October – Sometime during the month, probably after the Clemenses were settled in Berlin, Sam inscribed a photograph of himself to Charles Warren Stoddard: C.W.S. / from his oldest and wisest friend / Mark Twain / Oct 1891 [MTP].
Sam’s notebook entry during this month shows he at least knew of Emily Dickinson. He quoted Thomas W. Higginson’s description of her father’s house in Amherst, Mass:
October 1 Thursday – In Nimes, France at the Hotel Manivet, Sam wrote to Joe Twichell. Paine muses:
“It had been a long time since Clemens had written to his old friend Twichell, but the Rhone trip must have reminded him of those days thirteen years earlier, when, comparatively young men, he and Twichell were tramping through the Black Forest and scaling Gemmi Pass. He sent Twichell a reminder of that happy time” [MTLP 2: 558; Sept 29 to Clara Clemens].
Dear Joe:
October 2 Friday – Sam and Joseph Verey left Arles for Avignon, France [2nd letter to Livy, Sept.28; NB 31 TS 7].
In Ouchy-Lausanne, Susy wrote to Louise Brownell:
At last a lovely letter from you dear, dear Louise! I have waited with sillie impatience hoping for one every mail as if you could reach me from the ocean easily.
October 3 Saturday – Sam’s notebook:
Avignon. Oct. 3.—leaving, 11 am. Papal palace. This old factory—for that is what it looks like, with its gray walls (that have a plastered look) & its straight lines & sharp corners & four or 5 chimney-like projections—absence of ornament, & utter & unapproachable ugliness.
Palace—why that is a word which suggests & promises elegance, ornament, beauty costly decoration, rich furniture not a stable, a factory [NB 31 TS 8].
October 4 Sunday – Sam may have returned after midnight (Oct. 3-4). His notebook simply gives Oct. 4 as “Go to Ouchy” [NB 31 TS 7]. Rodney gives this as his date of return to Ouchy and says the family was packed and ready to travel [138]. In his Sept. 28 letter to Livy, Sam had suggested they go to Basel, Switzerland the day after his arrival, some 125 miles, and then on to Berlin on Monday, Oct. 5.
October 5 Monday – The planned day to leave Ouchy-Laussane for Berlin. According to Rodney, the family made this long trip in two days, stopping at Basel, Switzerland [138] and then Frankfurt, where Sam telegraphed Chatto & Windus on Oct. 7.
Katy Leary was sent back to Elmira in order to save money. She wrote of the parting:
October 6 Tuesday – A travel day for the Clemens party on their way to Berlin. Sam’s notebook:
Strassburg, Oct. 6.—Arles is very well, perhaps; but this is the place for pretty girls, apparently [NB 31 TS 8].
Susy Clemens and her Aunt Sue Crane went apart from the rest of the family to the Hotels Schweizerhof & Luzernhof at Lucerne, Switzerland. Susy wrote to Louise Brownell:
October 7 Wednesday – Stopping at Frankfurt on the Main (Frankfurt) the Clemens party may have spent the night at the Hotel Continental. Sam telegraphed Chatto & Windus from the hotel, sending his new address for the next six months in Berlin, 7 Körnerstrasse, and asking them to send him a copy of “The Table,” a cookbook just issued by Webster & Co. “Don’t divulge my address, please” [MTP].
October 8 Thursday – Another travel day for the Clemens party, making the last leg from Frankfurt to Berlin, some 340 miles, by train. Joseph Verey may have accompanied the family on to Berlin. No letter from Berlin prior to Oct. 9 is extant.
October 9 Friday – In their winter quarters at 7 Körnerstrasse, Berlin, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, enclosing a picture of the Wirt fountain pen he’d lost, and asking them to send him another, or to forward his note on to Webster & Co. if they couldn’t find one. Sam claimed he was “helpless” without it [MTP].
October 10 Saturday – The Club, “A Journal of Club Live for Men and Women” wrote that they’d be “pleased to have a signed article for the November issue of “THE CLUB” and sent a copy [MTP].
October 11 Sunday – The Boston Globe ran “MARK TWAIN — A PEN PICTURE,” an interesting sketch and discussion of Sam’s success.
America’s Richest and Most Famous Author at Home and on the Platform.
Wild and peculiar is Mark Twain.
He has a big head stuck on by a long neck to a pair of round shoulders. He goes on to the lecture platform as if he were half asleep, and he looks as if nature, in putting him together, had, somehow, got the joints mixed.
October 12 Monday – In Berlin at 7 Körnerstrasse, Sam wrote to Rudolf Lindau (1829-1910) of the Foreign Office, answering his invitation (not extant), probably to dine. The only evening Sam had free in the week was Wednesday, but he was entirely free the next week [MTP]. Note: Lindau had studied philology and was also a novelist and short story writer. He was also on the staff of the Revue des Deux Mondes for many years.
October 13 Tuesday – The N.Y. Times reported on the 70th birthday of Rudolf Ludwig Karl Virchow (1821-1902). Virchow is considered the founder of modern pathology; he was also an eminent German anthropologist and politician; his reputation later stained by his hostility against both the use of antiseptics and the idea that bacteria caused disease.
October 14 Wednesday
October 15 Thursday – In the evening Sam received a cable from Frederick J. Hall with the good news that the Sherman book difficulties had been resolved [Oct. 16 to Hall]. (See Mar. 10 & 29 entries.)
October 16 Friday – In Berlin at 7 Körnerstrasse, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, his English publisher, thanking them for the pen sent, which was too stiff — could they send a more limber one? On Oct. 12 another dramatization of P&P opened, and Sam wished it well:
I hope for Hatton’s sake & his daughter’s & mine — & the public’s — that the play will succeed, & that it will beat the record [MTP]. Note: Joseph Hatton. See Oct. 12.
October 17 Saturday – A review of “Mr. [Joseph] Hatton’s adaptation” of P&P ran in the London Athenaeum No. 3338, p.525. The periodical praised the dramatization as,
…a passable piece of stage carpentry. Three of its four acts are shapely and interesting, some of its dialogue is excellent, and its scenes of comedy have distinct charm. [The scenes of violence in the third act] are out of keeping with the rest of the piece [Tenney, supplement #3, American Literary Realism, Autumn 1979 p.183].
October 19 Monday – Mamie B. Mordecai wrote from Lutherville, MD for Sam’s autograph [MTP].
October 20 Tuesday – In Berlin Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall with questions about the book form of The American Claimant — what was Hall’s plan to publish it? Was he getting the plates ready? Would Chatto have the advance sheets as early as he needed? Sam asked for “all the details” of Hall’s plan as soon as possible — the size, price, and every particular. On the reverse side of the letter Sam outlined a plan for a 50c edition of his six Europe letters, printed in large type for railroad use.
October 22 Thursday – Jane A. LaCopitt wrote from Shreveport, LA asking for Sam to use his influence with President Harrison or John Wannamaker to secure the Postmastership for her son [MTP].
October 24 Saturday – Sam began work on an exhausting three day and night project, translating “the most celebrated child’s book in Europe,” Dr. Heinrich Hoffman’s, Dur Struwwelpeter, or (Slovenly Peter) from German to English [MTLTP 287]. Sam wanted a cheap edition of the book out for the US Christmas market, or an outright sale to McClure. Kaplan writes,
October 25 Sunday – Sam spent a good deal of his time working on the translation of Dur Struwwelpeter, or (Slovenly Peter) [Oct. 27 to Hall].
October 26 Monday – Sam continued work on the translation of Dur Struwwelpeter, or (Slovenly Peter) [Oct. 27 to Hall].
October 27 Tuesday – In Berlin at 7 Körnerstrasse, Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall.