday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Sam wrote to Henry Loomis Nelson, editor at Harper’s Weekly (1894-1898) .
January 11 Tuesday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Livy wrote for Sam to Samuel E. Moffett.
“Your Uncle wants me to say that he desires you to keep the letter that I sent you entirely private” [MTP].
January 10 Monday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria Livy wrote for Sam to Chatto & Windus, acknowledging receipt of a six months statement and check for £1095.9.10; they were “greatly pleased with the excellent showing of the statement and the consquent size of the check” [MTP]. Note: in the six-month period from July 1, 1897 to Jan. 1, 1898, Chatto printed 18,000 copies of FE [Welland 238].
January 9 Sunday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Livy wrote for Sam to Walter Bliss, replying to Bliss’ Dec. 24 (not extant). Sam verified a quotation on p.619. Receipt of six books was acknowledged; the Clemenses were “very glad the sale of the book has been satisfactory” [MTP].
William Dean Howells wrote to Sam after receiving one of Sam’s 50 printed “In Memoriam” poems with a large picture of Susy Clemens.
January 7 Friday – Katharine I. Harrison wrote to Sam, replying to his Dec. 18 and Dec. 21 letters (neither extant). She sent “the Calcutta letter” to John Brusnahan (foreman at the NY Herald) and would report back what he said.
January 6 Thursday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Livy wrote for Sam to Frank Marshall White, thanking him for his note which reinforced Sam’s belief that White could not “be guilty of such seeming discourtesy.” Also, Livy passed along Sam’s regrets that the cable from the N.Y. Journal asking for a rundown on “the Reichsrath’s affairs” had come “much too late” [MTP].