Day By Day Dates

September 27 Sunday – In London Sam wrote to Wayne MacVeagh.

September 28 Monday – In London, Sam continued to respond to letters of condolence, including this answer to Henry C. Robinson, Hartford attorney and family friend.

It is as you say, dear old friend, “the pathos of it” — yes, it was a piteous thing — as piteous a tragedy as any the year can furnish. …All the circumstances of this death were pathetic — my brain is worn to rags rehearsing them. Yes, & cursing them — cursing the conception & invention of them. …

September 30 Wednesday – In London Sam wrote to Susan Crane.

October – Sometime during the month Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow, confiding the secret address of 23 Tedworth Square for him to visit. Sam headed the note, “Private,” and explained:

October 1 Thursday ca. – On or about this day a portion of a letter Sam sent to Orion appeared in the Keokuk Gate City; it survives in scrapbook 20 at the MTP:

October 2 Friday – In London, Sam wrote a short note to Percy Spalding:

No, we’ll not have the contract stamped. Disagreements & misunderstandings between the Garths & us are not possible. We are two pairs of constitutionally just & fair-minded people [MTP: TS: Anderson Auction Co. catalogs, Nov. 25, 1930 Item 48].

October 4-18 Sunday – In London Sam wrote to his English publisher, Andrew Chatto:

To-morrow or next day Mr. William Wilson an old Scotch friend & present neighbor of mine will call upon you business-wise, with a manuscript book. I promised him that you would read it; and told him that if you liked it & wanted it he would find that you & Mr. Spalding are fair dealers.

October 5 Monday – This is the likely day the Clemenses and Katy Leary took possession of a small house at 23 Tedworth Square, Chelsea, in southwest London. Sam’s Oct. 6 to Rogers states they were now “settled in a house.” They kept their address a secret, using Chatto & Windus for a return address and closing themselves off from nearly everyone. Sam’s Sept.

October 6 Tuesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

The proposed Bliss-contract has arrived, & is so entirely satisfactory that I shall be very glad & quite at rest in my mind the day that it is signed & goes into effect. Thank you ever so much for pushing it to this hopeful condition.

October 7 Wednesday – In London Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper about the piece “The Californian’s Tale,” which the Authors Club was claiming he gave them for an 1893 publication, The First Book of the Authors Club, Liber Scriptorum. Sam claimed he gave them only a two-year use of the sketch.

October 8 Thursday – H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam, the letter not extant but mentioned in the Oct. 20 to Rogers [MTHHR 240].

October 9 Friday – At 23 Tedsworth Square in London Sam wrote to Douglas Garth about problems with the house they’d rented: the chimney was “broken and canted into the form of an elbow,” driving them out of the drawing-room when they tried to build a fire. Sam also wanted to pay for having some electric wire strung to hook up two or three lightbulbs in the room. Other than those needs Sam wrote,

We find ourselves most comfortably housed, & very very glad to be settled at home [MTP].

October 11 Sunday – In London Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore responding to a recent letter. Whitmore hadn’t enclosed a newspaper notice of Susy that he said was enclosed. Livy wanted to leave the matter of the rugs in the Farmington Ave. house in Ellen O’Neil’s charge to take care of. He also agreed that they wanted the furnace & ceilings to be safe, but wanted to “let the expense stop there.”

October 12 Monday – Harper & Brothers wrote that they’d had no response to their May 12 question as to whether they might include some of Sam’s essays in a volume for their “Contemporary Essayists” series. Sam’s enclosure answer to them in his Oct. 13 to Rogers, would suggest Sam answered the May 12 letter, not this one [MTP].

October 13 Tuesday – At 23 Tedsworth Square in London Sam wrote H.H. Rogers.

I enclose answer to Mr. Harper’s question. You can retain it if you prefer, and convey the decision to him by your own hand.

October 15 Thursday – In London Sam sent a one-liner to an unidentified person: “Can be used to filled up a crack” [MTP]. Note: something is missing here.

October 16 Friday – In London Sam wrote to Edward M. (Ned) Bunce, sharing shock and sorrow over the loss of Susy.

Ah me, you knew how rare she was, & how far you would have had to go to find her peer.

We are so glad you had that last talk with her — it will be a grateful memory with us. …I have not forgotten, & shall not forget, that time that you and Henry Robinson offered to help me when all others failed [MTP].

October 19 Monday – Sam signed a “Reader’s Guarantee Form” for the Chelsea Public Libraries, in effect, a library card, giving his address as 23 Tedworth Square and his occupation as “private.” See a reproduction of the form in the Fall, 1998 MTJ p.31

October 20 Tuesday – In London Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus about material (unspecified) he’d sent, asking them to “look it over & see if it will do.” After his signature, some clue as to what he’d sent:

This Diary is full of underscorings (for use on the platform) PAY NO ATTENTION TO THEM [MTP].

Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers.

October 21 Wednesday – In London Sam wrote to Frank Bliss:

As I understand the idiotic law, the renewal of a copyright is not possible until the original one lacks 6 months of running out.

October 22 Thursday – Gribben writes that Sam discovered the book The History of a Slave (not further identified) in the London Library [315; NB 39 TS 32]. Also found, Sir Basil Home Thomson’s The Diversions of a Prime Minister (1894) [702; NB 39 TS 12]. Sam also noted he’d withdrawn a copy of William Knighton’s The Private Life of an Eastern King, etc. from the London Library [Ibid.]. See also Jan.

October 24 Saturday – In London Sam wrote in his notebook:

Wrote the first chapter of the book to-day — Around the World [MTB 1026; NB 39 TS 14]. Note: FE.

October 25 Sunday – In London, Livy wrote to Mary Mapes Dodge. 

How well I remember the evening at Puddinhead Wilson your coming into our box. You sat there some time chatting with us before you recognized Susy. Then you leaned forward and said, “Why Susy is this you??” She gave a little pleased self-conscious laugh, and my mother’s heart was proudly touched because the tone of affection with which you said “Susy” [MTP].

October 26 Monday – At the Tedworth Square house in Chelsea, London, Sam began work on the manuscript of Following the Equator [Dec. 18 to Rogers]. Note: he may have started even earlier, as he added a note to Bliss on Oct. 21 that he was working on it.

He also wrote to Chatto & Windus, supposed they hadn’t received the Bourget-Max O’Rell article he’d sent by messenger. He had another piece for them:

October 27 Tuesday – In London Sam sent a postcard to Chatto & Windus asking if they’d received the printed “Californian’s Tale” and the amended Bourget article which he’d mailed [MTP].

Sam also wrote to J. Henry Harper asking him to give only “Care Chatto & Windus” as his address.

We wish to remain strictly in hiding. To make sure of the Monthly, the Weekly & the Bazar, I would like to have them sent to this private address, if you will.