September 25 Sunday – The Clemenses moved into the Villa Viviani, five miles outside of Florence, Italy [Sept. 24 to Phelps].
Susy began a letter “on our first Sunday in Florence” to Louise Brownell, and finished it on Sept. 26 (though the letter was not postmarked until Oct. 13.) She related the delay the family experienced in Frankfurt (see Sept. 12 entry), and continued:
September 26 Saturday – The activities of the day are best described in the letter Sam wrote to Livy at nightfall, at the Hotel Bertrand in La Voult, France:
September 26 Monday – Susy Clemens finished her Sept. 25 letter to Louise Brownell (see Sept. 25).
In his notebook Sam made a memorandum to “order Galignani & l’Italy” (Galignani’s Messenger, a daily English-language publication from Paris) [Gribben 250; NB 32, TS 26].
This was in a long list of items to get and do, including:
September 26 Tuesday – In New York on Webster & Co. letterhead, Sam wrote to daughter Clara.
Benny dear, this is Hulda’s wedding-day. I’ll send a congratulatory cablegram.
Dearheart, I don’t expect to be able to sail before the middle or end of November. I’m in a business fog which every now & then promises to clear, but shuts down next day as thick as ever. So I have come to the conclusion that my release from New York is ‘way off, yet.
September 26 Wednesday – Sam was working on his JA manuscript and wrote H.H. Rogers on Sept. 30 that he’d reached a point in the work on Sept. 26 that he’d been anxious about and “struggled for.”
September 27 Sunday – On the Rhone River below Bourg St. Andéol, Sam wrote on Sept. 28 of this day’s trip and of Bourg St.Andeol:
September 27 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook in Florence:
Sept. 27. Hired landau & 2 horses & coachman of Picci at 480 francs (lire) a month for 8 months, which covers everything (wages, board, feed, &c), except the coachman’s bed & pourboire [gratuity]. Either party can annul the agreement by giving 15 days’ notice to the other [NB 32 TS 27].
September 28 Monday – In Bourg St. Andéol, the rest of Sam’s letter to Livy concerning this day:
I got up at 7 this morning [Sept 28] to see the poor devils cook their poor breakfast & pack up their sordid fineries.
This is a 9 k-m. current & the wind is with us; we shall make Avignon before 4 o’clock. I saw watermelons & pomegranates for sale at St. Andéol.
With a power of love, Sweetheart, SAML.
September 28 Wednesday – At the Villa Viviani in Florence, Sam wrote to Laurence Hutton at the Hotel Royal Danichi in Venice. Sam added the note to the envelope, “To be kept till the cuss comes.” He recommended a pension (similar to today’s hostel) to Hutton, should he not wish a hotel.
Eight francs a day per person, baths & lights & that sort of thing extra. Most highly recommended.
September 28 Thursday – In New York on Webster & Co. letterhead, Sam wrote to Livy. Evidently, Livy was in transit to Paris, because Sam sent the letter in care of Drexel Harjes & Co. there, and wrote that he wondered where she was, “at Botzen, I suppose.” He pulled no punches about Webster & Co. or the economic conditions of the country:
September 29 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook shows he arrived in Arles on this day [NB 31 TS 7]. On his last day on the Rhone river, Sam wrote at 11: 20 a.m. to his daughter Clara Clemens, answering her letter. He may have also written his other daughters, though such letters are not extant.
DEAR OLD BEN —
September 29 Thursday – In Florence Sam wrote a short notes to Frederick J. Hall. The first note:
Yours of the 19th containing M 2.086.5 received. Good — I needed it. Setting up housekeeping calls for rafts of inexpensive odds & ends that bulk-up a considerable expense before one gets through.
You sent out an enormous cargo of volumes in August [MTP].
September 29 Friday – In New York, Clarence C. Rice left for Chicago, leaving Sam alone in his “bachelor quarters.” Finding it too lonesome, Sam took a room at The Players Club at 16 Grammercy Park [Sept. 30 to Clara].
On Players Club letterhead, Sam wrote to Francis D. Millet, his old artist friend, responding to an unspecified gift.
September 29 Saturday – An agreement of this date gave Frank Mayo sole rights to dramatize PW in the U.S., England and Canada. Sam was guaranteed 20% of the net profits [MTHHR 139n2]. Note: The play would open in Hartford on Apr. 8, 1895.
September 3 Thursday – Sam wrote of this week’s travels once he’d arrived in Interlaken, on Sept. 10:
September 3 Sunday – Sam and daughter Clara were at sea on the Spree. From the Boston Daily Globe, p.27:
September 3 Monday – Sam finished his Sept. 2 letter to H.H. Rogers.
Monday morning, Joan. I hadn’t any trouble there. That is a book which writes itself, a tale which tells itself; I merely have to hold the pen.
Sam had written ten or eleven thousand more words for six days of work so far in Etretat, and planned it as a two-volume work:
September 30 Wednesday – At Arles, France Sam wrote a short note to Livy.
To Mrs. Clemens, in Ouchy, Switzerland:
ARLES, Sept. 30, noon.
Livy darling, I haint got no time to write to-day, because I am sight-seeing industriously & imagining my chapter.
Bade good-bye to the river trip & gave away the boat yesterday evening. We had ten great days in her.
We reached here after dark. We were due about 4.30, counting by distance, but we couldn’t calculate on such a lifeless current as we found.
September 30 Friday – Florence, Italy: the date of an engagement Sam accepted on Sept. 25 to Mr. Loring’s. At the Villa Viviani, Sam wrote a long letter to Sue Crane. Livy was unable to write, Sam disclosed.
September 30 Saturday – In New York, Sam finished his Sept. 28 letter to Livy. He wrote he’d forgotten to mail his letters of Sept. 28 and 29.
By Jackson a body forgets pretty much everything, these days, except his visions of the poor-house [LLMT 276].
September 30 Sunday – In Etretat, France Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
As your letter hasn’t come, I judge that there wasn’t any news in the locker. There isn’t any at this end, either. Four days ago I got to the point I was struggling for and anxious about, and now that bridge is behind me and all right. It foots up 40,000 words since I arrived. Since then we have had visitors — relatives. I got through exactly in time for them. In front of me now is a long course of study and not much production — on the book.
September 4 Friday – Sam’s notebook: Sept. 4. Heidelberg. Drove in a storm over Philosphen Weg. Sept. 4 French Republic came of age [NB 31 TS 3]. Note: Philosphenweg = Philosopher’s path in Heidelberg.
Frank H. Green for State Normal School, West Chester, Penn. wrote to Sam enclosing photographs of dramatic presentations at the school of some of Mark Twain’s works [MTP].
September 4 Sunday – In Bad Nauheim Sam began a letter to Frederick J. Hall that he finished the next day. Sam discussed page rates by Harper’s and compared his pay to Charles Dudley Warner’s. He counted his work as worth double Warner’s, and expected Hall to use that idea in negotiating rates. By this letter he’d settled on the title of Tom Sawyer Abroad, and had finished “Part I — In the Great Sahara”, about 40,000 words. He also announced another book in the works:
September 4 Monday – Sam and daughter Clara were at sea on the Spree.
Wolkow & Cornelson, a Hamburg, Germany commercial firm sent a post card to Livy that they’d received a package of tooth powder from New York for her — would she accept it? [MTP].
September 4 Tuesday – In Etretat, France Sam added 1,500 words to his JA manuscript [Sept. 9 to Rogers].