France Tramp: Day By Day

March 24 Monday – Sam wrote from the Normandy Hotel, Paris to Andrew Chatto, making a “special request” for “that box of first-class quill-nibs which I asked you for some time ago.” He also asked for a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer [MTLE 4: 40]. Sam was not well enough to go out, suffering again from dysentery [41].

March 25 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Paris to famous American artist, George Peter Alexander Healy (1813-1894), who did masterpiece portraits of Lincoln, Buchanan, Tyler and other great Americans. Healy had called on the Clemenses but they were out visiting at the time. Evidently Healy was interested in doing a portrait of Twain.

March 26 Wednesday – Gustavo Sarfatti sent Sam a bill of lading for goods shipped [MTP].

Frank Bliss wrote to Clemens about taking his time with a MS. “It is beginning to be noised about that I am to publish your book.” Frank wanted it kept quiet [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Answered”.

March 28 Friday – Sam’s notebook:

March 30 Sunday – Sam and Livy (and Susy per her father) wrote from Paris to Olivia Lewis Langdon.

March 31 Monday – Clemens gave a reading which included “The Invalid’s Story,” for the Stanley Club Dinner, Paris, France [MTPO].

March 4 Tuesday – The Clemens family moved to the Normandy Hotel on Rue de l’Echelle. In his letter of Mar. 6, Sam related, “Tauchnitz bought of me the right to put the Innocents Abroad in his series, day before yesterday” [MTLE 4: 36]. Verlag Bernard Tauchnitz imprinted many popular authors, and by law at that time did not have to pay Sam a royalty, but did.

March 6 Thursday – Sam wrote from the Normandy Hotel in Paris to Elisha Bliss after receiving his letter. The “old dead” contract signed years before about the Riley book was not canceled and Sam wanted the matter resolved. Bliss reported that the subscription sales for the new book (A Tramp Abroad) were going well, and Sam was gratified since the family’s expenses in Paris were “something perfectly gaudy.” Sam also wrote:

March 8 Saturday – Caroline Dahlweiner wrote from France, proud that Clemens had been in her house. “I received your kind letter and thank you very much…I am so sorry that you do not find so comfortable in the Hotel as you hopped” [MTP]. Her spelling.

Sam wrote to Christian Tauchnitz, letter not extant but mentioned in Tauchnitz’s Mar. 12 reply.

May 10 Saturday – Sam wrote from the Normandy Hotel in Paris to Frank Bliss.

May 11 Sunday – The New York World published Sam’s “interview” with Richard Whiteing, (1840-1928), English author and correspondent for the World. Sam discussed copyright laws and British society [MTNJ 2: 307n31;Scharnhorst, Interviews 14-16] (see Apr. 12 entry).

May 12 Monday – Sam wrote from Paris to Robert M. Hooper:

…previous engagement debars us the pleasure of accepting Mr. & Mrs. Heuston’s kind invitation, but we shall hold the 17th open, so as not to miss the entertainment at your house.

I’m as sorry as you are that you were not on the Tribune, because toward the last I began to get my hand in, & if you had been there I would have won all of your money & part of your clothes [MTLE 4: 57].

May 13 Tuesday – Livy wrote from Paris to her mother:

“We live in such a perfect whirl of people these days, that it seems utterly impossible to do anything, I wish that I had put down the names of the people that have been here for the last two months, but I think every day, well this will be the last we shant have as many again” [MTNJ 2: 288].

May 14 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Paris to his nephew, Samuel Moffett, confiding that he and Livy were “fleeing from these deluges of company” by using the work room (studio) Sam rented from Millet [MTLE 4: 58].

May 15 Thursday – In Paris, Sam answered Mary Mason Fairbanks’ letter requesting a loan of $2,000. Sam sent her $1,000 and referred her to Charles Langdon for the rest. Sam confessed that having Mary’s son Charley send pictures directly to the American Publishing Co was a mistake. “It never occurred to me to remark that they should be sent here—to me, drawn on paper, not on the wood” [MTLE 4: 59].

May 17 Saturday – From Lucius Fairchild’s diary: “At home—Called on Mark Twain & walked on the Boulevard” [Rees 8].

Sam wrote from Paris to Richard Whiteing. He thanked him for writing something complimentary about him and for “saving me from those people—I had been feeling a little uneasy about them” (unidentified) [MTLE 4: 59].

May 20-25 Sunday – Sam wrote (for publication) to the editor of the New York Evening Post. His letter was printed on June 9 as “Mark Twain, a Presidential Candidate” [MTLE 4: 62]. (See June 9 entry for excerpt, and also in Budd, “Collected”.)

May 23 Friday – Bill and receipt from Munroe & Co., Paris, for stay at the Normandy Hotel, £12.4.1 London [MTP].

Christian Tauchnitz wrote to Sam: “Many thanks for your kind lines. I will certainly write to Mr. Aldrich. / The books of Mr. Howells did not yet reach me, I therefore directed a line to him” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Answered”; file note: “See SLC to Tauchnitz 25 may 1879, SLC to Aldrich, 25 May 1879”

May 25 Sunday – Sam wrote from the Normandy Hotel in Paris to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, who had left Paris for home a few days before. The Clemens family “felt an awful vacancy here when the Aldriches left,” Sam wrote. He also passed on Tauchnitz’s promise to write Aldrich about including Aldrich’s book of sketches in his series.

May 28 Wednesday – From Sam’s notebook: “This is one of the coldest days of this most damnable & interminable winter” [MTNJ 2: 311].

May 29 Thursday – Sam wrote from the Normandy Hotel in Paris to Andrew Chatto, asking him to send a copy of Roughing It to Ivan Turgenev [MTLE 4: 66].

May 3 Saturday – One of the greatest attractions of the 1878 Paris Exposition was Henry Giffard’s captive balloon in the Tuileries of Paris. Lucius Fairchild invited the Clemens family to go up in the balloon. Sam wrote and declined due to a previous engagement.  

May 30 Friday – From Lucius Fairchild’s diary: “Dinner at Home…Mark Twain,…Mrs. Clemens, Miss Spaulding, Mrs. Dean, Miss Stevens –& ourselves” [Rees 8].

May 4 Sunday – Sam and Livy enjoyed a breakfast invitation at 12:30 with unknown party or parties [MTLE 4: 53].

May 5 Monday – Valentine Besarel sent a receipt to Sam for 2,246 Lire [MTP].