Clemens Family Relocates to Europe: Day By Day

May 7 Saturday – The Boston Literary World, under “Fiction” reviewed Merry Tales:

May 7 Sunday – At Quarry Farm Sam answered Susy’s recent letter, describing familiar places at the farm, including the children’s playhouse, Ellerslie, which had,

…just been furnished with a bran-spang-new shingle-roof at great Expense, & Mrs. Crane says that the owners of Ellerslie are a hard lot in the matter of repairs & taxes.

Sam also described the barn and each horse that Susy and Jean would have been familiar with:

May 7 Monday – In his May 8 to Rogers, Sam wrote of this evening:

I invited myself out to dinner last night [May 7], & I’ve got the brooch & a letter for Mrs. Duff. I invited Rice to come out & play billiards, & no doubt he would have come if he hasn’t said he would. However, I took it out of Harry [Rogers’ son] & we didn’t need the doctor [MTP].

May 7 Tuesday – In Paris Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto.

I am very glad you have arranged for Joan, and that I am to remain with you and not go wandering among strangers.

May 8 Sunday – Sam’s notebook entry in Florence: “May 8, 9, 10. These days Joseph [Verey] has been about as idle & hard to find as ever, though the seat at the door is comfortable” [NB 31 TS 41-2].

May 8 Monday – In Elmira Sam thought he’d “steal a moment” and write to Mary Mason Fairbanks, now in Newton Mass. with her daughter. Sam’s letter reads as a response to Mary’s (not extant) and her news that Edward Bok, editor of the Ladies Home Journal, had criticized one of Sam’s unpublished pieces, in an article as Sam’s next letter to Hall reflects. Sam marked the letter “Private & Confidential” due to his reference to Edward Bok:

May 8 Tuesday – In New York at noon Sam wrote to Henry H. Rogers, who was on a trip to W. Virginia. Sam headed the letter with Rogers’ office address:

Enjoy your trip; be perfectly tranquil concerning this office. Miss Harrison & I are running its affairs in the most admirable way. I am going up, presently, to eat your luncheon for you, for you need to keep well nourished when on a long trip, & I don’t think much of the West Virginian cuisine.

May 9 Monday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam (letter not extant) [May 22 to Hall].

Sam’s notebooks:

May 9. ’92 Luncheon to-day with Lady Fitzmaurice & her mother. Present, Sir James Lachalte (can’t spell the name,) the Comtessa —- (name gone from me), the young Lord Granville & a charming Miss Granville — not related. Talk was general. … [NB 32 TS 6].

May 9/92

May 9 Tuesday – In the morning Sam took the ten-hour train ride from Elmira back to New York, where he checked into the Murray Hill Hotel. Livy cabled (not extant) asking how his cold was and Sam “answered properly,” which may have been another cable [May 11 to Ida Langdon].

May 9 Wednesday – Sam sailed again for Southampton, England in the S.S. New York [Brooklyn Eagle, p.4 “Personal Mention”; MTHHR 24]. Sometime during the voyage, which ended on May 16, Sam wrote a thank you note to an unidentified person:

Thank you cordially for your superb performance. / Sincerely Yours / Mark Twain / At Sea, May/94 [MTP].

November 1 Sunday – The Boston Daily Globe carried a long feature article, p.23, “SHE WHO IS ‘MRS. TWAIN’,” complete with engravings of the Hartford Clemens house, a portrait of Sam, and two small illustrations from Puck. “Next to His Family, Mark Loves His Pipe.”

November 1 Tuesday – Mrs. William S. Karr sent Mr. & Mrs. Clemens a wedding invitation for her daughter Helen to Mr. Lucius Chester Ryce, on this date in Hartford [MTP]. Note: Geer’s 1886 Hartford City Directory lists “Karr William S. professor Hartford Theological Seminary.”

November 1 Wednesday – Sam inscribed a copy of HF to Francis Wilson: Salutation and Best Wishes to Francis Wilson from Mark Twain. New York, Nov. 1, 1893 [MTP].

The Brooklyn Eagle, along with other newspapers, announced on p.4:

THE NEW NOVEL BY MARK TWAIN

November 10 Tuesday – Mrs. Clara E. Rice wrote from Neligh, Nebr. Sending Sam “an ode” he might be able to use; if not return. She named a son “Samuel” after him [MTP].

November 10 Thursday – In Florence, Sam wrote a short note thanking Chatto & Windus for a copy of Finger Prints which just arrived. He would “devour it” [MTP]. Note: See Gribben, p.251. Francis Galton was the author (1892). Sam would use the new science in his detective tale, Pudd’nhead Wilson. See also June 25, 1895 and Feb. 23, 1897 entries relating to Galton’s book and its contribution.

November 10 Friday – In New York Sam wrote on Players Club letterhead to Livy. Even with all the interruptions he was “making good progress” on Tom Sawyer, Detective having written 10,000 words.

The last two days I have written very slowly & cautiously, & made my steps sure. It is a delightful work & a delightful subject. The story tells itself.

Sam also related election results from Tuesday, Nov. 7:

November 10 Saturday – Sam was down with the “grippe” at the Brighton Hotel in Paris. Sam referred to this night’s treatment in his Nov. 11 to Rogers:

…my back and breast had been painted 4 times with iodine; it was doubtful if either could stand another application, but we chanced it and painted my breast. There was an uncertainty for about 3 minutes, then there was no uncertainty any more. Well, sir, I had to turn over and have a fire built on my back or I should have died.

November 11 Friday – The King sisters ended their month-long visit and left for Paris [Nov. 10 to Clara Clemens]. Sam threw himself into finishing PW:

Dec. 20/92. Finished ‘Pudd’nhead Wilson’ last Wednesday, 14th. Began it 11th or 12th of last month, after the King girls left. Wrote more than 60,000 words between Nov. 12 and Dec. 14. One day, [Dec. 1] wrote 6,000 words in 13 hours. Another day wrote 5,000 in 11 [MTLTP 328-9; NB 32, TS 51].

November 11 Saturday – In New York City, The Lotos Club gave a dinner in honor of Mark Twain. Sam’s speech may be found in Fatout, MT Speaking, p.265-7. The New York Times, November 12, 1893 also published a version of the speech. See also MTB 971.

President Frank R. Lawrence (1845-1918) introduced Mark Twain:

November 11 Sunday – Down with the “grippe” at the Brighton Hotel in Paris, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, wondering if he was in Chicago checking on the typesetter at the Herald. Clemens expected to move to the rental house the next day (delayed until Nov. 16).

I haven’t smoked for three days; that is because of the bronchial cough; but I am to re-begin to-morrow morning, and I will see what can be accomplished between that and night.

November 12 Saturday – The N.Y. Times, Nov. 13, 1892 p.2 ran an obituary notice for Dr. A. Reeves Jackson of Chicago, who died this day.

…the original of Mark Twain’s character My Friend the Doctor, in “Innocents Abroad,” died …Dr. Jackson had been ill ten days from the effects of a stroke of apoplexy. He will be interred at Janesville, Wis. [Note: Dr. Jackson was one of Sam’s favorites on the QC excursion.]

November 12 Monday – At the Brighton Hotel in Paris, Sam expected to move to the rental house at noon this day, but was laid low by another ailment:

November 13 Friday – “The Paradise of the Rheumatics” was reprinted in The Illustrated London News in two parts, the second of which ran on Nov. 28.

November 13 Sunday – In Florence, Sam sent condolences to his Hartford attorney and billiards buddy, Henry C. Robinson, whose mother had just passed away. The Courant had come and Sam mentioned “Dr. Parker’s well-thought & well-said words” [MTP].

November 13 Monday – In New York City in the afternoon, a memorial service was held for the late Edwin Booth, who died on June 7. Sam was in attendance (according to his Nov. 6 to Susy he went with Mrs. Rice). As reported in the N.Y. Times of Nov. 12 and 14, p.3 and 8, “The Booth Memorial” and “In Memory of Edwin Booth”: