Clemens Family Relocates to Europe: Day By Day

December 11 Friday – In Berlin Sam wrote to Rudolf Lindau of the Foreign Office, thanking him for a dinner which was “too delicious & too exquisite in every way for sinful human beings.” The date of the dinner is not specified, though it was social protocol usually observed by the Clemenses to send a thank you note within a day or two of such events. Since the dinner was in Berlin, a good estimate would be Dec. 9 or 10. Sam had been preparing a corn cob pipe for Lindau’s nephew by soaking it in whiskey.

December 11 Sunday – In Florence Sam wrote to Dr. William Wilberforce Baldwin about a possible pulpit vacancy in the St. James American Church, which may have been the Clemens’ church of choice in Florence.

December 11 Monday – In New York Sam came down with a bad cold, and called in Dr. Clarence Rice to administer. He kept an appointment (unspecified) at noon [Dec. 14 to Trumbull]. Evidently, he did not go with Rice to a play as proposed in his notebook [NB 33 TS 43].

Livy wrote to Sam. He received the letter (not extant) on Dec. 25 with three others from her (Dec. 9, 10, 12), after his return from Chicago [Dec.25 to Livy].

December 11 Tuesday – Not allowed to go out except on dry days, which were absent for the next week, Sam worked again on JA, Book III. On this day he wrote 1,300 words [Dec. 16 to Rogers].

December 12 Saturday – Speaker in, “American Professional Humor,” p.705-6 printed a general discussion, ranking Twain with the lower practitioners [Tenney, supplement #3, American Literary Realism, Autumn 1979 p.183].

US Census per Robert P. Porter sent more census forms and flyer from Dept. of Interior [MTP].

Charles H. Payne wrote from N.Y. to Sam with reaction to “Mental Telegraphy” [MTP].

December 12 Monday – In Florence Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall, having received the November check . He advised of his loaning “The Californian’s Tale” to Arthur G. Stedman, and wrote he’d finished “Those Extraordinary Twins” (PW) some 60 or 80,000 words — he hadn’t yet counted. Still he had to do a bit of revision:

December 12 Tuesday – Livy wrote to Sam. He received the letter (not extant) on Dec. 25 with three others from her (Dec. 9, 10, 11), after his return from Chicago [Dec.25 to Livy].

William A. Goodhart (Law offices of Goodhart & Phillips, N.Y.) wrote to Sam:

December 12 Wednesday – Sam wrote 2,600 words on JA, Book III [Dec. 16 to Rogers].

December 13 Tuesday – Sam received a letter (not extant) from Laurence Hutton, written by his wife in dictation. They didn’t care much for Rome but enjoyed the company of the Binghams [Dec. 15 to Clara].

December 13 Wednesday – In New York on Dr. Clarence Rice’s letterhead, Sam wrote to Clarence C. Buel, asking if he might get “that Thursday talk put off?” due to his bad cough and cold. He was scheduled to give a lecture to the St. George’s Church Men’s Club on “Reminiscences of a Mississippi Pilot” on Dec. 14.

Sam also wrote on Players Club letterhead to Henry H. Rogers:

Dear Doctor Rogers:

December 13 Thursday – Sam wrote 2,100 words on JA, Book III [Dec. 16 to Rogers]. A review of PW by the London Chronicle, p.3:

There is in this volume a good deal of Mark Twain at his best, and not a little of Mark Twain at his worst. The story is one of the strangest compounds of strength and artificiality we have read for many a day. Pathos and bathos, humour and twaddle, are thrown together in a way that is nothing less than amazing [Budd, Contemporary Reviews 360].

December 14 Monday – Frank A. Burelle for Bureau of Press Clippings responded to Sam’s order that a quote per month would be less than by the article and he would send it [MTP].

Edward Bush wrote to Sam Pennsylvania State College with reaction to “Mental Telegraphy” [MTP].

Harry E. Pratt, Chicago attorney sent his reaction to “Mental Telegraphy” with clipping from the Chicago Inter Ocean [MTP].

December 14 Wednesday – Sam finished revising Pudd’nhead Wilson [Dec. 15 to Clara]. Also:

Dec. 20/92. Finished ‘Pudd’nhead Wilson’ last Wednesday, 14th. [MTLTP 328-9; NB 32 TS 51].

December 14 Thursday – In New York and still laid up, Sam wrote to Clarence C. Buel:

I am still in bed, & waiting for Dr. Rice to come & withdraw his prohibition.

I have been obliged to eat — couldn’t wait any longer, because I had a long fit of coughing which had to be stopped somehow or other. So don’t keep a place for me at table.

December 14 Friday – Sam wrote 2,000 words on JA, Book III [Dec. 16 to Rogers].

December 15 Tuesday – Lucy R. Buck wrote from Front Royal, Va. to Sam with reaction to “Mental Telegraphy” [MTP].

December 15 Thursday – In Florence at 3 or 4 a.m., Sam couldn’t sleep so wrote to daughter Clara at Mrs. Mary B. Willard’s school in Berlin. He’d finished revising PW the evening before. “Writing never tired me, but the revising has done that.” He also told of receiving a letter from Laurence Hutton (“Uncle Larry”) from Rome. He added a bit of family news:

You will be charmed by Susy’s singing. She has made very great & rapid improvement, & it is a genuine pleasure to hear her.

December 15 Friday – The N.Y. Times, p.1 reported Sam failed to meet his Dec. 14 speaking engagement at St. George’s Church because “his medical adviser forbade it.”

December 15 Saturday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam wrote to his English publisher, Andrew Chatto, asking to see him on business the “very first time” he came to Paris. Sam asked for three copies of his books right away for daughter Jean, who wanted to give them for Christmas presents. Sam also noted that “a couple of years ago…you charged me full retail rates for my own books, & it didn’t seem a bit right.” If he would “modify reasonably,” then consider the three books an order.

December 16 Wednesday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam about Thomas M. Williams’ desire to undertake sales of LAL:

…the work of his life and he wants to make an agreement that will extend over the next eight or ten years…he thinks there is a fortune for himself and for is in the ‘Library,’ and …he will make the sale of ‘L.A.L.’ the work of his life” [MTLTP 291n1]. See also Sam’s Jan. 25, 1892 to Williams.

December 16 Friday – Sam went Christmas shopping in down town Florence [Dec. 15 to Clara]. He also wrote to Chatto & Windus, asking them to send him a particular atlas, as he wanted it for a Christmas present for “one of the children” [MTP].

This was the night that Sam was planning to be at Mr. Loring’s with Dr. William Wilberforce Baldwin. (See Dec. 11 to Baldwin; also undated note to Loring, estimated also to be Dec. 11).

December 16 Saturday – In New York Sam moved to a better room at the Players Club. He completed the “Tale of the Dime-Novel Maiden,” which he began in a letter to Livy on Oct 17. In his Dec. 17 to Livy he wrote of moving into his new quarters on this evening and running across the tale which he’d misplaced.

December 16 Sunday – At 169 rue de l’Université in Paris, Sam began a letter to H.H. Rogers, which he finished on Dec. 17, having “started the mill again 6 days ago,” on his JA manuscript, Book III. He’d written a total of 11,800 words, including “this Sabbath evening” of 2,000 words. He saw that Book III would be as long as Book I and twice as long as Book II, which he’d written in Etretat, and that the entire work would be two full volumes in the proposed Uniform Edition.

December 17 Saturday – E.J. Carpenter, literary editor for the Boston Daily Advertiser, wrote to Sam, sending him an annual supplement feature; might Sam might “favor” him “with a few lines, which could be printed, concerning it”? [MTP].

December 17 Sunday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy, enclosing the “Tale of the Dime-Novel Maiden,” and describing his new digs, and the difficulty of waiting: