Day By Day Dates

November 6 Tuesday – From the Brighton Hotel in Paris, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers about their rental house at 169 Rue de l’Unversité:

November 7 Wednesday – In the morning, from the Brighton Hotel in Paris, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, mostly about the Paige typesetter and its competitor the Mergenthaler Linotype machine. Reports up to now from Chicago had been encouraging, but the machine would soon start to break repeatedly. Sam related how long the Mergenthaler had been around, breaking down and continuing on:

November 9 Friday – Sam was down with the “grippe” at the Brighton Hotel in Paris, “not the slightest use to Mrs. Clemens,” who was “raiding around everywhere for servants…” [Nov. 11 to Rogers].

November 10 Saturday – Sam was down with the “grippe” at the Brighton Hotel in Paris. Sam referred to this night’s treatment in his Nov. 11 to Rogers:

…my back and breast had been painted 4 times with iodine; it was doubtful if either could stand another application, but we chanced it and painted my breast. There was an uncertainty for about 3 minutes, then there was no uncertainty any more. Well, sir, I had to turn over and have a fire built on my back or I should have died.

November 11 Sunday – Down with the “grippe” at the Brighton Hotel in Paris, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, wondering if he was in Chicago checking on the typesetter at the Herald. Clemens expected to move to the rental house the next day (delayed until Nov. 16).

I haven’t smoked for three days; that is because of the bronchial cough; but I am to re-begin to-morrow morning, and I will see what can be accomplished between that and night.

November 12 Monday – At the Brighton Hotel in Paris, Sam expected to move to the rental house at noon this day, but was laid low by another ailment:

November 13 Tuesday – At the Brighton Hotel in Paris, the doctor came to examine Sam the day after his gout attack, which would have been this day:

November 14 Wednesday – At the Brighton Hotel in Paris, Sam’s cough improved [Nov. 15 to Rogers].

November 15 Thursday – In the morning at the Brighton Hotel in Paris, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers of being laid up since Nov. 12 with the gout and of the doctor’s treatments on Nov. 13. He expected to go to the new house this day.

November 16 Friday – At the Brighton Hotel in Paris, Sam wrote three paragraphs to Franklin G. Whitmore, the first about attending to the rugs in the Hartford house; the second to advise when he needed money for the household expenses there to apply to Rogers’ legal firm of Stern & Rushmore because the money from the American Publishing Co. (PW ) went to them; the third was a brief progress report on the rental house he would go to in one hour.

November 17 Saturday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam stayed in bed to recover from his bronchitis and gout.

November 20 Tuesday – In the evening, at 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam suffered another attack of gout in his other ankle [Nov. 21 to Rogers].

November 21 Wednesday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, dictating the letter to daughter Clara, who added a “d” to Rogers’ name. Sam related the hard attack of the gout he’d had for a couple of weeks, which kept them at the hotel longer than they’d planned. He’d stayed in bed at the new house since. It seems that all of the Clemens girls inherited their mother’s spelling ability, something Sam teased Livy about during their courting days.

November 27 Tuesday – Livy’s 49th birthday.

November 28 Wednesday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers. He was out of bed finally, not sure how long he’d been there:

…the fog is thick, the daylight is black, & I feel defeated & in a state of surrender to fate.

November 29 Thursday – Thanksgiving – In Paris Sam wrote to Henry C. Robinson, having received the wedding cards from his daughter’s wedding. Sam was sorry they wouldn’t be there and sent his congratulations. He related being “knocked down with gout in both ankles,” and though he was “up & about the house, now,” he was “not to go out for a week or two yet.”

Mrs. Clemens’s health is remarkably good & everybody remarks upon how well she looks. Susy is well again, & fatting up.

November 30 Friday – Sam’s 59th Birthday.

Two copies of PW were deposited with the US Copyright Office [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Afterword materials p.28, 1996 Oxford ed.]

December 3 Monday – Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Samoa. 

December 5 Wednesday – The London Morning Post in “Literary Notes” p.6:

Having provided a grievous disappointment in Tom Sawyer Abroad, Mark Twain has produced, in Pudd’nhead Wilson, a book which must add considerably to its author’s reputation. Even the most devoted lover of Mark Twain’s writings could not have anticipated that he would produce a work of such strength and such serious interest as this [Budd, Contemporary Reviews 359].

The Glasgow Herald p.10:

December 7 Friday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, confessing his mood prevented him from working on JA:

December 8 Saturday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, the Clemenses had a dinner party. Sam “sat up till midnight without observable fatigue.” He wrote of the event but did not list guests in his Dec. 9 to Rogers.

December 9 Sunday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, responding to his Nov. 30 letter.

Yours of Nov. 30 has just arrived. I shall welcome the Kipling poem. There were good things in Riley’s book, but you have noticed, of course, that there’s considerable padding in it, too.

December 10 Monday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam wrote to Henry M. Alden of Harper & Brothers asking to see his proofs of JA, after discovering he’d made “two or three mistakes.” 

December 11 Tuesday – Not allowed to go out except on dry days, which were absent for the next week, Sam worked again on JA, Book III. On this day he wrote 1,300 words [Dec. 16 to Rogers].