December 30 Wednesday – A man with an indecipherable signature from Ad. Goerz & Co. of Berlin (in London) wrote to Sam noting he was sorry to have missed him “the other day” when Sam called.
Sam wrote on the envelope, “New Zealand & Austral. / unpubl.” [MTP].
December 30 Thursday – On this day or Dec. 31 Sam’s notebook reveals a performance by Leschtizky:
At Madame von Dutschka’s. Choice people there. Leschetizky played. A marvelous performance. He never plays except in that house (she says). He sacrificed himself for his first wife—believed she wd be the greatest pianist of all time—& now they have been many years separated. If he developed himself instead of her, he would have been the world’s wonder himself.
Baron von Berger lectured upon me yesterday [NB 42 TS 51-2].
December 30 Friday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria Sam began a letter to William Dean Howells that he added a PS to on Jan. 3, 1899.
December 30 Saturday – An anonymous review of IA in Author’s Edition Deluxe ran in Athenaeum (London), p. 897. Tenney:
December 31 Friday – The Boston Daily Globe, p.8, gave FE a glowing review, and praised the author.
NEW LITERATURE
December 31 Sunday – Clara and Jean Clemens “danced till 1 o’clock this morning, seeing the Old Year out & the New one in” [Jan. 1 to Hutton].
December 4 Sunday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, from 10 a.m. to midnight, Sam read Sir John Adams’ book (see Dec. 5 entry) to page 232 without a break.
December 4 Monday – In London, England Sam wrote to Richard R. Bowker.
Indeed I should like to have a proof -slip of that compilation which I could keep—for although it is not likely that at this time I could find time to write an article, I might get the chance in the bye & bye.
The best of the century for you! [MTP].
J. Henry Harper wrote to Rogers, the letter referred to in Sam’s Dec. 22 PS to Harrison. See in MTHHR 421n4.
December 5 Saturday – In London Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper:
You lately mentioned “Merry Tales.” If is isn’t too late, please squelch that title & call the mess by some other name — almost any other name. Webster & Co. invented that silly title [MTP].
December 5 Sunday – The full front page of the Oesterreichische Illustrirte Zeitung featured a cartoon with Mark Twain telling tales to the locals [Dolmetsch 139]. Tenney cites the article inside as “Mark Twains humoristische Schriften” [26].
December 5 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Sir John Adams (1857-1934), British Psychologist, who had recently sent his book, The Herbartian Psychology Applied to Education, etc. (1897) . Adams was on the faculty of the Free Church Training College in Glasgow, Scotland.
December 7 Tuesday – Sam attended the Burgtheater for a premiere of Gerhart Hauptmann’s Die versunkene Glocke (The Sunken Bell). One or both of his daughters may have accompanied him. Livy was still not going out in public [Dolmetsch 113-14].
December 7 Wednesday – E. Potter-Frissell’s article, “Americans in Vienna: Mark Twain,” ran in the Musical Courier. Tenney gives source as The Twainian (Feb. 1943), p.6 [29].
December 7 Thursday – In London, England Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers asking to see if Harpers would agree to Sam having rights to cancel the contracts after ten years, the same rights granted to Harpers under the contract. And, since he’d given the new book to Harpers under the assurance of Samuel McClure who was joining forces with Harpers, and now the union was off under a reorganization plan, wasn’t Sam “morally entitled to withdraw the book”?
December 8 Wednesday – Sam and perhaps others of the family attended the opera Die Walkure, with Gustav Mahler in his first season as the Hofoperndirektor, after which he noted, “W.[agner’s] music is better than it sounds.”
Dolmetsch writes,
December 8 Thursday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam began a letter to H.H. Rogers that he added to on Dec. 11, 12 and 13.
“It is 12 days since I handled a pen. It seems to be an attack of fatigue, & I tried to rest it off, but that was a failure, so I think it is a touch of malaria or piety or something like that & will go off of itself if let alone. I am letting it alone by lying around in my study reading & smoking all day…” [MTHHR 380].
December 8 Friday – Henry Ferguson replied from Hartford to Sam’s Nov. 20 offer, giving particulars on names he wished edited in his and his brother’s journals, written during the Hornet saga. He was:
December 9 Wednesday – In London Sam wrote per Livy to Franklin G. Whitmore.
Mr. Clemens wants me to ask you if you will inquire at Bundy’s old photograph shop and ask if they have the negative of a picture that was taken of Susy in 1891. …
Mr. Clemens is working every day but he finds it rather up-hill work [MTP].
December 9 Thursday – In Vienna, Austria, Livy wrote to Chatto & Windus, who evidently had asked for clarification about the little book containing “Meisterschaft” she had requested on Dec. 2. Sam thought it might be in the book of sketches containing “The £1,000,000 Bank Note,” or perhaps in The Stolen White Elephant. , If it wasn’t in any English volume, not to bother further with it [MTP].
December 9 Friday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote one sentence on a postcard to James M. Tuohy:
“No, that isn’t any matter” [MTP].
February 1 Monday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus and signed himself “a hard working man.” He had 21 or 22 books of his he wished shipped to India and other places, with names on the fly-leaf and a slip inside each with names and addresses. Would they “send a cuss in a cab to carry them to you for packing & mailing?” [MTP].
Sam “finished” FE (for the first time) on this day [Feb. 2 to Rogers]. He would “finish” it at least twice more.
February 1 Tuesday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote in German to Siegmund Schlesinger. Translation courtesy of Holger Kersten:
Dear Mr. Schlesinger:
Gut! Also werde ich Sie am 3hem Februar expect. Esfruit mich sehr dass Sie unseres heiliges Werkes schon so weit gebrasht habe. (Wiese is mein eigenes Grammatik—Komment nicht aus des Buches.)
Dear Mr. Schlesinger:
Good! So I will expect you on February 3rd. I am glad that you have advanced our holy work this far already.
February 1 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook:
“Letter received from Mr. Rogers (dated Dec. 31) [not extant]—says we now have about $43,000 in his hands.
Wrote Bliss to send the January copyright to him ($4,500.) & McClures $1,000” [NB 40 TS 53].
Livy added to her Jan. 31 to Susan L. Crane: “Nearly my wedding day. Last night I had the same sort of night, simply wretched” [MTP]. Note: she added another segment on Feb. 2.
February 1 Thursday – Jonas Henrick Kellgren Osteopath, billed £10.10.0 for the last half of January, Feb. 1, 1900 included, for Jean’s treatments [1900 Financial file MTP].
February 10 Wednesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Robert Barr (1850-1912), who had sought a meeting with Sam for a piece about Mark Twain he would publish in the Century (Jan. 1898), Idler (Feb. 1898), and other magazines. But at this time Sam wasn’t having any interviews or contributing to any biographical features.