Day by Day entries are from Mark Twain, Day By Day, four volumes of books compiled by David Fears and made available on-line by the Center for Mark Twain Studies.  The entries presented here are from conversions of the PDFs provided by the Center for Mark Twain Studies and are subject to the vagaries of that process.    The PDFs, themselves, have problems with formatting and some difficulties with indexing for searching.  These are the inevitable problems resulting from converting a printed book into PDFs.  Consequently, what is provided here are copies of copies.  

I have made attempts at providing a time-line for Twain's Geography and have been dissatisfied with the results.  Fears' work provides a comprehensive solution to that problem.  Each entry from the books is titled with the full date of the entry, solving a major problem I have with the On-line site - what year is the entry for.  The entries are certainly not perfect reproductions from Fears' books, however.  Converting PDFs to text frequently results in characters, and sometimes entire sections of text,  relocating.  In the later case I have tried to amend the problem where it occurs but more often than not the relocated characters are simply omitted.  Also, I cannot vouch for the paragraph structure.  Correcting these problems would require access to the printed copies of Fears' books.  Alas, but this is beyond my reach.

This page allows the reader to search for entries based on a range of dates.  The entries are also accessible from each of the primary sections (Epochs, Episodes and Chapters) of Twain's Geography.  

Entry Date (field_entry_date)

July 13, 1878 Saturday 

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July 13 Saturday  Sam wrote from Heidelberg to Frank Bliss. Sam had received Frank’s letter in “the usual time, 14 days.” Evidently Frank had asked for Sam’s power of attorney, as he was ready to break away from his father’s publishing company to start his own business. Sam answered that even if he sent the documents that day, Frank wouldn’t have them until July 27, which was “ten days too late,” for whatever Frank had in mind.

July 23, 1878 Tuesday

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July 23 Tuesday  Sam wrote from Heidelberg to Chatto & Windus, publishers, about money matters. He also requested a copy of Ouida’s Friendship, bound in full dark blue morocco [MTLE 3: 72].

July 24, 1878 Wednesday

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July 24 Wednesday – The Clemens party started out on a three-day carriage trip through the Black Forest. They stayed at inns along the route. From Sam’s notebook:

“Stopped at Forbach at noon—trout under a grape arbor, & 3 Germans eating in general room.

The village assembled to see a tinker mend a tin boiler.

School where they sang—something like our singing geography—one monotonous tune of ½ doz. notes.”

July 25, 1878 Thursday

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July 25 Thursday – The second day of the carriage trip over country that Sam and Joe would tramp in early August. Eclectic entries from Sam’s notebook:

Hotel with nobody visible—one (very nice) room-girl for 3 floors—

& an awful bell to call folks to supper.

I wish I could hear myself talk German.

Superb view from Teufelstein, Luisaruhe & Englekanzel.

C[lara] when down & visited the waterfalls.

Beautiful bright green grass everywhere.

July 26 or July 27, 1878 Saturday

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July 26 or July 27 Saturday –The Clemens party returned by rail to the Hotel de France in Baden Baden [MTNJ 2: 116n3]. Sometime during their stay in Baden Baden, Rosina Hay saved Clara Clemens, age four, from crawling outside the balusters of a hotel corridor six-stories up [MTNJ 2: 367]. Note: See Harnsberger p.31.

July 28, 1878 Sunday 

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July 28 Sunday – Sam went to the “English Church” and sat behind the Empress of Germany. From his notebook:

She contributed 20 marks & snapped her smelling bottle a good deal & curtsied at the name of the Savior instead of merely inclining the head, as others did….Church not crowded—the Empress does not “draw” well for an Em[press.] [MTNJ 2: 119].

July 29, 1878 Monday

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July 29 Monday – From Sam’s notebook:

Lot of loud Americans at breakfast this morning—loud talking & coarse laughter. Talking at everybody else.

Took a nasty glass of hot mineral water at 7 AM, with teaspoon of Carlsbad salt dissolvd in it.

Never knew before what Eternity was made for. It is to give some of us a chance to learn German.

July 30, 1878 Tuesday

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July 30 Tuesday –Sam wrote to Mr. Tyler (a merchant) about a “sorry old table” from the Heidelberg College prison he hoped to purchase. Sam had been unable to attend to the errand. He wrote that he expected to be at Lang’s Hotel on Aug. 6 with “a jolly preacher [Twichell] who will arrive here day after tomorrow” [MTLE 3: 73].

August 1, 1878 Thursday 

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August 1 Thursday  Joe Twichell arrived in Baden Baden, Germany [MTNJ 2: 113]. Joe was prepared to spend six weeks hiking with Sam. On or about this day Sam wrote to Charles Dudley Warner. Sam had heard that his subsidy of Twichell’s trip was in the newspapers, and it upset him.

August 2, 1878 Friday

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August 2 Friday – Sam and Joe took a short excursion (6 miles) to the popular Altes Schloss (Favorita Schloss), a conspicuous ruin on the summit of a hill outside town. Sam’s notebook holds an entry paraphrasing a guide book, that:

“…no tourist should fail to climb the mountain & enjoy the view. Hired boy to climb the Mt & examine (or enjoy?) the view. He felt well repaid for all his trouble.”

August 4, 1878 Sunday

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August 4 Sunday – Sam and Joe took another one-day excursion from Baden Baden to Ebersteinburg to Nuehaus to Gernsbach, where they drank beer. Sam sent a telegram to Livy at the Hotel de France [MTNJ 2: 129]. The pair returned to Baden Baden in the evening.

August 5, 1878 Monday

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August 5 Monday  Sam and Joe left by rail for a week-long tramp. Sam wrote at 8:30 PM from Allerheiligen, Germany to Livy in Heidelberg. Sam wrote of almost being left at Baden Baden that morning, having waited on the wrong side of the train tracks. After having their day “mapped out” by a schoolmaster named Scheiding, the rest of the day was full:

August 6, 1878 Tuesday

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August 6 Tuesday – Clemens and Twichell walked from Allerheiligen to Oppenau, Germany, ten miles [MTNJ 2: 47, 129]. They then took a train from Oppenau to Heidelberg “through clouds of dust” [129].

 

August 7, 1878 Wednesday

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August 7 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Lang’s Hotel in Heidelberg to Livy. He’d received her note and thanked her.

“We have had a long & most enjoyable day in a carriage up to Hirschhorn & back with Smith” [MTLE 3: 76].

August 8, 1878 Thursday

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August 8 Thursday – Joe and Sam took the train up the river valley to Wimpfen. They started out on foot, and took a peasant’s cart seven more miles to Heilbronn [Rodney 103]. They browsed around the town and admired the old buildings. They ordered red wine at the Hotel zum Falkan but got something different. They discovered the label was wet and had just been applied.

August 9, 1878 Friday

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August 9 Friday  Twichell and Sam took a boat from Heilbronn for a trip down the Neckar River, stopping for beer and chicken at Jagtfeldt, then continuing toward Hirschhorn in a new and smaller boat [MTNJ 2: 132].

August 10, 1878 Saturday

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August 10 Saturday – In the morning the men explored Dilsburg Castle [Rodney 103]. Sam and Joe started back to Baden Baden by train. They took a swift raft ride of the lower river to Heidelberg, plowing the raft into a bridge [103]. “Blazing hot in train.” They stopped at Friedrich. From Sam’s notebook:

August 11, 1878 Sunday

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August 11 Sunday – Sam and Twichell returned to Baden BadenLivy, the children and the rest of the Clemens party had already gone on to Lucerne, Switzerland [Rodney 103]. From Sam’s notebook: