Day By Day Dates

May 9 Sunday – Pushed even farther back in the NY Times on p. 23 was an Assoc. Press dispatch from London Dated May 8, “Mark Twain in Good Health.” The article announced Sam was still working hard on his new book and that his publishers had asked for an additional 30,000 words on Africa. An expanded article ran on June 2, p.7, “Mark Twain’s Health Good.”

May 17 Monday – Frank Andrew Munsey wrote from N.Y. to Sam

My excuse for writing you is to do something, the last thing I can do, for one who admired you deeply. I refer to George Griffin, your old butler. He is dead. He died very suddenly Saturday morning, May 8th , and was buried in New York on the following Tuesday. His wife called him at the usual hour of six o’clock. He threw up his hands and in a few moments was dead. It was heart disease. It seems that he had had more or less trouble from this source for a considerable time.

May 18 Tuesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, “unspeakably glad” to report that “just this minute” he had “finished this book again” (FE). He’d been able to add 30,000 words by “making fun” of the Jameson raid, an account he’d feared would be boring and uninteresting. Evidently Bliss had paid the required $10,000, so Sam thought he would send the MS directly to Bliss.

May 19 Wednesday – The date placed on the typed form for renewal of copyright for IA sent by The American Publishing Co. and signed by Sam on May 31 in London [MTP].

May 20 Thursday – Independent included an anonymous review of American Claimant and Other Stories and Sketches, (volume 21 of the Uniform Edition) p.650. In full:

May 22 Saturday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam replied to H.S.W. Edwardes (whose request is not extant). Sam was a hermit and did not go out, but thanked Edwardes “all the same” [MTP].

Note: Sam did go out, but chose his times, places, and persons selectively.

May 23 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “May 23, 1897. Wrote first chapter of above story to-day”

Paine writes of the beginning of “Which Was The Dream?” which was not published in Sam’s lifetime:

May 24 Monday – The ledger books of Chatto & Windus show that 750 additional copies of Tom Sawyer, Detective were printed (totaling 5,750 to date) [Welland 238]. ,

Sam’s notebook:

May 26 Wednesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to advise Katharine I. Harrison that after June 15 letters should be posted in care of Chatto & Windus [MTP: CF Libbie & Co. catalogs, Mar. 3, 1915, Item 367].

Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister: “I have finished the book at last—and finished it for good this time. Now I am ready for dissipation with a good conscience. What night will you come down & smoke?” [MTP; MTB 1041].

May 27 Thursday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam marked a letter to Frank Fuller “PRIVATE” after getting wind of a scheme by friends back home to host a “special benefit” lecture “at big prices for tickets and an auction of a dozen first-choice seats at Jenny Lind prices” as a way of putting him over the top in his efforts to pay his debts. Fuller was the first man he thought of to pull this off, a man who could handle “the engineering of so delicate and so large an undertaking.”

May 30 Sunday – Frank Marshall White, London correspondent of the NY Evening Journal had a “chat” with Sam to inform him of the report in New York that Mark Twain was dying of poverty in London [NY Journal article datelined June 1 and reported by the Hartford Courant, June 3, p. 12, “Mark Twain All Right”]. Note: see June 2.

May 31 Monday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Ainsworth R. Spofford, enclosing his signed application form on American Publishing Co.’ s letterhead for renewing copyright on IA, The form carries a July 12 date [MTP].

Sam also signed the renewal copyright for IA form and returned it to Frank Bliss [MTP].

Sam also wrote a squib to the London correspondent for the N.Y. Journal, Frank Marshall White:

June – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus—a preliminary “page by itself” draft for inclusion in the front of FE, or, as it would be called in England, More Tramps Abroad (due to the past success there of A Tramp Abroad). Only the dedication, slightly changed, to Harry Rogers made it into the book. ,

EXPLANATORY NOTE

June 1 Tuesday – The Hartford Courant carried an article on June 3, datelined London June 1, “Mark Twain All Right – A Chat With Him Day Before Yesterday” from the N.Y. Journal by Frank Marshall White:

Mark Twain was undecided whether to be more amused or annoyed when a “Journal” representative informed him to-day of the report in New York that he was dying of poverty in London. …

June 2 Wednesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote two notes to James R. Clemens, asking the good doctor cousin to meet him at the box office of the Adelphi Theatre on the Strand the next evening, June 3 at eight or five after to see William H. Gillette’s play, Secret Service. If James couldn’t go, would he name another day?

June 3 Thursday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to James R. Clemens confirming he’d be waiting that night (Sam did not mention family) at the Adelphi Theatre and also asked him to Sunday dinner. It was the first time noted that the Clemens family hosted since moving into Tedworth Square:

June 4 Friday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Bram Stoker, thanking for and complimenting him on his book, Dracula, which had just issued; Stoker inscribed a copy of the book to him on June 1 [MTP: Parke-Bernet Galleries catalog].

June 5 Saturday – The N.Y. Times under its “Essays” column, p. BRA3, included a review of Sam’s How to Tell a Story and Other Essays, by Mark Twain. New York: Harper & Brothers. $1.50.

June 8 Tuesday – Clara Clemens’ 23rd birthday [MTP].

June 9 Wednesday – The Hartford Courant: June 9, p.8, “Mark Twain’s Old House”:

Building Where He Was Born is Being Torn Down.

A dispatch from Mexico, Mo. says that the old house in which “Mark Twain” was born, in Florida, near that town, is being torn down to make way for a new residence. The old house has long been one of the interesting landmarks of the town. Numerous calls have been made upon Mrs. Roney, the owner of the property, for bits of wood with which to make walking sticks and other souvenirs.

June 10 Thursday – Andrew Lang wrote to Sam

I have lost our entire address. Mrs. Lang wonders if you could lunch…alone, with us one day, and Lord Lorne is anxious to see you, if possible—I told him I would write.

June 11 Friday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam replied to the June 10 of Andrew Lang, asking him to name the day and he’d be:

“…very glad to come. I shall be delighted to see Lord Lorne again. I have a bad memory, but I have not forgotten any considerable detail of the pleasant time which he & the Princess gave me in Ottawa” [MTP].

June 12 Saturday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote a postcard to Frank Marshall White: “Come down, now, & let us see if we can invent some way to repair the enormous damage which your cablegram has done me” [MTP].

June 13 Sunday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam began a note to John Y. MacAlister that he finished on June 14.

June 14 Monday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to William Carey, of Century Magazine.

Oh, bless your heart, that’s been attended to long ago. It was merely a reference, but I was glad I happened to mention it in time for you to get in the protest.

Love to Riley; it was good to hear the voice of him again. Tell him to prepare for the next world while he still has his faculties about him: I mean, tell him to get into debt; then if he goes to hell he will like the change  [MTP].