December – A cartoon of Mark Twain by F. Graetz as “The American Diogenes” appeared on the cover of the December issue of Der Floh. The background scene includes politicians rioting, with Sam standing amidst the rubble and street pipes being installed, which he had complained of. See insert.
Sam’s notebook entry lists Ralph Keeler’s 1869 novel, Gloverson and His Silent Partners: “librarian had a copy” [NB 42 TS 50].
December 1 Wednesday – At the Metropole Hotel, Vienna, Austria, Livy wrote for Sam to Chatto & Windus, asking them to please forward an enclosed letter for Samuel McClure’s London office as Sam did not know the address [MTP].
December 2 Thursday – At the Metropole Hotel, Vienna, Austria, Livy wrote to Chatto & Windus, asking them to send her husband’s book which contained “the little farce ‘The Miesterschaft’” to Frau Hof Kapell -Meister Hans Richter, in Vienna. She also asked that the new Life of Lord Tennyson by his son be sent to Mrs. Langdon in Elmira ( Ida Langdon) [MTP]. Note: Hans Richter was the chief conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic.
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 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 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 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 10 Friday – At the Metropole Hotel, Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to Harold Godwin’s Dec. 9 that “a gratifying large per centage” of his creditors had written letters to him that he was “proud to keep.” Sam thanked him personally for his personal letter and “for the spirit which moved” Godwin to do what he did “in the matter of the indebtedness” [MTP]. Note: For Sam to have answered Godwin’s Dec. 9, he must have received a cable from Katharine Harrison regarding the matter. The cable is not extant.
December 11 Saturday – Here—as in London—Livy & the girls find that the name Clemens is no sufficient disguise. They have Pleasant adventures.
Sam related an episode of Clara and Katy Leary’s the day before, with a cabbie and a box office man at a theater, who softened once Clara gave the name Clemens.
Livy has adventures, too. And Katy—but you know Katy. If I should start in on Katy’s adventures with this family’s name, a certain amount of time would be consumed.
December 12 Sunday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote an aphorism to an unidentified person: “The proper proportions of a maxim: a minimum of sound to a maximum of sense. Truly yours, Mark Twain. Vienna,
Dec. 12/97” [MTP: Philip C. Duschnes catalog].
December 13 Monday – The New York World ran an article, “Mark Twain in Vienna” p.6, that contained Sam’s reply to the question, had he ever seen the like of this Austrian parliament?
December 14 Tuesday – Charles F. Chichester for Century Co. wrote to Sam, acknowledging a check from Miss Harrison last week for $204.51 as partial payment [MTP].
December 15 Wednesday – Sometime in mid-December Sam began sitting for an alabaster bust by the Russian sculptress Theresa Fedorowna Ries [Dolmetsch 277]. The famous picture of Mark Twain sitting in Ries’ studio may be found on p. 279 of source. See also Apr. 20, 1898 news article.
December 16 Thursday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Frank Bliss, requesting a copy of his new book for Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Metternich. He’d ordered one from Chatto but they didn’t put any illustrations in their edition, so he would wait until Bliss could prepare a special copy: “Please bind it in crushed Levant, & make it very neat, & simple, & modest, & bully.” Sam wanted it sent to him without any mention of it in the press.
December 17 Friday – H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam, letter not extant but referred to in Sam’s Dec. 29 reply.
Richard Watson Gilder wrote to Sam letter not extant but referred to in Sam’s Jan. 13, 1898 reply [MTP].
December 18 Saturday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, requesting that a book (FE) be sent to Frau von Versen (née Clemens) in Berlin [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Katharine I. Harrison, the letter not extant but referenced in Harrison’s Jan. 7, 1898 letter [MTHHR 314].
December 21 Tuesday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
Sam agreed that the letters from many of the creditors made his “heart glad.” With the “hateful burden” of debt soon to be extinguished, made his “same heart as light as Colby’s brain or the soul of the Mount Morris.” He commented on Rogers’ praise of FE and of the struggle he’d made to write it:
December 22 Wednesday – The ledger books of Chatto & Windus show that 5,000 additional copies of More Tramps Abroad, (FE) were printed (totaling 18,000 to date). The official English publication date was Nov. 25 [Welland 238]. See Aug. 12, Nov. 10, Nov. 25, Mar. 8, 1898, Oct. 11, 1900, and Aug. 7, 1907 for other print run amounts, totaling 30,000.
December 23 Thursday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, clarifying that the book should be made out in Livy’s name, as with the other books
[MTP]. Note: This likely refers to the Dec. 18 request for FE to be sent to Frau von Versen.
December 24 Friday – Walter Bliss of American Publishing Co. wrote to Sam, the letter not extant but mentioned in Livy’s Jan. 9 to Bliss [MTP].
December 25 Saturday – Christmas – In Vienna, Austria Sam inscribed (probably a copy of FE) to Katie: “ To our seventeen- year-old Katie with the affection of the Author. Vienna, Dec. 25. 1897” [MTP]. Note: This may have been a servant girl; not Katy Leary, unless Sam was teasing Leary about her age; she was seventeen when she came to work for the Clemens family.
Sam telegraphed the N.Y. World a summary of news for the week [Dec. 26 to White].
December 26 Sunday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Frank Marshall White, gently chiding him for not showing “grace” to his letter, and saying there was nothing to telegraph to-night and nothing new this day except the resignation of Count Kasimir Felix Badeni, which was “an ordinary & foregone event” not worth telegraphing. What he had he’d sent to the N.Y. World the night before, which request had beaten White’s by 17 hours [MTP].
December 27 Monday – Sam’s notebook:
At Fraulein Ries’s Monday. Second sitting for bust. Her bust of Baron von Berger is perfect. The “Lucifer” is fine & strong & impressive—majestically so, I think. Ries is a quaint & naïve, & interesting young creature— Russian. She dropped the fact incidentally, that her grand hellion there in the corner (Lucifer) was begun as the Virgin, but looked too masculine for the part, so she turned the Mamma of God into Satan!
December 29 Wednesday – In Vienna, Austria Sam replied to H.H. Rogers’ Dec. 17 (not extant).
“Yours of the 17th arrived this morning & is immensely gratifying in various ways. Lord, we are glad to see those debts diminishing! For the first time in my life I am getting more pleasure out of paying money out than pulling it in.”
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].