July 31 Friday – The Clemens family arrived in Southampton. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers what may have been meant as a PS to his July 22 letter:

We are just arrived, 16 days out from the Cape, and now I will telegraph London to send down the letters. Love to you all. / SLC [MTHHR 228].

August – The first of two installments of the 23,400 word Tom Sawyer, Detective first appeared in the Aug. issue of Harper’s Magazine. 21 illustrations were included by A.B. Frost. It would be included by Harper’s in book form, together with the 34,000 word Tom Sawyer Abroad in November, 1896. The latter had first appeared in book form in 1894 by Webster & Co., after being serialized in St. Nicholas.

August 1-18 Tuesday – Sometime before Sam learned of the death of his daughter Susy, he wrote to an unidentified person, enclosing a short note from Miss Lucy Frelinghuysen. First her note, then Sam’s remarks:

August 3 Monday – In Southampton, England on South Western Hotel stationery, Sam wrote to unidentified “gentlemen” at Harper & Brothers

The books have come & in all ways are to my taste. They are up to the Harper reputation for grace & style. Thank you for the trouble you have taken.

August 4 Tuesday – From Katy Leary’s memoirs:

August 5 Wednesday – In Southampton, England on South Western Hotel stationery, Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper.

August 7 Friday – In Guildford, England, possibly house-hunting, Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper (Sam was still in Southampton on Aug. 10, writing to Pond).

Yes, I find that the “Edited by” is an addition of Chatto’s.

August 8 Saturday – In Hartford Jean Clemens wrote to her father; the letter not extant but mentioned in Sam’s Aug. 26 to Livy.

August 9 Sunday – In Hartford Jean Clemens wrote again to her father; the letter not extant but mentioned in Sam’s Aug. 26 to Livy.

August 10 Monday – In Southampton, England Sam wrote to James B. Pond:

We are busy house-hunting. As soon as we find shelter in some country place I shall put in a few months on a book. I managed to pull through that long lecture campaign, but I was never very well, from the first night in Cleveland to the last one in Cape Town…

August 11 Tuesday – At Highfield House, Portsmouth Road, Guildford, England, Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto:

We’ve got ourselves located here an hour from London, for a month: & in the meantime we are spying around for a house for the winter. Mrs. Clemens is out on that quest to-day, in the neighborhood of London.

August 11-14 Friday – At Highfield House on Portsmouth Road in Guildford, England, sometime during these three days, Clara Clemens wrote for her father to Andrew Chatto.

August 12 Wednesday – In Guildford, England Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

August 13 Thursday – Sam began an essay, “Man’s Place in the Animal World” on or just after this day. It was first published in 1962 in Letters from the Earth, under the title, “The Lowest Animal,” supplied by DeVoto [Budd, Collected 2: 1003]. Note: Baender’s article, “The Date of Mark Twain’s ‘The Lowest Animal’” makes a solid case for Aug. 13 as Sam’s beginning and October, 1896 as the completion for this 3,600 word piece [174-9].

August 14 Friday – In the morning word reached the Clemenses in Guildford that Susy Clemens was quite ill. Sam cablegrammed Charles Langdon throughout the day for clarification but none came.