Clemens Family Relocates to Europe: Day By Day

April 18 Monday –In Rome Sam sent a cable to Henry C. Robinson:

See letter March 28. Trade must include fair share of that interest [MTP; Also NB 31 TS 37].

April 18 Tuesday – Still ailing in Chicago, Sam wrote to Livy, back at the Villa Viviani in Florence:

The doctor is done with me but requires Mr. Hall to keep me in bed a day longer, & maybe two. I do not mind it, for the reading & smoking is (are) pleasant — but! Yesterday the calling was like a levee. No respite, no rest. To-day we are wiser.

April 18 Wednesday – Two copies of Tom Sawyer Abroad by Huck Finn were deposited with the U.S. Copyright Office on this day, the same day that Charles L. Webster and Co. declared bankruptcy [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Afterword materials p.24, Oxford ed. 1996].

Henry E. Barrett, clerk for Tioga County, N.Y. Surrogate’s Court wrote to Sam, thanking him for the “many pleasant hours” the books of Mark Twain had given him from his youth on [MTP].

April – In Rome, sometime during the month, Livy wrote an undated letter on Sam’s behalf to Daniel Willard Fiske (1831-1904), librarian and professor at Cornell, who was in Rome at the time. After the 1881 death of his wife, Jennie McGraw, Fiske spent a great deal of time in Italy collecting manuscripts. He bequeathed a large collection to Cornell, known now as the Fiske Collection.

April – Sam’s article, “Private History of the ‘Jumping Frog’ Story” ran in the North American Review. In the article Sam addressed the issues of plagiarism and “a lady from Finland” (Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg) [Moyne 377n21]. See entry Dec. 27, 1888. Sam also criticized Madame Blanc’s translation of the tale into French, ( she would take offense). See Apr. 30 to King.

April – Harper’s Monthly Magazine began publishing serially and anonymously, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, which ran through April 1896 [MTHHR 144n2], publishing it as a book in May 1896 with Mark Twain’s name on the spine and cover but not the title page. See Apr. 15 to Harrison, for Sam’s condition of anonymity and penalty should it be broken. See also Feb. 23 and Mar. entries.

April 19 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook reveals a likely telegram, not extant, to Henry C. Robinson:

Apl. 19, wrote Robinson I would take ¼ million & 1/6 of Paige’s interest, but would prefer ¼ [NB 31 TS 37].

April 19 Wednesday – Sam was abed with a bad cold — see Apr. 13 entry.

April 19 Thursday – From the New York Times, p.9

MARK TWAIN’S COMPANY IN TROUBLE.

— — —

Publishing Firm of Charles L. Webster & Co. Financially Embarrassed.

April 2 Saturday – From the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette, p.13, “Brief Mention of New Books”:

Mark Twain’s humor isn’t always of a delicate sort, but one forgives that fault for the laughs with which every page of his work is sprinkled. It is the intention of the publishers to bring out in this series all the popular little classics in the French, Spanish and Italian as well as the English language [Budd, Contemporary 323].

April 2 Sunday – Sam was en route on the Kaiser Wilhelm II to New York. The Brooklyn Eagle ran a squib for Sam’s new book:

The £1,000,000 Bank Note — by Mark Twain, just published, at $1.00, one vol., cloth; store price, 65c.

Meanwhile, in Venice, Italy, Livy wrote to Sam:

Youth Darling how I wish that you were here with us this morning. It is absolutely glorious. Oh Venice is a charmer! I love it so, and yet it is often very melancholy.

April 2 Tuesday – On the S.S. Paris en route to Southampton, Sam wrote to Clarence C. Buel, editor of Century Magazine.

Before I left I put in nearly a whole night trying to write something for the October number; but it was only a doubtful success, so I had to pigeonhole it for a future effort.

April 20 Wednesday – In Rome Sam sent a cable to Webster & Co.:

Close with Arnold if you like [MTP; also NB 31 TS 37].

Note: this relates to Alfred Arnold’s desire to acquire dramatization rights for AC. See Apr. 4 entry. Evidently, negotiations had concluded favorably.

Susy wrote to Louise Brownell on or about this day:

April 20 Thursday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam, enclosing a letter from their sister Pamela, hoping that Sam would go to see her; “She will feel much hurt if you do not”; she hadn’t received her royalty from Whitmore. Orion had failed to secure employment with the Keokuk Gate City or the St. Louis Republic as a correspondent to the Chicago fair [MTP].

James W. Paige visited Sam in his sick bed. Sam wrote of the meeting in his Apr. 23 notebook entry.

April 20 Friday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy about his day-trip to Hartford, and about the assignment and Fred Hall:

April 20 Saturday – The New York Times, p.3 “Literary Notes,” ran the following, which shows how quickly Sam’s style was recognized by readers of PW in serial form in Harper’s Monthly:

April 21 Thursday – At the Hotel Molaro in Rome, Susy Clemens wrote to Louise Brownell.

April 21 Friday – At the Great Northern Hotel in Chicago, Sam ventured out of bed for the first time since becoming ill with a bad cold upon arriving on Apr. 13.

April 21 Saturday – The London Chronicle, p.3 “The New Mark Twain” gave Tom Sawyer Abroad a mixed review:

April 22 Saturday – In Chicago Sam was able to walk “about the room” during Apr. 21 and 22 [Apr. 24 to Orion].

April 22 Sunday – In New York at the Players Club Sam wrote to Livy. There was hope the company could resume business since the creditors initially seemed friendly. Sam blamed Fred Hall’s “stupid & extravagant mismanagement” as well as J.M. Shoemaker’s “fooling around so long” for the assignment. Still, he took the bright side of things, as he was usually disposed to do. He wanted to revoke Shoemaker’s privilege to sell his Paige Compositor Co.

April 23 Saturday – Alice Von Versen (nee Alice B. Clemens) wrote to Sam advising that an invitation had arrived for “Breakfast at the Castle as the Empress was so anxious to meet you!” She advised she’d answered that the Clemenses had left Berlin weeks before [MTP].

April 23 Sunday – Sam’s notebook in Chicago:

April 23 Monday – In New York, Sam wrote Orion Clemens about the assignment of Webster & Co.

April 23 Tuesday – In Paris at 169 rue de l’Universite, Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper, about the planned Uniform Edition of his works, about a 3,000 word short, “Mental Telegraphy Again,” he was sending to Henry Loomis Nelson for Harper’s Weekly, and about a contract he was about to sign: