July 18 Saturday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, responding to a letter (not extant). No, Sam said, he wanted a letter of credit from Brown Shipley & Co. for the amount of Chatto’s check, as there was “nothing so convenient & so handy” as one of their “ordinary circular letters of credit.”
July 14 Tuesday – John Habberton for N.Y. Herald sent Sam a clipping from the July 11, 1891 Publishers’ Weekly p.43 that read: “MARK TWAIN, it is reported, intends starting a humourous journal in London.” Was it true? Either way, he’d “gladly print” Sam’s response in the Herald [MTP].
July 12 Sunday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus having just received their check and note. He returned the check and asked them to place it in credit with Brown Shipley & Co., London, to draw upon as he wished or to gain a letter of credit from them. He referred to the “new continental company which has secured Kipling, Howells & others,” and said that he’d advised the company the matter was in Chatto’s hands, whose “powers were unhampered.” Chatto had also sent books (some requested).
July 11 Saturday – The Illustrated American ran a full-page portrait of Mark Twain, printed in sepia ink from halftone of a crayon sketch by Arthur Jule Goodman [The Twainian 2.8 (Nov.1940) p.4].
A.W. McArthur wrote from N.Y. to Sam asking to use his portrait in a literary game [MTP].
July 10 Friday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. Sam added vertically to the top margin of the letter that he would “be present at eight or ten Wagner operas at” Bayreuth, Germany from July 31 to Aug. 12. Sam wanted Hall to see Robert Underwood Johnson or Richard Watson Gilder of Century Magazine to see if they’d pay $1,000 as Samuel S.
July 9 Thursday – W.F. Johnson wrote to Sam soliciting aid for the Brooklyn Howard Colored Orphan Asylum [MTP].
July 8 Wednesday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, requesting Kipling’s last book, Mine Own People [MTP from Am. Art Assoc. catalog, item 353].
Augustus Jacobson for the Society of Tennessee Army, Palmer House, Chicago wrote to Sam inviting him to the unveiling of the Grant statue in Lincoln Park during the reunion Oct. 7 and 8 [MTP].
July 4 Saturday – Joe Twichell sent a printed circular he’d received from E.B. Dillingham, Chaplain at the Hartford County Jail seeking “suitable books” or funds. Joe wrote on the bottom, “Here’s a gem ‘of purest [illegible word] serene — as you see. I send it to you for a Forth of July present. With love and greeting to all, Yer aff. – Joe.” On the envelope Sam wrote, “Use this in newspaper letter” [MTP].
July 3 Friday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote again to daughters Susy and Clara in Geneva, with Jean Clemens penning the letter (due to Sam’s rheumatism) and adding a PS asking for them to soak off and save the French stamps for her that came on their letters. Sam wrote of a conversation he’d had with the doctor on Wednesday (July 1) about a rash that everyone had but Sam himself.
July 1 Wednesday – In Aix-les-Bains, Sam had a conversation with the doctor about the rash that was tormenting nearly everyone but Sam. See July 3 entry.