• September 13, 1896

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    September 13 Sunday – In London, Sam sent a letter of thanks to Charles J. Langdon. (This is the first of several letters with a return address of c/o Chatto & Windus, 111 St. Martin’s Lane, London.)

  • September 14, 1896

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    September 14 Monday – In London Sam wrote two letters to Franklin G. Whitmore about the Hartford house rental and associated matters. In the first letter he also mentioned “a notice of Susy by George Warner and a little poem by Annie Trumbull.” (Editorial emphasis.) After writing the first letter, a letter and statement of affairs came from Whitmore.

  • September 17, 1896

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    September 17 Thursday – London. In his Sept. 14to Whitmore, Sam disclosed he’d just written the Authors Club to withdraw his membership. A note dated Sept. 17 to the club secretary to withdraw “for economical reasons” is in the MTP, so it may be that this was put off a few days [MTP].

  • September 28, 1896

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    September 28 Monday – In London, Sam continued to respond to letters of condolence, including this answer to Henry C. Robinson, Hartford attorney and family friend.

    It is as you say, dear old friend, “the pathos of it” — yes, it was a piteous thing — as piteous a tragedy as any the year can furnish. …All the circumstances of this death were pathetic — my brain is worn to rags rehearsing them. Yes, & cursing them — cursing the conception & invention of them. …

  • October 1896

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    October – Sometime during the month Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow, confiding the secret address of 23 Tedworth Square for him to visit. Sam headed the note, “Private,” and explained:

  • October 1, 1896

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    October 1 Thursday ca. – On or about this day a portion of a letter Sam sent to Orion appeared in the Keokuk Gate City; it survives in scrapbook 20 at the MTP:

  • October 2, 1896

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    October 2 Friday – In London, Sam wrote a short note to Percy Spalding:

    No, we’ll not have the contract stamped. Disagreements & misunderstandings between the Garths & us are not possible. We are two pairs of constitutionally just & fair-minded people [MTP: TS: Anderson Auction Co. catalogs, Nov. 25, 1930 Item 48].

  • October 4, 1896

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    October 4-18 Sunday – In London Sam wrote to his English publisher, Andrew Chatto:

    To-morrow or next day Mr. William Wilson an old Scotch friend & present neighbor of mine will call upon you business-wise, with a manuscript book. I promised him that you would read it; and told him that if you liked it & wanted it he would find that you & Mr. Spalding are fair dealers.

  • October 5, 1896

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    October 5 Monday – This is the likely day the Clemenses and Katy Leary took possession of a small house at 23 Tedworth Square, Chelsea, in southwest London. Sam’s Oct. 6 to Rogers states they were now “settled in a house.” They kept their address a secret, using Chatto & Windus for a return address and closing themselves off from nearly everyone. Sam’s Sept.

  • October 6, 1896

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    October 6 Tuesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

    The proposed Bliss-contract has arrived, & is so entirely satisfactory that I shall be very glad & quite at rest in my mind the day that it is signed & goes into effect. Thank you ever so much for pushing it to this hopeful condition.

  • October 7, 1896

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    October 7 Wednesday – In London Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper about the piece “The Californian’s Tale,” which the Authors Club was claiming he gave them for an 1893 publication, The First Book of the Authors Club, Liber Scriptorum. Sam claimed he gave them only a two-year use of the sketch.

  • October 9, 1896

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    October 9 Friday – At 23 Tedsworth Square in London Sam wrote to Douglas Garth about problems with the house they’d rented: the chimney was “broken and canted into the form of an elbow,” driving them out of the drawing-room when they tried to build a fire. Sam also wanted to pay for having some electric wire strung to hook up two or three lightbulbs in the room. Other than those needs Sam wrote,

    We find ourselves most comfortably housed, & very very glad to be settled at home [MTP].

     

  • October 11, 1896

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    October 11 Sunday – In London Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore responding to a recent letter. Whitmore hadn’t enclosed a newspaper notice of Susy that he said was enclosed. Livy wanted to leave the matter of the rugs in the Farmington Ave. house in Ellen O’Neil’s charge to take care of. He also agreed that they wanted the furnace & ceilings to be safe, but wanted to “let the expense stop there.”

  • October 12, 1896

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    October 12 Monday – Harper & Brothers wrote that they’d had no response to their May 12 question as to whether they might include some of Sam’s essays in a volume for their “Contemporary Essayists” series. Sam’s enclosure answer to them in his Oct. 13 to Rogers, would suggest Sam answered the May 12 letter, not this one [MTP].

     

     

  • October 13, 1896

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    October 13 Tuesday – At 23 Tedsworth Square in London Sam wrote H.H. Rogers.

    I enclose answer to Mr. Harper’s question. You can retain it if you prefer, and convey the decision to him by your own hand.

  • October 15, 1896

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    October 15 Thursday – In London Sam sent a one-liner to an unidentified person: “Can be used to filled up a crack” [MTP]. Note: something is missing here.