November 17, 1899 Friday

November 17 Friday – In London, England Sam replied to H.H. Rogers (incoming not extant but before his mother’s death on Nov. 9), asking that their money be put “into a safe thing which stands to rise in value.” Sam agreed with a suggestion (not specified) by Rogers about the Mt. Morris Bank. Unaware she had passed away on Nov. 9, Sam wrote he was glad Rogers’ mother was “up & about again.” He took another jab at Clarence C. Rice:

November 16, 1899 Thursday

November 16 ThursdayEva A. Spiridon (Mrs. Ignace Spiridon) wrote from Monte Carlo to reply to Livy’s questions about the portraits they did of the Clemens girls, which the Spiridon’s had already sent to Paris Exposition. “After the Exposition they will be sent to America and I shall write you before we send them in time so you can give your orders” [MTP].

November 13, 1899 Monday

November 13 Monday – Sam wrote an aphorism on a card that was later pasted on the flyleaf of RI: “Let us save the to-morrows for work. Truly Yours, Mark Twain, London, Nov. 13/99” [MTP: City Auction catalogs, Feb. 28, 1942, Item 56].

November 12, 1899 Sunday

November 12 Sunday – In London, England Sam wrote to Miss Eva L. Farrell, niece of Robert G. Ingersoll, who died July 21 of congestive heart failure.

“Except for my daughter’s, I have not grieved for any death as I have grieved for his. His was a great & beautiful spirit, he was a man—all man, from his crown to his foot-soles. My reverence for him was deep & genuine; I prized his affection for me, & returned it with usury” [MTP].

November 11, 1899 Saturday

November 11 Saturday – In London, England Sam replied to E. Duncan Lucas that he’d forgotten “what the project was,” but if Lucas would call between 4 and 4:30 nearly any day he would see. Sam provided Chatto’s address and warned: “Show this card, or Chatto will tell you I have gone to the continent—& it will not be true” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to an unidentified man and used his Wellington Court address.

November 10, 1899 Friday

Before November 10 Friday – In London, England Sam wrote two notes to Poultney Bigelow. The first agreeing to walk at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 10. The second a P.S. “Too bad! Clara is to perform with [Blanche] Marchesi  Friday eve the 10th. I had forgotten it. I’ve got to be there” [MTP].

November 10 Friday – In London, England Sam replied to H.F. Gordon Forbes, whose incoming letter is not extant, but the subject was politics and the Boer War:

November 8, 1899 Wednesday

November 8 Wednesday – In London, England Sam wrote to Dr. Sullivan, declining “an almost unresistable temptation” to appear at a club function, for he was a “bond slave to Fitzgerald’s Omar”. He didn’t want his name to appear in the papers while he was “doing the hermit act.” He thanked Mr. Walker for the invitation and Sullivan for conveying it. He also mentioned Livy, his family, and Dr. Jonas Henrick Kellgren:

November 7, 1899 Tuesday

November 7 Tuesday – Sam wrote to his sister, Pamela A. Moffett:

It was really very kind of Dr. Steele to invent Osteopathy after Kellgren (the actual inventor of it) had already been curing all kinds of diseases with it when Dr. Steele was in his cradle cutting his teeth.

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