Day By Day Dates

July 27 Monday – The Clemenses were on the SS Norman, en route to Southampton, England.

July 28 Tuesday – The Clemenses were on the SS Norman, en route to Southampton, England.

July 29 Wednesday – The Clemenses were on the SS Norman, en route to Southampton, England.

July 30 Thursday – The Clemenses were on the SS Norman, en route to Southampton, England.

July 31 Friday – The Clemens family arrived in Southampton. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers what may have been meant as a PS to his July 22 letter:

We are just arrived, 16 days out from the Cape, and now I will telegraph London to send down the letters. Love to you all. / SLC [MTHHR 228].

August – The first of two installments of the 23,400 word Tom Sawyer, Detective first appeared in the Aug. issue of Harper’s Magazine. 21 illustrations were included by A.B. Frost. It would be included by Harper’s in book form, together with the 34,000 word Tom Sawyer Abroad in November, 1896. The latter had first appeared in book form in 1894 by Webster & Co., after being serialized in St. Nicholas.

August 1-18 Tuesday – Sometime before Sam learned of the death of his daughter Susy, he wrote to an unidentified person, enclosing a short note from Miss Lucy Frelinghuysen. First her note, then Sam’s remarks:

August 3 Monday – In Southampton, England on South Western Hotel stationery, Sam wrote to unidentified “gentlemen” at Harper & Brothers

The books have come & in all ways are to my taste. They are up to the Harper reputation for grace & style. Thank you for the trouble you have taken.

August 4 Tuesday – From Katy Leary’s memoirs:

August 5 Wednesday – In Southampton, England on South Western Hotel stationery, Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper.

August 7 Friday – In Guildford, England, possibly house-hunting, Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper (Sam was still in Southampton on Aug. 10, writing to Pond).

Yes, I find that the “Edited by” is an addition of Chatto’s.

August 8 Saturday – In Hartford Jean Clemens wrote to her father; the letter not extant but mentioned in Sam’s Aug. 26 to Livy.

August 8 Saturday – In Hartford Jean Clemens wrote to her father; the letter not extant but mentioned in Sam’s Aug. 26 to Livy.

August 9 Sunday – In Hartford Jean Clemens wrote again to her father; the letter not extant but mentioned in Sam’s Aug. 26 to Livy.

August 10 Monday – In Southampton, England Sam wrote to James B. Pond:

We are busy house-hunting. As soon as we find shelter in some country place I shall put in a few months on a book. I managed to pull through that long lecture campaign, but I was never very well, from the first night in Cleveland to the last one in Cape Town…

August 11 Tuesday – At Highfield House, Portsmouth Road, Guildford, England, Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto:

We’ve got ourselves located here an hour from London, for a month: & in the meantime we are spying around for a house for the winter. Mrs. Clemens is out on that quest to-day, in the neighborhood of London.

August 12 Wednesday – In Guildford, England Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

August 13 Thursday – Sam began an essay, “Man’s Place in the Animal World” on or just after this day. It was first published in 1962 in Letters from the Earth, under the title, “The Lowest Animal,” supplied by DeVoto [Budd, Collected 2: 1003]. Note: Baender’s article, “The Date of Mark Twain’s ‘The Lowest Animal’” makes a solid case for Aug. 13 as Sam’s beginning and October, 1896 as the completion for this 3,600 word piece [174-9].

August 14 Friday – In the morning word reached the Clemenses in Guildford that Susy Clemens was quite ill. Sam cablegrammed Charles Langdon throughout the day for clarification but none came.

August 15 Saturday – Upon arriving at Southampton, the Clemenses found another cable waiting from the family gathered in New York. Susy’s recovery (from an unspecified disease) would be “long but certain.” This convinced Sam to stay in England. Livy and Clara boarded the S.S. Paris bound for New York. On the same day, Dr. Porter in Hartford diagnosed Susy with spinal meningitis, an often lethal malady before the days of antibiotics.

August 16 Sunday – Neider writes of Susy’s torment:

Next morning, a Sunday, she walked about a bit in pain and delirium, then felt very weak and returned to bed, but before doing so, rummaging in a closet, she came across a gown she had once seen her mother wear. She thought the gown was her dead mother, and, kissing it, began to cry [Papa 43].

August 17 Monday – At noon in Guildford, Sam finished his Aug. 16 letter to Livy.

Monday noon. Chatto is evidently off on his vacation. I do not hear from him.

I enclose a letter received this morning, about the photos. It has no signature, but I suppose it is from Miss Blood — so I have answered it.

August 18 Tuesday – At 7:07 p.m. in Hartford, Olivia Susan (Susy) Clemens, age 24, died of spinal meningitis in the Farmington Ave. house [MTA 37; Sept. 6 to Hutton]. Katy Leary, longtime servant and helper to the family, was with her, as was Charles Langdon and Sue Crane. Joe Twichell had come from the Adirondacks to comfort Susy, but it’s not clear if he was with her at the end (see Sept.

August 19 Wednesday – In Guildford, England, Sam wrote two notes to Andrew Chatto, the first before receiving news of Susy’s death, the second afterward. First,

August 21 Friday – In Guildford, England Sam wrote again to Livy.