December 14 Tuesday – Charles F. Chichester for Century Co. wrote to Sam, acknowledging a check from Miss Harrison last week for $204.51 as partial payment [MTP].

December 15 Wednesday – Sometime in mid-December Sam began sitting for an alabaster bust by the Russian sculptress Theresa Fedorowna Ries [Dolmetsch 277]. The famous picture of Mark Twain sitting in Ries’ studio may be found on p. 279 of source. See also Apr. 20, 1898 news article.

December 16 Thursday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Frank Bliss, requesting a copy of his new book for Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Metternich. He’d ordered one from Chatto but they didn’t put any illustrations in their edition, so he would wait until Bliss could prepare a special copy: “Please bind it in crushed Levant, & make it very neat, & simple, & modest, & bully.” Sam wanted it sent to him without any mention of it in the press.

December 17 Friday – H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam, letter not extant but referred to in Sam’s Dec. 29 reply.

Richard Watson Gilder wrote to Sam letter not extant but referred to in Sam’s Jan. 13, 1898 reply [MTP].

December 18 Saturday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, requesting that a book (FE) be sent to Frau von Versen (née Clemens) in Berlin [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Katharine I. Harrison, the letter not extant but referenced in Harrison’s Jan. 7, 1898 letter [MTHHR 314].

December 21 Tuesday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

Sam agreed that the letters from many of the creditors made his “heart glad.” With the “hateful burden” of debt soon to be extinguished, made his “same heart as light as Colby’s brain or the soul of the Mount Morris.” He commented on Rogers’ praise of FE and of the struggle he’d made to write it:

December 22 Wednesday – The ledger books of Chatto & Windus show that 5,000 additional copies of More Tramps Abroad, (FE) were printed (totaling 18,000 to date). The official English publication date was Nov. 25 [Welland 238]. See Aug. 12, Nov. 10, Nov. 25, Mar. 8, 1898, Oct. 11, 1900, and Aug. 7, 1907 for other print run amounts, totaling 30,000.

December 23 Thursday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, clarifying that the book should be made out in Livy’s name, as with the other books

[MTP]. Note: This likely refers to the Dec. 18 request for FE to be sent to Frau von Versen.

December 24 Friday – Walter Bliss of American Publishing Co. wrote to Sam, the letter not extant but mentioned in Livy’s Jan. 9 to Bliss [MTP].

December 25 Saturday – Christmas – In Vienna, Austria Sam inscribed (probably a copy of FE) to Katie: “ To our seventeen- year-old Katie with the affection of the Author. Vienna, Dec. 25. 1897” [MTP]. Note: This may have been a servant girl; not Katy Leary, unless Sam was teasing Leary about her age; she was seventeen when she came to work for the Clemens family.

Sam telegraphed the N.Y. World a summary of news for the week [Dec. 26 to White].

December 26 Sunday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Frank Marshall White, gently chiding him for not showing “grace” to his letter, and saying there was nothing to telegraph to-night and nothing new this day except the resignation of Count Kasimir Felix Badeni, which was “an ordinary & foregone event” not worth telegraphing. What he had he’d sent to the N.Y. World the night before, which request had beaten White’s by 17 hours [MTP].

December 27 Monday – Sam’s notebook:

At Fraulein Ries’s Monday. Second sitting for bust. Her bust of Baron von Berger is perfect. The “Lucifer” is fine & strong & impressive—majestically so, I think. Ries is a quaint & naïve, & interesting young creature— Russian. She dropped the fact incidentally, that her grand hellion there in the corner (Lucifer) was begun as the Virgin, but looked too masculine for the part, so she turned the Mamma of God into Satan!

December 29 Wednesday – In Vienna, Austria Sam replied to H.H. Rogers’ Dec. 17 (not extant).

“Yours of the 17th arrived this morning & is immensely gratifying in various ways. Lord, we are glad to see those debts diminishing! For the first time in my life I am getting more pleasure out of paying money out than pulling it in.”

December 30 Thursday – On this day or Dec. 31 Sam’s notebook reveals a performance by Leschtizky:

At Madame von Dutschka’s. Choice people there. Leschetizky played. A marvelous performance. He never plays except in that house (she says). He sacrificed himself for his first wife—believed she wd be the greatest pianist of all time—& now they have been many years separated. If he developed himself instead of her, he would have been the world’s wonder himself.

Baron von Berger lectured upon me yesterday [NB 42 TS 51-2].

December 31 Friday – The Boston Daily Globe, p.8, gave FE a glowing review, and praised the author.

NEW LITERATURE

Leschy’s Salon – Stirring Times in Austria – Rampant Anti-Semitism & Zola – Debt Free! Honor Be Unto Mark Twain! – Sczepanik, Edison of Austria – Translating Plays Ossip Stuns Clara – War with Spain – Kaltenleutgeben

Summer Jaunt to Ischyl, Hallstatt & Heat – Elegy to Susy

Rogers Won’t Bite on Inventions, Makes Stock Gains – Clemenses Wealthy Again

A Torrent of Magazine Articles – Assassination! –“Burn the Rhymes”– Plans for Home

January – Robert Barr’s sketch, “Clemens, Samuel L. ‘Mark Twain.’ A Character Sketch” ran in the January 1898 issue of McClure’s Magazine, as well as in the Feb. issue of Idler [Tenney 28]. Publishers Weekly (London) Jan. 8, reviewed Barr’s article: “Mr. Barr is a man who himself possesses the secret of devising humorous and grotesque tales, and as he has been the close personal friend of Mark Twain for a long time, he gives an interesting study of him.”

January 1 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Fine sunny day” [NB 42 TS 52].

In Vienna, Austria Sam inscribed a copy of More Tramps Abroad, (FE) to Ida Speiser- Wegenstein: “To / Mrs. Ida Speiser-Wegenstein / Wishing her many Happy New Years. With the kind regards of, / The Author / Vienna, New Years’ Day 1898” [MTP: Sothebys London catalogs, July 13, 2000, Item 48].

He also wrote an aphorism to an unidentified person:

January 2 Sunday – Fatout lists a Vienna dinner and dance where Sam gave a speech or read a story [MT Speaking 665]. Note: Fatout gives no particulars and none were found.

January 5 Wednesday – H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam; letter not extant but referred to in Sam’s Jan. 20 reply.

Sam, and perhaps the family as well, saw the premiere of Theodor Herzl’s play Das neue Ghetto (The New Ghetto) at the Carltheater, a mid-nineteenth century theater. Here Sam may have met Sigmund Freud for the first time. Dolmetsch writes:

January 6 Thursday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Livy wrote for Sam to Frank Marshall White, thanking him for his note which reinforced Sam’s belief that White could not “be guilty of such seeming discourtesy.” Also, Livy passed along Sam’s regrets that the cable from the N.Y. Journal asking for a rundown on “the Reichsrath’s affairs” had come “much too late” [MTP].

January 7 Friday – Katharine I. Harrison wrote to Sam, replying to his Dec. 18 and Dec. 21 letters (neither extant). She sent “the Calcutta letter” to John Brusnahan (foreman at the NY Herald) and would report back what he said.

January 9 Sunday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Livy wrote for Sam to Walter Bliss, replying to Bliss’ Dec. 24 (not extant). Sam verified a quotation on p.619. Receipt of six books was acknowledged; the Clemenses were “very glad the sale of the book has been satisfactory” [MTP].

William Dean Howells wrote to Sam after receiving one of Sam’s 50 printed “In Memoriam” poems with a large picture of Susy Clemens.

January 10 Monday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria Livy wrote for Sam to Chatto & Windus, acknowledging receipt of a six months statement and check for £1095.9.10; they were “greatly pleased with the excellent showing of the statement and the consquent size of the check” [MTP]. Note: in the six-month period from July 1, 1897 to Jan. 1, 1898, Chatto printed 18,000 copies of FE [Welland 238].

January 11 Tuesday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Livy wrote for Sam to Samuel E. Moffett.

“Your Uncle wants me to say that he desires you to keep the letter that I sent you entirely private” [MTP].