November 30 Wednesday – Sam’s 57th Birthday. From his notebook in Florence:

Nov. 30, 1892 — 57 years old. I wish it were either 17 or 97 [NB 32 TS 47].

November 28–December 1 Thursday – In Florence Sam wrote to George H. Warner.

November 27 Sunday – Livy’s 47th birthday. Sam wrote her a three-stanza poem titled, “The Earth Invoketh the Sun” [MTP].

November 26 Saturday – A. Bliss wrote from Harrow, England asking for Sam’s autograph [MTP].

November 24 Thursday – In Florence Sam wrote to Henry M. Alden of Harper & Brothers. He had sent what he thought was “the most delicious thing that has been offered to a magazine in 30 years,” and would “never get over the astonishment” of Alden’s rejection, simply because Sam did not write it.

November 20 Sunday – Elihu Root for the New England Society wrote to Sam, asking him to respond to a toast at the 87th annual dinner held Dec. 22 [MTP].

November 16 Wednesday – In Florence Sam wrote to daughter Clara at Mrs. Mary B. Willard’s school in Berlin. In the top margin he wrote that Ned Bunce wanted her address. After expressing concern for Clara reporting she’d had a case of the “grippe” (flu; influenza) he wrote he was relieved she was better. Livy was not; she was “very weak & all wasted away.”

November 13 Sunday – In Florence, Sam sent condolences to his Hartford attorney and billiards buddy, Henry C. Robinson, whose mother had just passed away. The Courant had come and Sam mentioned “Dr. Parker’s well-thought & well-said words” [MTP].

November 12 Saturday – The N.Y. Times, Nov. 13, 1892 p.2 ran an obituary notice for Dr. A. Reeves Jackson of Chicago, who died this day.

…the original of Mark Twain’s character My Friend the Doctor, in “Innocents Abroad,” died …Dr. Jackson had been ill ten days from the effects of a stroke of apoplexy. He will be interred at Janesville, Wis. [Note: Dr. Jackson was one of Sam’s favorites on the QC excursion.]

November 11 Friday – The King sisters ended their month-long visit and left for Paris [Nov. 10 to Clara Clemens]. Sam threw himself into finishing PW:

Dec. 20/92. Finished ‘Pudd’nhead Wilson’ last Wednesday, 14th. Began it 11th or 12th of last month, after the King girls left. Wrote more than 60,000 words between Nov. 12 and Dec. 14. One day, [Dec. 1] wrote 6,000 words in 13 hours. Another day wrote 5,000 in 11 [MTLTP 328-9; NB 32, TS 51].