Clemens Family Relocates to Europe: Day By Day

January 18 Thursday – Fatout lists an Author’s Club appearance for Sam in New York City; no subject is specified [MT Speaking 661]. Sam’s notebook gives another engagement at Laurence Hutton’s:

January 18 Friday – Livy wrote to Annie Trumbull, a fragment of which survives:

“…of the fact that I was greatly embarrassed by her manner and at my wit’s ends as to how to meet it. I rather liked the woman. / I want very much to know how you are this winter” [MTP].

January – From Jan. to June, Library and Studio ran Part II of Will M. Clemens’ “Life of Mark Twain.” (Part I ran from July to Dec., 1891) [The Twainian, Nov. 1940 p.4].

January – Sam’s story, “The £1,000,000 Bank-Note” ran in the Century Magazine. Early in the month Sam noted that both PW and “Adam’s Diary” had gone to the typist [BAMT 3; NB 32 TS 53; Budd, Collected 2: 1000]. Note: the story was included in the book by the same name in 1893.

“Concerning Tobacco” was written sometime around 1893, not to be published until 1917 in What is Man? and Other Essays [Budd, Collected 2: 1001].

January, after – A calling card of Mr. Thomas Marion Williams is assigned to this time period. Sam wrote on the card, “He’s a fool. Webster could always select a fool” [MTP]. Note: Williams was the man excited about and engaged in marketing the LAL series.

January – Sam’s notebook lists several ideal subjects for his “Back Number” magazine, including Pepys’ Diary, Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, Herodotus’ writings, and “John Johnson (Iceland) in old Littell.

January – Borderland (London) ran “Character Reading by Palmistry and Otherwise: The Story of the Tell-Tale Hands of Mark Twain,” p.60-4. The article, previewed in the Oct. 1894 issue of the magazine, contained poorly reproduced photographs of the front and rear of Sam’s left hand, and Sam’s letter to the editor commenting on the accuracy of the palm readings done in the Oct. issue [Tenney 23].

January 19 Tuesday – Townsend Rushmore wrote from Plainfield, N.J. to Sam, having been reminded of a passage in IA of the “voice of the turtle that was heard in the land,” by a new edition of Ben Hur, p. 473 Vol. 2 [MTP].

Mary E. Bartlett wrote from Cheyenne about her “Mental Telegraphy” experience in Wyoming [MTP].

January 19 Friday – Sam wrote in his Feb. 11 to Livy that he made a notebook entry on this day of:

To-day, Jan. 19, sent cable, to Livy, “Nearing success.” It was plain, yesterday, at the conference, that a very trifling change or two would make the Chicago contract suit Mr. Rogers. But as this would cost several days, with a delay added for consulting the patent lawyers, I thought best not to cable anything more promising [NB 33 TS 50].

January 19 Saturday – The Athenaeum, No. 3508 p.83-4 briefly reviewed PW: “The story in itself Is not much credit to Mark Twain’s skill as a novelist,” and few of the characters are striking, but “If the preface (with its tasteless humor) be skipped, the book well repays reading just for the really excellent picture of Roxana” [Tenney 24].

January 2 Saturday – The Illustrated London News ran a first segment of “At the Shrine of St. Wagner.” Follow up segments ran on Jan. 9, and 30, 1892 [Willson list, Univ. of Texas at Austin].

The American Claimant was serialized in various newspapers from Jan. 2 through Mar. 30, 1892. The first book edition would be published in early April [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Afterword p.30, Oxford ed. 1996].

January 2 Monday – In Florence Sam wrote to Laurence Hutton, who was in Egypt, “jackassing around in that summer land & viewing the Pyramids & things.” Sam reported finishing the book (probably PW) but that revising it “nearly killed” him — “Revising books is a mistake.”

I see the Umbria is reported pawing her way gradually homeward & likely to arrive in the course of time. So Harper is all right, no doubt.

January 2 Tuesday – Sam signed the brief introduction, “A Whisper To The Reader,” to The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins:

Given under my hand this second day of January, 1893, at the Villa Viviani, village of Settignano, three miles back of Florence, on the hills…[Oxford facsimile edition 1996].

January 2 Wednesday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

Yours of Dec. 21 [not extant] has arrived, containing the circular to stockholders and I guess the Co will really quit — there doesn’t seem to be any other wise course.

January 20 Wednesday – Sam was in bed with pneumonia. During this week he wrote and revised his sixth and last letter for McClure’s Syndicate, “The German Chicago.” Paine calls this “a finely descriptive article on Berlin, and German customs and institutions generally” [MTB 936]. An excerpt:

January 20 Sunday – The New York Times, p.3, ran a short excerpt from Sam’s N.A.R. article about Bourget:

January 21 Thursday – Livy wrote for Sam to Frederick J. Hall:

Your letter of Jan. 7th has just reached us [not extant]…Like all your letters it was a great comfort to me….I am anxious that Mr. C. should take that sixteen thousand that he will have from his story and letters and invest it elsewhere because it surely is very bad to have all ones eggs in one basket….Therefore he intends to invest $16,000 through Mr. Halsey.

January 21 Saturday – At the Villa Viviani in Florence, Sam wrote to eighteeen-year-old daughter Clara in Berlin. She had written (not extant) about dining with 40 officers and no other females; he was chagrined.

January 21 Sunday – In New York on Players Club stationery, Sam wrote to Mary Mapes Dodge, declining an invitation, and sorry he’d missed her son, James (Jamie) on a recent visit, but his room was “in scandalous disorder” and he wasn’t yet up.

I’m to be in Boston Thursday & Friday — & likewise Saturday, I am afraid. It is just as exasperatingly too bad as it can be — in fact the whole too-badness of it can’t be done justice to without ripping & cussing, & it is Sunday & I dasn’t [MTP].

January 21 Monday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

Yours of the 8th is received.

That is the very thing. If you will write that sort of a letter to [Bram] Stoker, I’ll be very glad, and will keep diligently aloof myself.

January 22 Sunday – The San Francisco Examiner published “Daggett’s Recollections,” a description of Mark Twain’s appearance on his first arrival in Virginia City (before Sam used the pen name). [Tenney 21; Fatout, MT in Va City p.7-8].

January 22 Monday – In Boston, William H. Rideing (1853-1918), on the editorial staff of Youth’s Companion and North American Review, wrote Sam requesting he submit an essay on “How to Tell a Story” to the Youth’s Companion [MTHHR 19]. Rideing offered $500 for the story [MTP].

January 23 Saturday – Livy wrote for Sam to Frederick J. Hall (not extant) [Jan. 25 to Hall].

January 23 Monday – Sam mailed his endorsed notes for Mount Morris Bank loans [Jan. 24 to Hall].

Mary B. Willard wrote to Sam in response to his Jan. 21 chewing-out letter of daughter Clara:

January 23 Tuesday – Georgiana Ratcliffe Laffan (Nannie) wrote inviting Sam to a tea with songs for a “chiefly feminine” get together on Thursday, Jan. 25. Sam wrote on one margin for Livy, “I’ll tell you a howling yarn about this if I don’t forget” [MTP]. Note: See MTHL II p.657-8 for Sam’s account to Howells how he mixed up regrets with two invitations.