Day By Day Dates

June 14 Sunday – The Clemens family, accompanied by Susan Crane and Katy Leary, arrived in Le Havre, France and took rooms in the Hotel Frascati on the beach in Le Havre, outside of town [MTNJ 3: 622]. Note: the eight-day crossing was considerably shorter than prior trips.

June 15 Monday – The family’s plan was to travel to Paris and make a three-day stay there before continuing on to some “French village.” It’s likely they spent one night at Le Havre and left for Paris on this day, given that Sam wrote June 17 from Paris to Frederick J. Hall that they were leaving the city the next day. In Paris they stayed at the Grand Hotel Terminus [June 17 to Hall].

June 16 Tuesday – The Clemens party of seven was in Paris at the Grand Hotel Terminus making plans for the next leg of their sojourn.

June 17 Wednesday – In Paris, France Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall.

A cablegram informs me that my type-setter sale has fallen through [to Mallory Brothers]. Therefore you will now have to modify your instalment system to meet the emergency of a constipated purse; for if you should need to borrow any more money I would not know how or where to raise it.

June 18 Thursday – The Clemens party of seven was still in Paris at the Grand Hotel Terminus.

June 19 Friday – In Paris, France Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder:

Mrs. Coover will send you a type-written story. It is her daughter’s work…I said my judgment would not be valuable, but that…I would write you…[MTP from Swann Galleries catalog, Jan. 28, 1993].

June 20 Saturday – The Clemens party left Paris on or about this day for Geneva, Switzerland. Powers puts their stay in Paris as four days [MT A Life 539]. In his July 10 to Robert Underwood Johnson, Sam wrote,

Just as we were leaving Paris we had a glimpse & a handshake of your wife — & it was a very pleasant way to wind up what had been a very pleasant week [MTP]. Note: the Mrs. was Katharine McMahon Johnson (1856-1924).

June 21 Sunday – The Clemens party without Susy and Clara migrated south to Annecy trying the baths there. The original plans were to spend the rest of the summer in Annecy, some 22 miles from Geneva, at the Haute Savoie [May 20 to Howells].

June 22 Monday – The Clemens party was in Annecy trying the baths there.

June 23 Tuesday – The Clemens party was in Annecy trying the baths there.

June 24 Wednesday – The Clemens party was in Annecy trying the baths there.

John Cowden wrote a very long (and rather dry, rambling, hard to read) letter from Pittsfield, Ill. to Sam about the history of the Mississippi area and experiences there [MTP].

June 25 Thursday – The Clemens party was in Annecy trying the baths there.

June 26 Friday – The Clemens party was in Annecy trying the baths there. Rodney writes that the Clemens party went to Annecy, “not far over the French border” and stayed a week at a spa there, “convinced that the baths were not restorative” [134]. Note: the chronology for this week based on Rodney.

June 27 Saturday – On or about this day, the Clemens party without Susy and Clara continued on to Aix-les-Bains, France, across the Swiss border and a bath since Roman days, where Sam wrote Susy and Clara on June 28. Baedecker’s 1887 travel guide lists the distance as 55&1/2 miles, a 3&1/2 hour trip by train.

June 28 Sunday – Of this period Paine writes, “The Clemens party went to Geneva, then rested for a time at the baths of Aix” [MTB 921]. Kaplan writes, “Clemens and Livy…looking for relief for the rheumatism that now crippled both of them, visited the fashionable watering places, Aix-les-Bains and then Marienbad.” No letters from Sam are extant until June 28. Powers writes, “…they sank into the pungent sulfuric baths every day for five weeks” [MT A Life 539].

June 29 Monday – In Aix-les-Bains, France Sam wrote again to Susy and Clara Clemens in Geneva. The girls had written.

Dear Sweethearts:

Mamma is a great deal more comfortable this p.m. & I am pretty well satisfied with the way the doctor has got the best of the disease. (Ouch!) Notice to stop using my right hand. Your letters are well done & delightful [MTP]. Note: Livy’s heart condition would not have been helped by the baths, though rest from travel may have helped.

June 30 Tuesday – Mrs. B.H. Campbell wrote from Wichita, Kansas to Sam passing on a “good story about yourself” she came across in “one of your local papers” [MTP].

July – In the July-December issue of Library and Studio Part I of “Life of Mark Twain” was published. (Part II would run in the Jan. to June, 1892 issue.) Will M. Clemens’ report is in The Twainian for Nov. 1940, Tenney citing, p.19. The Twainian bears only the citation of this article with no synopsis.

A copy of Walter Scott’s The Abbot (1860 ed.) inscribed: Jean Clemens Aix les Bains July,. 1891 [Gribben 614].

July 1 Wednesday – In Aix-les-Bains, Sam had a conversation with the doctor about the rash that was tormenting nearly everyone but Sam. See July 3 entry.

July 3 Friday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote again to daughters Susy and Clara in Geneva, with Jean Clemens penning the letter (due to Sam’s rheumatism) and adding a PS asking for them to soak off and save the French stamps for her that came on their letters. Sam wrote of a conversation he’d had with the doctor on Wednesday (July 1) about a rash that everyone had but Sam himself.

July 4 Saturday – Joe Twichell sent a printed circular he’d received from E.B. Dillingham, Chaplain at the Hartford County Jail seeking “suitable books” or funds. Joe wrote on the bottom, “Here’s a gem ‘of purest [illegible word] serene — as you see. I send it to you for a Forth of July present. With love and greeting to all, Yer aff. – Joe.” On the envelope Sam wrote, “Use this in newspaper letter” [MTP].

July 8 Wednesday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, requesting Kipling’s last book, Mine Own People [MTP from Am. Art Assoc. catalog, item 353].

Augustus Jacobson for the Society of Tennessee Army, Palmer House, Chicago wrote to Sam inviting him to the unveiling of the Grant statue in Lincoln Park during the reunion Oct. 7 and 8 [MTP].

July 9 Thursday – W.F. Johnson wrote to Sam soliciting aid for the Brooklyn Howard Colored Orphan Asylum [MTP].

July 10 Friday – In Aix-les-Bains Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. Sam added vertically to the top margin of the letter that he would “be present at eight or ten Wagner operas at” Bayreuth, Germany from July 31 to Aug. 12. Sam wanted Hall to see Robert Underwood Johnson or Richard Watson Gilder of Century Magazine to see if they’d pay $1,000 as Samuel S.

July 11 Saturday – The Illustrated American ran a full-page portrait of Mark Twain, printed in sepia ink from halftone of a crayon sketch by Arthur Jule Goodman [The Twainian 2.8 (Nov.1940) p.4].

A.W. McArthur wrote from N.Y. to Sam asking to use his portrait in a literary game [MTP].