February 5 Friday – At the Hotel Royal in Berlin and still down in bed, Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. The doctor had ordered Sam to leave for the south of France as soon as he was able. Sam put his new address at the top of the letter, his Paris banker. He’d received a sample Mark Twain’s Memory Builder from Hall, and pointed out the flaws in the boards.

It will not be well to send any of these boards out — they will come back to you, sure.

February 2 Tuesday – At the Hotel Royal in Berlin and still down in bed, Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall, again about The American Claimant, which was to be issued as a one-dollar book as soon as the serialized version was completed. He directed Hall to get someone “competent & conscientious” to prepare the copy and read proofs, confessing he wouldn’t be able to do that “for some time to come.” He also directed Hall to coordinate the effort with Chatto for English publication.

February – The American Claimant was published serially in The Idler Magazine (London) from Feb.1892 through Jan. 1893.

London’s Idler Magazine ran “A Conglomerate Interview with Mark Twain,” by Luke Sharp [The Twainian, Nov. 1940 p.4]. From Tenney:

January 31 Sunday – Sam’s fame is reflected in a squib in the N.Y. Times, which announced he’d been “confined to his bed for a week…suffering with a bad cold,” but was “now recovering” [p.2 dateline Jan. 30, included in “Education in Germany”].

January 30 Saturday – The Illustrated London News ran a third and last segment of “At the Shrine of St. Wagner.” Prior segments ran on Jan. 2, and 9, 1892 [Willson list, Univ. of Texas at Austin].

J.T. McDonald wrote from N.Y. to Sam, responding to his article on Mental Telegraphy in December’s issue of Harper’s [MTP].

January 27 Wednesday – At the Hotel Royal in Berlin Sam finished his Jan. 25 letter to Frederick J. Hall, with a lengthy PS. He enclosed a “dated check” for $2,000 and “some undated ones for $1,000 each.” He directed Hall to put these amounts with the Wall Street agent Halsey to be invested in Livy’s name, and to do likewise with any copyright or interest payments Webster & Co. might pay him.

January 25 Monday – In Berlin, Sam began a letter to Frederick J. Hall, which he added a PS to on Jan. 27. He answered Halls’ Jan. 7 and Jan. 12 letters (neither extant), and added to Livy’s letter of Jan. 23. Sam wrote a laundry list of items for Hall’s consideration and execution. Sam noted first that the “enclosure” referred to in Hall’s Jan.

January 24 Sunday – Sam’s notebook from Berlin:

When I had been in bed 11 days, Frau von Versen came Jan. 24, & brought a note inviting me on the part of the Emperor to come to the palace at 11.30 a.m. & witness the consecration of some flags. I wrote my thanks & regrets. Frau von V. came again that day or the next & said the Emperor had commanded her to prepare dinner for him & me in her house — the date of the dinner to be the day that I shd be well enough [NB 31 TS 21].

January 23 Saturday – Livy wrote for Sam to Frederick J. Hall (not extant) [Jan. 25 to Hall].

January 21 Thursday – Livy wrote for Sam to Frederick J. Hall:

Your letter of Jan. 7th has just reached us [not extant]…Like all your letters it was a great comfort to me….I am anxious that Mr. C. should take that sixteen thousand that he will have from his story and letters and invest it elsewhere because it surely is very bad to have all ones eggs in one basket….Therefore he intends to invest $16,000 through Mr. Halsey.