May 25 Sunday – Sam wrote from the Normandy Hotel in Paris to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, who had left Paris for home a few days before. The Clemens family “felt an awful vacancy here when the Aldriches left,” Sam wrote. He also passed on Tauchnitz’s promise to write Aldrich about including Aldrich’s book of sketches in his series.
May 23 Friday – Bill and receipt from Munroe & Co., Paris, for stay at the Normandy Hotel, £12.4.1 London [MTP].
Christian Tauchnitz wrote to Sam: “Many thanks for your kind lines. I will certainly write to Mr. Aldrich. / The books of Mr. Howells did not yet reach me, I therefore directed a line to him” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Answered”; file note: “See SLC to Tauchnitz 25 may 1879, SLC to Aldrich, 25 May 1879”
May 20-25 Sunday – Sam wrote (for publication) to the editor of the New York Evening Post. His letter was printed on June 9 as “Mark Twain, a Presidential Candidate” [MTLE 4: 62]. (See June 9 entry for excerpt, and also in Budd, “Collected”.)
May 17 Saturday – From Lucius Fairchild’s diary: “At home—Called on Mark Twain & walked on the Boulevard” [Rees 8].
Sam wrote from Paris to Richard Whiteing. He thanked him for writing something complimentary about him and for “saving me from those people—I had been feeling a little uneasy about them” (unidentified) [MTLE 4: 59].
May 15 Thursday – In Paris, Sam answered Mary Mason Fairbanks’ letter requesting a loan of $2,000. Sam sent her $1,000 and referred her to Charles Langdon for the rest. Sam confessed that having Mary’s son Charley send pictures directly to the American Publishing Co was a mistake. “It never occurred to me to remark that they should be sent here—to me, drawn on paper, not on the wood” [MTLE 4: 59].
May 14 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Paris to his nephew, Samuel Moffett, confiding that he and Livy were “fleeing from these deluges of company” by using the work room (studio) Sam rented from Millet [MTLE 4: 58].
May 13 Tuesday – Livy wrote from Paris to her mother:
“We live in such a perfect whirl of people these days, that it seems utterly impossible to do anything, I wish that I had put down the names of the people that have been here for the last two months, but I think every day, well this will be the last we shant have as many again” [MTNJ 2: 288].
May 12 Monday – Sam wrote from Paris to Robert M. Hooper:
…previous engagement debars us the pleasure of accepting Mr. & Mrs. Heuston’s kind invitation, but we shall hold the 17th open, so as not to miss the entertainment at your house.
I’m as sorry as you are that you were not on the Tribune, because toward the last I began to get my hand in, & if you had been there I would have won all of your money & part of your clothes [MTLE 4: 57].
May 11 Sunday – The New York World published Sam’s “interview” with Richard Whiteing, (1840-1928), English author and correspondent for the World. Sam discussed copyright laws and British society [MTNJ 2: 307n31;Scharnhorst, Interviews 14-16] (see Apr. 12 entry).
May 10 Saturday – Sam wrote from the Normandy Hotel in Paris to Frank Bliss.