December 1 Friday – In London, England Sam wrote a postcard reply to John Y. MacAlister.
“Thank you ever so much.
Dine there—with the L.C.J. & millions of journalists present? No-no, I have lately come of age, & know better. / SLC” [MTP].
December – “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg” first ran in Harper’s Monthly. It was collected in The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays (1900), and My Debut as a Literary Person, with Other Essays and Stories (1903) [Budd, Collected 2: 1005].
Mercure de France for December anonymously reviewed Mark Twain’s Collected Works in an article titled, “Lettres Anglaises” [Tenney 29].
November 30 Thursday – London. Sam’s 64th Birthday.
Sam wrote to Frank Bliss:
“Dear Bliss: / Please send me, care Chatto, a copy of ‘Following the Equator.’
“How does the Harper assignment affect you—to your injury, or otherwise” [David Brass Rare Books; online Oct. 3, 2009; MTPO]
November 29 Wednesday – Thomas Wardle Swainsley inscribed identically 2 volumes of Izaak Walton’s (1593-1683) Lives of John Donne, Henry Wotton, Richd Hooker, George Herbert, &c. Ed. by H.A. Dobson (facsimile editon 1898): “To Mr. and Mrs. Clemens / A little souvenir of a short visit to Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton’s country, Beresford dale, the Dove and Manyfold from / Thomas / Wardle / Swainsley / November 29th 1899” [Gribben 740].
November 28 Tuesday – In London, England Sam inscribed a copy of The Mississippi Pilot:To J. Prince Sheldon: “Hoping this will not be the last time I shall have the pleasure of meeting Professor Sheldon. Mark Twain Nov. 28, 1899” [MTP: John Windle catalogs, 1991, Item 100].
November 27 Monday – Livy’s 54th birthday.
November 24 Friday – In London, England Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister to ask if a reference in the newly issued Life and Letters of Sir John Millais denoted Kellgren’s system. Could he find out? [MTP]. See also Nov. 10 entry and Gribben p. 467 under Millais.
November 21 Tuesday – In London, England Sam wrote to Joe Twichell.
November 20 Monday – In London, England Sam wrote condolences to H.H. Rogers upon learning of the death of Rogers’ mother.
Before November 18 – Sam wrote to his sister Pamela A. Moffett, who then conveyed his news to her son, Sam’s nephew, Samuel E. Moffett on Nov. 18. Sam thought that osteopathy in America was a theft—it had been invented in Europe nearly 40 years before, but he was glad they had the science now for they would spread it around, while in conservative England an osteopath was seen as a quack.