Day By Day Dates

May 7 Saturday – The Boston Literary World, under “Fiction” reviewed Merry Tales:

May 8 Sunday – Sam’s notebook entry in Florence: “May 8, 9, 10. These days Joseph [Verey] has been about as idle & hard to find as ever, though the seat at the door is comfortable” [NB 31 TS 41-2].

May 9 Monday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam (letter not extant) [May 22 to Hall].

Sam’s notebooks:

May 9. ’92 Luncheon to-day with Lady Fitzmaurice & her mother. Present, Sir James Lachalte (can’t spell the name,) the Comtessa —- (name gone from me), the young Lord Granville & a charming Miss Granville — not related. Talk was general. … [NB 32 TS 6].

May 9/92

May 10 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook in Florence:

May 10. Luncheon at Marchesa [Spinola]. Present, Admiral Page (80 & blind, a lovely old gentleman), Mrs. Page, Miss Page, Mr. Gilbert (an ass), the Marchesa, Mrs. Clemens & Sir George Bowen. This last has made a great name for himself as an able executive by thirty years service as governor in Australia, Hong Kong, the Mauritius, &c & has now been in retirement in London some years. 

May 11 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook of May 12 relates a luncheon of this day:

Yesterday Mrs. C. & I lunched at the Villa Ross. I forgot to deliver the invitations to Susy & Clara, so they were not there & the table was not full. Had a fine time — Mr. & Mrs. Ross & their niece are lovely people. Fiske & the Arab were there. 

Mrs. Ross took us over to a villa in the neighborhood, & we shall try to rent it [NB 32 TS 10].

May 12 Thursday – Sam’s notebooks in Florence (he used two this day):

May 12 ’92 — 10 a.m. Several companies of soldiers came marching along & passed with its spirited music on down the Lung’arno, & this most strange fact was again observable: that not a boy, not a youth, not anybody trotted at the head or tail of the procession, & nobody on the sidewalk stopped to look. How different from Berlin or any other city in the world! What is the explanation of it? [NB 32 TS 10].

May 13 Friday – Putnam Phalanx sent Sam a printed circular and form to enlist in their June 17 observance together with the Amoskeag Veterans of N.H. and the Worcester Continentals of Mass in a joint observance in Worcester [MTP].

May 14 Saturday – Based on a two-week stay in Florence, the Clemens family by now would have traveled on to Venice, Italy where letters from May 17 to May 25 exist. Also, a letter from Susy to Louise Brownell, not postmarked until May 29, by which time the family had continued on, reveals the family had been in Florence “since Saturday,” which has to be this day. Sam’s unpublished notebook clears up the mystery:

May 15 Sunday – In Venice, the Clemens family moved from the Hotel Brittania to the Hotel Danieli [NB 31 TS 43].

The Chicago Tribune printed an interview with “colorless” Orion Clemens. Budd calls this “an oblique sign” of Sam’s “eminence” [Our MT 121].

May 16 Monday – Sam’s notebook in Venice:

Monday, May 16, took Antonio the gondolier at 7 francs a day.

Smoking party Monday 8.30 to 12 p.m. at Horatio Brown’s, 559 Zattere (Ca. Torresella) [NB 31 TS 46].

† – Susy Clemens wrote to Louise Brownell of the trip and the first few days in Venice, which she called “this strangest of strange places,” and that they’d arrived Saturday (estimated here as May 14).

May 17 Tuesday – In Venice, Italy Sam wrote to Augustin Daly, enclosing a play he’d had read to him in Rome, written by Julian Corbett. It sounded good to Sam but he admitted knowing nothing about how it would play. If Daly liked it he might write to Corbett at the village of Thames Ditton, Surrey, England. Otherwise, Frederick J. Hall would ship it back to Corbett [MTP].

May 18 Wednesday – Angelo Heilprin for Academy of Natural Sciences wrote from Phila. to Sam soliciting funds for the relief of Lt. Peary, “wintering in the Arctic north” [MTP]. Note: Robert E. Peary would claim to be the first to reach the North Pole in 1909.

May 19 Thursday – Tillotson & Son wrote to Sam [Reference card only at MTP].

May 20 Friday – In Venice, Italy Livy wrote to Grace King concerning the family’s change in plans for the next winter:

We have given up Paris and have taken a villa in Florence for next winter. Mr Clemens had a great dread of Paris and even a suburb did not attract him. We found the singing advantages would probably be good for Susy and so decided rather suddenly to take up a villa a little way out of town [Rodney 144].

May 21 Saturday – Sam’s notebook in Venice, dated May 22:

Tried to make the Johnsons, Browns, Sarah Orne Jewett, Mrs. James T. Fields, Mr. Washington understand (with Clara’s help) the old puzzle of Whitmore taking me around the loop in his buggy. Of course they all laughed at my stupidity at first, but this is just a “$100-bill & pair of boots” puzzle before they get done with it.

May 22 Sunday – In Venice Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall having received his May 9 letter (not extant), which Sam wrote, “sounds very good.” Sam wanted Mr. Halsey of Wall Street to invest the funds using “his own best judgment”; Sam didn’t want to “meddle.” He cited Susan Crane’s agreement on the matter, which suggests she knew and respected Halsey. Sam also forecasted his return on business matters:

May 24 Tuesday – Charles D. Taylor wrote from Kingston, R.I. to Sam: “Although a stranger to you, I venture to enclose to you a farce I have written entitled “Ye Old Militia Muster.” Taylor thought Sam might handle the subject with humorous treatment better [MTP].

M.E. Waring for Atlantic Lyceum Bureau in Baltimore wrote to Sam seeking his lecture for one night in a winter series course of lectures for the benefit of “a prominent church” [MTP].

May 25 Wednesday – Before leaving Venice, Sam wrote to Mrs. Katherine C. Bronson.

Dear Mrs. Bronson:

You are wonderfully good — too good for here below. I thank you ever so much for those books, — which I shall treasure for your sake as well as their own — & I was hoping to see you & say all this with my mouth, & add the good-byes of Mrs. Clemens & me; & I took my daughters along, too, to exhibit them to you; but you were out philandering around & we missed you [MTP].

May 26 Thursday – The Clemens party was in transit to Lake Como and Cadenabbia.

May 27 Friday – The Clemens party arrived in Cadenabbia, where they would relax for a week. Sam’s notebook:

May 27. Cadenabbia, Lake of Como, Hotel Brittannia, 1st floor — all front rooms, looking across to Bellagio & the snow-clad peaks. Everything 90 fr. per day [NB 31 TS 49].

May 28 Saturday – The Clemens party was in Cadenabbia. Sam’s notebook:

May 28. Saturday. Took Salvitora & his boat at 8 fr. per day.

Asti is mighty dainty & good — when you call it good. But no man can tell it from champagne cider [NB 31 TS 49].

May 29 Sunday – In Cadenabbia, Italy Sam wrote to (Daniel) Willard Fiske, wealthy Cornell professor who was traveling around Italy collecting manuscripts (see Apr. 1892 listing). As Paine writes, it was through Fiske that the were directed to the Villa Viviani, which they rented for the next winter. The Villa was on a hill east of Florence, near Settignano [MTB 945].

May 30 Monday – Edward L. Starck, city surveyor in N.Y. wrote to Sam with the recommendation of Prof. W. James of Harvard, seeking $500 to publish his MS of a “philosophical nature” [MTP].

May 31 Tuesday – Daniel Willard Fiske wrote (not extant) to Sam concerning the arrangement of the Villa Viviani for the next winter, the livery addresses Livy had requested, and an offer of future help from Signor William Sordi, Fiske’s secretary [June 12 to Fiske].

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