February 2 Saturday – Sam & Livy’s 25th Wedding Anniversary. At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam gave Livy a new five-franc piece that she would frame, which symbolized their reduced financial condition. “Nobody else put up anything, all the family but me being poor” [Feb. 3 to Rogers]. Sam dedicated a copy of JA to Livy:
1870 TO MY WIFE 1895
OLIVIA LANGDON CLEMENS
February 1 Friday – Andrew Chatto sent Sam the London address of Max O’Rell (Paul Blouët) and advised that even though Max was in America, letters sent would be forwarded. Chatto acknowledged receipt of the American edition of PW and was sorry he did not have time to include the Twins story in their edition, but hoped to use it “before long” [MTP].
February – As early as Feb. 3 in a letter to Rogers, Sam was planning and discussing a world tour. The plans evolved over the spring and were not finalized until late May, with J.B. Pond acting as manager for the North American leg and Robert Sparrow Smythe of Melbourne handling the down-under leg. After the death of Susy, Clara Clemens recalled her father saying to her mother:
January 29 Tuesday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
Your felicitous and delightful letter of the 15th [not extant] arrived three days ago and brought great pleasure into the house. I note what you say about helping me with your heart and head and pocket in the matter of the uniform edition; and I shall surely call on the first two gratefully; and if I find I can’t pull through without invading the third, why then I’ll attack that if the edition promises to justify such conduct.
January 27 Sunday – The New York Times, p.27, “Mark Twain’s New Volume” praised the illustrations in the book version of Pudd’nhead Wilson, and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins, published on Nov. 28, 1894. The Century installments were illustrated by Louis Loeb. Frank Bliss hired two little-known illustrators for the book, F.M. Senior and C.H. Warren, who came up with 432 drawings to be used in the margins [1996 Oxford ed.
January 26 Saturday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam received H.H. Rogers’ Jan. 15 letter. He would respond on Jan. 29.
January 23 Wednesday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris Sam wrote to John D. Adams of the Century Co. enclosing a “few alterations” to a JA excerpt and asking for proofs of the rest of the parts; he hadn’t thought it necessary but admitted that was a mistake and was glad that Henry M. Alden “had that inspiration” [MTP].
January 21 Monday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
Yours of the 8th is received.
That is the very thing. If you will write that sort of a letter to [Bram] Stoker, I’ll be very glad, and will keep diligently aloof myself.
January 20 Sunday – The New York Times, p.3, ran a short excerpt from Sam’s N.A.R. article about Bourget:
January 19 Saturday – The Athenaeum, No. 3508 p.83-4 briefly reviewed PW: “The story in itself Is not much credit to Mark Twain’s skill as a novelist,” and few of the characters are striking, but “If the preface (with its tasteless humor) be skipped, the book well repays reading just for the really excellent picture of Roxana” [Tenney 24].
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