November 16 Monday – Ada F. Thayer wrote from Fulton, N.Y. asking if she might include a cutting from a “laughable sketch” in TA, “where Harris meets the American girl at the Hotel in Lucerne” in her collection of “new recitations” she was compiling [MTP].
November 15 Sunday – Berlin’s National-Zeitung, Sonntags-Beilage, No. 46 ran an interview of Sam by Max Horwitz, titled “Mark Twain in Berlin.” Budd reports,
“SLC praises Berlin and, unlike hasty visitors to the United States, doubts he will write book about Germany; is relieved to find he is not subject to German taxes and grumbles about having his royalties taxed in England” [“Interviews” 6].
November 14 Saturday – George Peter Alexander Healy, at the National Soldiers’ Home in Va. sent Sam a MS, his “first attempt” asking, “Is it good for anything?” [MTP].
November 13 Friday – “The Paradise of the Rheumatics” was reprinted in The Illustrated London News in two parts, the second of which ran on Nov. 28.
November 10 Tuesday – Mrs. Clara E. Rice wrote from Neligh, Nebr. Sending Sam “an ode” he might be able to use; if not return. She named a son “Samuel” after him [MTP].
November 9 Monday – In Berlin Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow (1855-1954), American journalist and author; one of the guests of the “grand official dinner” by William Walter Phelps on Oct. 31.
Thank you for your kindness. When I read your note at breakfast, one of the children said: “At this rate, papa, there presently won’t be any body left for you to get acquainted with but the Deity.”
November 8 Sunday – Sam’s first letter from Europe, “The Tramp Abroad Again: I. Paradise of the Rheumatics,” or “Mark Twain at Aix-les-Bains” ran in McClure’s syndicated newspapers, including the N.Y. Sun, Chicago Tribune, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Boston Globe, and others. The piece was reprinted as “The Paradise of the Rheumatics” in Europe and Elsewhere in 1923 [Camfield citing Budd’s Europe and Elsewhere; Rasmussen 336; Budd, Collected 2: 1000].
November 7 Saturday – In Berlin at 7 Körnerstrasse, Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. Sam needed two copies of his 1888 Meisterschafft. He also complimented Hall’s management of Webster & Co.
You make a most excellent showing for a three-years’ up-building of a business which was in ruins. I am most anxious to know the result of Mr. Williams’ trip. Much depends on it [MTLTP 290].
November 5 Thursday – Albert Ellery Berg for The Stage (N.Y.) “Published Every Saturday” wrote asking what Sam would charge for a 1,000 word story for their Christmas issue; if too busy could he provide “a stick or two with signature”? [MTP].
November 4 Wednesday – This Boston Daily Globe ad of this date was typical of the hoopla made over Mark Twain’s letters from Europe.