Day By Day Dates

May 16 Saturday – The Boston Journal Supplement, p.1 published an interview of Sam by Edward W. Bok, “Literary Leaves: ‘Mark Twain’ to Live Abroad for Two Years.”

May 17 Sunday – H.G. Rector wrote from N.Y. to Sam — a begging letter for a sick daughter [MTP].

May 18 Monday – Likely the day referred to by Sam in his May 20 to Frederick J. Hall, on which Samuel S. McClure (1857-1949), sent by William Mackay Laffan, came to Hartford to make an offer for Sam’s letters from Europe. McClure also sought The American Claimant for his European syndicate. Sam told McClure he was agreeable but to see Hall for the details [May 20 to Hall].

May 19 Tuesday –William Dean Howells wrote from Boston after reading in the newspapers that Sam was going to Europe. Sam had kept the plans private, telling only family and Frederick J. Hall.

I hope this is not ill health or ill luck that is taking you, but I am so worried about where to place myself here for the summer, that I almost wish I was sick or sorry enough to go to Europe, too.

May 20 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam responded to William Dean Howells’ May 19.

May 21 Thursday – In New York, Frederick J. Hall met with Samuel S. McClure who offered $12,000 to serialize The American Claimant in both the U.S. and abroad. The final contract gave McClure world serial rights with publication to begin Jan. 1, 1892. The story would run three months; Sam would retain copyright and could then publish as early as Mar. 15, 1892 [MTNJ 3: 625n192].

May 22 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote a follow-up note to Julius Chambers of the N.Y. World. “Upon reflection” Sam felt he had “so little time left” (in the country) that he could not “sell any of it at all.” He felt there might be “more leisure” in “some future year” [MTP].

May 23 Saturday – Godfrey Egremont wrote to Mark Twain asking “why in German the sun is feminine — die Sonne — and the moon masculine — der Mond?” When he asked Germans they told him that Mark Twain knew “all about it” and wrote of it in a “valuable appendix –numbered II, I fancy, to a well-known ethnographical work by one of their most famous authors entitled ‘Der Landstreicher Verriest’” [MTP].

Harry Lamb wrote asking for a poem from Sam, who wrote on the envelope, “I don’t know what to say” [MTP].

May 24 Sunday – Mary Kimball wrote to Sam asking for an autograph [MTP].

May 25 Monday – Sylvanus Lord of London sent Sam a rather strange and cryptic postcard, addressed only to “Mark Twain / America” stamped with a “deficiency of address supplied by NYPO” — Dear Sir — / If this reaches you you must acknowledge by return of post and you will hear of something to your advantage. / Yours faithfully” [MTP].

May 26 Tuesday – Theodore Wilkins wrote from Pomona, Calif. to ask Sam to return a MS sent, as they were in error that he was connected with a publisher! [MTP].

Check # Payee Amount [Notes]

5274 F.W. Kimball 4.00

5275 Mr. Horace Traubel 18.00

May 27 Wednesday – Mary Mason Fairbanks had heard of the Clemens family’s departure to Europe and wrote from Omaha asking for news and addresses:

May 28 Thursday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam that he caught the train with time to spare and that Sam’s manuscripts are already being typewritten and would be done by mid-next week.

May 29 Friday – In Hartford Franklin G. Whitmore took down a letter to Mary Mason Fairbanks for Sam, who suffered greatly from a rheumatic right arm.

Dear Mother Fairbanks.

May 30 Saturday – In the evening Sam and Livy went to a poetry reading featuring Annie E. Trumbull. Sam wrote a letter of compliment on her performance the day after [MTP].

Joseph N. Verey wrote from London on United States Exchange letterhead to Sam. Verey wrote a pleasant, friendly letter and offered his guide services — his pay was now 150 pounds per month, board free at hotels [MTP].

Check # Payee Amount [Notes]

May 31 Sunday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Annie E. Trumbull about the previous evening’s event:

It certainly was the perfectest evening I have seen in many a day. You struck twelve in your speech over the back of the chair. I heard Mrs. Clemens say to Susy last night, “I never see Annie Trumbull but she makes me wish I had brains too” [MTP].

The N.Y. World ran an interview, “Mark Twain on Humor,” by Raymond Blathwait (1855-1936), p.6.

June – Prior to leaving for Europe, Sam gave Frederick J. Hall a story titled, “The Californian’s Tale,” which was put in Webster & Co.’s safe. This was a story of a man who deludes himself that his wife is merely away, when she was captured by Indians some nineteen years before. Sam would send another MS of the story in Oct. 1892, postdated, “Florence, Jan. ‘93”, so that it would seem to be new work. Before Hall could include it in a collection, Sam sent the story to Arthur G.

June 1 Monday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam having received his telegram. He’d heard nothing from Bok and feared he might be “sore” about the contract withdrawal. Hall proposed to go to Phila. to see Bok and get an offer out of him, which would legally cancel the prior offer. Hall would try to come to Hartford Wednesday or Thursday. The “biggest month” yet on sales of LAL had resulted in “being put very rapidly into the soup” since the sales were paid for in instalments [MTP].

June 2 Tuesday – The N.Y. World May 31, 1891 interview, “Mark Twain on Humor,” was reprinted in the semi-weekly edition, page six.

Open Court Magazine sent Sam several news clippings; no letter or explanation is in the file [MTP]. This was a Chicago weekly “devoted to the work of conciliating religion with science” [MTNJ 3: 635n224].

June 3 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to his sister, Pamela Moffett, who’d written she was going to Fredonia to comfort her daughter, Annie Webster, recently widowed. Sam told of their travel plans, a “French village” not yet decided on, and “all of next winter, no doubt,” in Berlin.

June 4 Thursday – Two of the Clemens girls, probably Susy and Clara, went to New York in advance of the family. They likely were accompanied by Katy Leary. Sue Crane would meet the family there as well [June 3 to Moffett].

Sam inscribed a copy of P&P to Anna Körner: To: Anna Körner / from / The Author / Hartford, June 4, 1891 [MTP].

Check # Payee Amount [Notes]

June 5 Friday – Sam, Livy, and Jean left Hartford for New York, where they met their other daughters and Sue Crane. The party stayed at the Murray Hill Hotel [June 3 to Moffett; MTNJ 3: 634n222].

June 6 Saturday – At 5 a.m. the Clemenses sailed from New York for France on the Gascoigne [June 3 to Moffett]. The family would not return for more than eight years and would never again live in Hartford. Powers writes that Webster & Co. owed Sam $74,087.35 for his cumulative investments in the company at the time the family left [MT A Life 543].

Check # Payee Amount [Notes]

June 7 Sunday – At sea, Sam’s notebook entry:

7th. Glassy sea — no wind — everybody on deck — overcoats not needed….Delicious breakfasts, 12.30. Lie abed till 10.30: they bring you a cup of coffee & a biscuit about 8.30 if you want it — & you do [3: 639].

Mrs. Helen Bancroft, “daughter of an old steamboat pilot” wrote from New Orleans to Sam, enclosing a MS and asking Sam to comment as to its fitness for publication [MTP].

June 8 Monday – Clara Clemens’ seventeenth birthday.

At sea, Sam’s notebook entry:

Certainly the sunniest & most beautiful day the Atlantic ever saw. But little sea — though what there is would be seriously felt on a smaller vessel. This one has no motion.

The phosphorescent waves at night are very intense on the black surface….Open fire place & big mantelepiece in great salon — imitation, not real; but a cosy & perfect counterfeit.