Life in Exile: Day By Day

June 12 Saturday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote a postcard to Frank Marshall White: “Come down, now, & let us see if we can invent some way to repair the enormous damage which your cablegram has done me” [MTP].

June 12 Monday – Mark Twain gave a dinner speech at the Authors Club, London. The New York Times, June 13, p.7 covered the June 12 event:

Mark Twain Speaks of Kipling

June 12 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “MacMillan, dinner—8.15 52 Cadogan Place. / Hon. Mem. for 1 month from date. Beefsteak Club, 9 Green st., Leicester W.C. Maj. Stuart Wortley” [NB 43 TS 16]. Note: Beefsteak Club, founded in 1876, was the descendant of several other clubs from the 1700s. It was an after-theatre club bohemian in nature with about 200 members, including Henry Irving, John Lawrence Toole, Henry Labouchere, and others.

June 13 Sunday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam began a note to John Y. MacAlister that he finished on June 14.

June 13 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Garland, Tues. 4 p.m.” ;“Goerz, 8 oclock–Garland” [NB 40 TS 55]. Note: likely Hannibal Hamlin Garland.

At the Prince of Wales Hotel, London, Sam also replied to John Y. MacAlister “That would be very pleasant Would Sunday the 25th do? I’m going to the photographer tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. Ys…” [MTP]. Sam wrote on the env. “Has a date been appointed for the evening with the Colquhoun Club?”

June 13 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Clemens, 7.30. Address, June 5” [NB 43 TS 16].Note: James Ross Clemens; see June 5.

At 30 Wellington Court in London, Sam wrote to Katharine Boland Clemens (Mrs. James Ross Clemens) that Livy was “shut up in her room with a deep cold on her chest” and would be unable to visit, but he would “bring her regrets in place of bringing HER this evening” [MTP].

June 14 Monday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to William Carey, of Century Magazine.

Oh, bless your heart, that’s been attended to long ago. It was merely a reference, but I was glad I happened to mention it in time for you to get in the protest.

Love to Riley; it was good to hear the voice of him again. Tell him to prepare for the next world while he still has his faculties about him: I mean, tell him to get into debt; then if he goes to hell he will like the change  [MTP].

June 14 Wednesday – From Sam’s note to MacAlister of June 13, it is shown that he made a morning stop at a Henry Van der Weyde (1838-1924) photographer. Russell & Sons photographers also made photos of him about this time.

June 14 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Several boxes of chocolate-cakes. / GOUT. JAP PLAY. / Plasmon 12?”

[NB 43 TS 16]. Note: it seems the Plasmon Co. held regular Thursday meetings.

At 30 Wellington Court in London, Sam wrote to The Royal Society for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, a scientific group established in 1662.

“Mr. & Mrs. S.L. Clemens accept with pleasure the kind invitation of the President of the Royal Society for Wednesday, June 20th at 9 p.m.” [MTP].

June 15 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Sent Chatto MS down to & including page 1024—little Ceylon boy with a twine string for clothes. / Shall deliver Bliss duplicate of above, concluding with 14th package & page 405” [NB 41 TS 31].

The Hartford Courant, p.1 “Mark Twain, ‘Innocent’,” reported:

June 15 Thursday – For a little joke, Sam sent his daughter Clara at least four picture -postcards (that many survive) of the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and The Guildhall. He wrote the following “lessons” on them respectively, with fanciful signatures:

No, Oom Paul has never been the head of the Irish party. You are mistaking him for the late Mr. Parnell / Faithfully Yours / H. Campbell-Bannerman.

June 15 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “When you climb the hill of happiness, may you never meet a friend. / Beefsteak Club 9 Green st., Leicester after 3” [NB 43 TS 16].

June 16 Wednesday – H.H. Rogers cabled Sam about the NY Herald’s fund to help Mark Twain:

“All friends think Herald movement mistake withdraw graciously Langdon approves this / Rogers” [MTHHR 282].

At 23 Tedworth Square in London Sam replied to H.H. Rogers’ cable:

June 16 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Friday, 16. Whitefriars. Dinner. & luncheon with Choate at 2” [NB 40 TS 56].

Note: the New York Times, June 17, p.6, ran the following:

DINNER TO MARK TWAIN

Friendly Feeling Between England and America the Keynote of Speeches at the Hotel Cecil, London.

June 16 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Ask Mac[Alister] about R.S.V.P. Royal Society / & GOUT / ANSWER LANG. / Irving’s Opening. ” [NB 43 TS 16]. Note: No recent incoming is extant from Andrew Lang. Sam may have been referring to the upcoming July 17 opening of The Merchant of Venice at the Lyceum Theatre, which ran to July 28; Irving played Shylock; Ellen Terry played Portia.

June 17 Thursday – The Hartford Courant ran an article on p.6, “Mark Twain,” from the Hartford Times.

June 17 Friday – In Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder.

Near a week ago I sent you a paragraph or two—a small Szczepanik episode—& registered it, as per enclosed “Scheim.”

In London we could always buy the Century—here, we’ve got to get down to business & order from headquarters.

Please put my name on the books & take it out in trade. / Yours, permanent, / Mark [MTP].

June 17 Saturday – In London, England, Livy wrote to Bram Stoker.

Thank you so much for the box at the Lyceum which has safely reached me. I’m greatly antisapating next Monday evening. / I had such a pleasant time with you on Thursday [MTP].

June 17 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “The Earl of Jersey. Tea; also dinner / Osterley. Park Station. Leave Vic., — 4.11 (4.11) Earls Ct 4.26 (change?) (at Mill Hill Park?) / Return. Lv. Osterly / Lv. Osterley 10.47 / (Change at Mill Hill Park [)]” [NB 43 TS 16-17]. Note: Victor Albert George Child Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey (1845–1915), banker, Conservative politician, and Governor of New South Wales (1891-1893).

June 18 Friday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam replied to Helen Skrine’s invitation (not extant) that with her “kind leave” he would “come Wednesday June 30th—7.30” He thanked Helen for inviting Clara but “she feels her bereavement still so heavily that I am not able to persuade her” [MTP].

June 18 Saturday – In Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Frank Bliss, advising him to put “In Memoriam—Olivia Susan Clemens” into the Uniform Edition, and noted it ran in Harper’s Monthly for Nov. 1897 [MTP].

Sam’s article, “The Spanish American War” ran in the Critic [Camfield bibliog.].

June 18 Sunday – In London, England, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus to ask what kind of a club the Royal Societies Club was, at 63 St. James Street, as he’d been invited on June 28 to their annual dinner [MTP]. Note— from their statement of purpose:

June 18 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Plasmon 12? / Phil May. 9.30” [NB 43 TS 17].

June – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus—a preliminary “page by itself” draft for inclusion in the front of FE, or, as it would be called in England, More Tramps Abroad (due to the past success there of A Tramp Abroad). Only the dedication, slightly changed, to Harry Rogers made it into the book. ,

EXPLANATORY NOTE

June – Sam sent a part-printed subscription form to the Vienna Neue Freie Presse (“ New Free Press”) seeking a run of July 1 to Oct. 31, and asking to “Please send the bill by the postman.” Under the line for “character” (title), Sam wrote “Hasn’t any” [MTP: Bomsey Autographs catalogs, No. 46, Item 103].

A. Hoffman puts this month as the one Clara Clemens decided to give up the piano as a career and to choose what her late sister excelled in, singing. Though he errs on this date, he observes: