April 15, 1895 Monday

April 15 Monday – Sam signed the agreement with Harper & Brothers sent by Henry M.Alden on Apr. 3 to publish JA and TS,Detective. At the foot of the third page Sam wrote,

If at any time during the serial publication of Joan of Arc my nom de plume should be appended to it as author, I am to receive, after that, $15 per 1000 words additional, thence to the end. This is the only omission I notice in the above [contract] S.L. Clemens, Paris Apl. 15/95 [MTP].

April 14, 1895 Sunday

April 14 Sunday – In Paris at 169 rue de l’Universite, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

Yours of the 2d [not extant] has come, and it is a very genuine pleasure to me to know that I am missed. I had such a good homelike time there that I missed the house and everybody in it and found it lonesome in the ship and hard to reconcile myself to the change.

April 10, 1895 Wednesday

April 10 WednesdayJoe Twichell wrote to Sam sending an address of a N.Y. boarding house (Mrs. Rufus McHard, 61 West 17th St.) advising Sam to apply some time in advance at $25 per week. Joe referred to a “longish letter” he’d sent Livy, but he didn’t want her to answer it, just to know he’d mailed it. Joe offered cheer:

April 8, 1895 Monday

April 8 MondayFrank Mayo inscribed a publisher’s copy of PW: “Yours truly, Frank Mayo. First representation of Pudd’nhead Wilson. Hartford, Conn., April 8th, 1895”. The occasion was the Hartford opening of the dramatization of PW at Proctor’s Opera House. At some later time Sam wrote under Mayo’s inscription: “The above signature is genuine & is that of a genuine man, too. Truly yours, Mark Twain” [MTP; Fatout, MT Speaking 276]. Note: see Sept.

April 7, 1895 Sunday

April 7 Sunday – In Paris at 169 rue de l’Université, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers. He was “in a sweat” and spent a page or two wondering how his royalties from Frank Mayo’s dramatization of PW might be calculated. As per the contract, Sam should have had no worries:

April 6, 1895 Saturday

April 6 Saturday – Sam’s letter of Apr. 7 reveals he was in Paris, when he wrote “Clara and I thought we had discovered exactly the flat” for Mrs. Clarence Rice, “last night” (Apr. 6). Sam also saw Mr. Macgowan and Mr. Southard, according to his Apr. 7 to H.H. Rogers.

April 4, 1895 Thursday

April 4 Thursday – In London, Sam left his calling card with a note for Chatto & Windus, his English publishers. “please pay S. Gardener & Co £13:5.0. & charge to me. / S.L. Clemens / Apl. 4/95” [MTP].

Sam described his dinner with Henry M. Stanley and a crowd of “thirty or forty”:

April 3, 1895 Wednesday

April 3 Wednesday – On the S.S. Paris and nearing Southampton, Sam wrote two letters to H.H. Rogers. In the first (all but the first paragraph is lost) he announced they were approaching Southampton. He reported good weather and a smooth sea for the entire trip. His writing would not come, however:

But I have done no work. Every attempt has failed — a struggle every day, & retreat & defeat at night & all.

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