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)

September 8, 1878 Sunday

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September 8 Sunday  Joe Twichell left Switzerland to return home. Sam saw him off at the station [MTLE 3: 85, 89]. He arranged for Joe to pick up expense money for the trip home, writing from Geneva, Switzerland to Chatto & Windus, asking them to pay ten pounds to Joseph H. Twichell.

September 9, 1878 Monday

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September 9 Monday  Sam and Livy wrote from Geneva to Joe Twichell, thanking him for his visit, bemoaning the fact that “the pleasant tramping & talking” were “at an end.” It had been a “rich holiday” for Sam; the Clemens even missed having Joe knock on their door to wake them in the mornings [MTLE 3: 89]. The letter may have beaten Joe home to Hartford.

September 10, 1878 Tuesday

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September 10 Tuesday – Sam wanted to show Livy some of the best scenery of his latest excursion with Joe. His notebook: “Started to Chamonix with 2 horse-wagon, 9.30 [AM]” [MTNJ 2: 177]. They may have stopped in Chambéry, France. “As soon as you strike French territory out of Geneva you find the road strewn with crosses & beggars” [177].

September 12, 1878 Thursday

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September 12 Thursday  Sam’s notebook: “Saw 3 people far up on the forhead of M B [Mont Blanc] through the glass waved hdkf [handkerchief]” [MTNJ 2: 179]. “Started back to Geneva at 9” [180]. Sam and Livy returned to Geneva. Sam wrote on Sept. 13 that it was nine hours each way [MTLE 3: 90].

September 13, 1878 Friday

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September 13 Friday  Sam wrote from Geneva, Switzerland to Olivia Lewis Langdon. This is a delightful letter to Sam’s mother-in-law, with notes about the children. Sam wrote about Clara Spaulding watching the children while he and Livy traveled to Chamonix and Mont Blanc. The children “entertained” Clara, he wrote,

September 16, 1878 Monday

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The Clemens family left Chambéry for Turin by the fast express train, which Sam noted “makes  4 miles an hour—the other trains make only 3 1/4 . By 11 we were out of sight  of Chambery.” Three hours from Turin, the train barely won a race with a  team of oxen, Sam wrote [MTNJ  2:185]. It took  eight more hours to arrive in Turin, at about 7 PM. They took rooms in the Hotel  d’Europe,
which Sam noted  had “wonderful rooms” [186].  They went to supper and drank Barolo wine.

September 18, 1878 Wednesday

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The family left Turin at 9:15 AM and arrived at Milan at 1:30 PM [MTNJ 2: 188]. Sam’s  notebook is full of things they saw in Milan, and observations on a host of  items and situations.

Some favorites:

I think the arcade  system is borrowed from Turin.

Saw a starchy suit of  clothes marked $9—doorway full of dummies dressed—stepped in to order one like the $9—nothing inside! The old man hauled in the dummy, stripped him & I  ordered the clothes sent to the hotel.

September 20, 1878 Friday

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Sam (and probably the ladies) went to see Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” in  the refectory of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. “If there is  anything worse than the original, it is the 15 or 20 copies in oil & water”  [MTNJ 2: 190]. They also  visited the “great picture gallery” (Brera).

“There are artists in  Arkansas to-day who would not have had to paint signs for a living if they had  had the luck to live in the time of the old masters” [191].
 

September 21, 1878 Saturday

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Sam’s notebook:

The Italians all seem  to go to work before daylight—& all in couples, singing tenor & bass or  alto duet—all got strong voices & many good ones—don’t sing simple airs but  starchy opera stuff—they wake you up and keep you awake.

The Milan clocks are not useful. This morning one struck  2, another 3, another 1, another 2, two others 3—all this occupied 10  minutes—so I got up & looked at my watch—correct time 4.15. 15 minutes  later, the procession of striking began again.
 

September 24, 1878 Tuesday

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The Clemens party left Milan and traveled north to Bellagio on Lake Como [MTNJ 2: 156]. They  stayed at the Grand Bretagne Hotel. Sam’s notebook:

“Rainy, sour, cold,  dreary. Removed a screen in our room & discovered a regular fire-place—for  wood.  Right away we had the first wood fire we had seen since we left our own  house. This made the day cheery” [2: 193].

Also noted was praise for Karl  Baedeker’s (1801-1859) Italy,  Handbook for Travellers: “curious & useful details” about Lake Como [2: 193]

September 25, 1878 Wednesday

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The Clemens party left Bellagio at 10 AM. They met G.K. Mayer and wife [MTNJ 2:  159n6] who helped them take the lake boat down to Lecco, Italy, where they boarded the  train.  They suffered another ten-hour trip and arrived at Venice at 7:30  PM. [Rodney 112; MTNJ 2: 194]. The family had looked  forward to Venice as a “relaxing interlude in their long  journey.” Livy’s itinerary called for a  three-week stay [Rodney  112].

September 26, 1878 Thursday

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Sam’s notebook this day in Venice.

These Italian thieves  have charged me $8 duty on $4 worth (100) of cigars & $1 worth of tobacco–

I must stop smoking,  for no right Christian can smoke an Italian cigar. Only the wrappers are  grown—the
insides are of stubs collected on the pavements by the younger sons  of the nobility—stubs from Switzerland
—bad enough.

The charming singing of  the men at night in Venice.

September 27, 1878 Friday

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Sam wrote from Venice,  Italy to William Dean Howells.  Since his tirade letter
about Bret Harte, Sam had not heard from  Howells, who had recommended to President Hayes that Harte
be given a chance. Wisely, Howells  had not told Sam of his recommendation or answered Sam’s venom,
and Sam had  noticed.

September 29, 1878 Sunday

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Livy wrote from Venice to her mother about the city:

“It is so fascinating,  so thoroughly charming—I sit now before a window that opens on to a little  piazza;
where I can look right on to the Grand Canal…We have the morning sun in  our rooms and the weather for
three days has been perfect” [MTNJ 2:  157].

October 1878

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October – A  notation in Sam’s notebook listed The Bible for Young People, translated by Wicksteed  in six volumes [MTNJ  2: 209]. Evidently  this was a reminder to send these books to Orion upon returning home, as Orion was writing a  biblical refutation. Orion had recently been excommunicated from the First Westminster Presbyterian Church of Keokuk [209n95].

Sam read William Wetmore Story’s  (1819-1895) 2  volume Roba di Roma (1863) and entered in his notebook:

October 1, 1878 Tuesday

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In his letter of Nov. 20 to Twichell,  Sam wrote that he had “discharged George
[Burk]  at Venice—the worthless idiot—& have developed into a pretty fair sort of  courier myself since
then” [MTLE 3:  101]. Sam fired Burk on Oct. 1 [MTNJ 2: 197] Note: George Burk had been the portier at
the Schloss Hotel in Heidelberg   when Sam hired him. Sam gave Burk 100 franks extra and let him go.

October 4, 1878 Friday

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Sam’s notebook:
Great Council Chamber,  Ducal Palace. Immediately at right of the door as you enter, in the big picture  over
the book shelves, is a fisherman in the foreground in a green dress  holding one basket of fish against his
body & resting another basket of  fish on a woman’s head. This Fisherman has but one leg—but that is not
the  singularity, but the fact that it is the port leg, attached to the starboard  side of his body [MTNJ 2:  199-
200]. Note: Sam evaluated several  other paintings in like manner.

October 8, 1878 Tuesday

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Sam’s notebook: “Began with Dittura [Agostino]  Oct 8 by the day at 5 f a day & 50
pour-boir—we have to have  him day & evening both” [MTNJ 2: 205] Agostino was the second  gondolier
employed by the Clemens family [205n89].

George Burk wrote from Venice, Italy asking for  additional severance pay of 175 francs and sending his
address [MTP;  MTNJ 2: 208].