Life in Exile: Day By Day

June – Rodney evaluates Sam’s reputation after his stay on the Continent:

June 19 Saturday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to James Gordon Bennett, Jr., who was heading up a NY Herald division in Paris, which published the Paris Herald, heading the letter concerning the Herald’s relief fund for Mark Twain, “Personal.”

June 19 Sunday – In Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to the Vienna correspondent for the London Daily News, Bettina Wirth.

I sent the play to my business friend in New York & said I would translate it if it was likely to make a success there. The response was not sufficiently encouraging—war-plays are all the go there, these days.

June 19 Monday – In the evening Sam and Livy attended the Lyceum Theatre, compliments of Bram Stoker [June 17 Livy to Stoker].

June 19 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “£5 Enid / Cox & Co—tailor. Order. BLACK PANTS / Will langs come, 5? LANG / NOON—Hulse. / 18 Stanhope Gardens / Mrs. Halsey, 8. Ask Mr. Chapin for the address./ Hannover 1 or 2” [NB 43 TS 17]. Note: Enid Stoker. Mrs. Halsey not further identified. Robert Chapin. Square after “Hannover” drawn in = Hannover Square.

June – Harper & Brothers published the first edition of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays . Two copies were deposited with the Copyright Office on June 11 [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Afterword materials p.23, Oxford ed. 1996].

June 2 Wednesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote two notes to James R. Clemens, asking the good doctor cousin to meet him at the box office of the Adelphi Theatre on the Strand the next evening, June 3 at eight or five after to see William H. Gillette’s play, Secret Service. If James couldn’t go, would he name another day?

June 2 Friday – At the Prince of Wales Hotel in London, England Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister.

Yes, I’m for the Savage supper. Let us make it Friday the 9th.

Can Chatto and Spalding come—or is that inadmissible? Let me know.

Mrs. Clemens & our obstructions will be glad to see you & your wife any time you will come [MTP].

Sam also replied to Richard Watson Gilder’s (not extant) letter.

June 2 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Prof. J. Mark Baldwin of Princeton coming with J.L. Adams 11 a.m. Writes books on psychology. Oxford, now, on this industry. / Burford Bridge Hotel Dorking. / Andrew Lang? See July 1, for his address” [NB 43 TS 14].

June 20 Sunday – Sam’s notebook : “June 20. Wrote Douglas Garth, 8 Rawlinson Road, Oxford, that the tax collector had threatened to take some of the furniture & sell it, & asked him to protect us” [NB 41 TS 32].

Douglas Garth, owner of 23 Tedworth Square in London, replied by telegram to Sam’s telegram: “Just received telegram from my wife on your letter this morning am sending cheque for taxes” [MTP].

June 20 Monday – In Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Robert Collier, Lord Monkswell (1845-1909). Sam wanted to confirm statistics he’d read in a magazine article on copyright, that there were about 4,000 books published in each country including America, England, France, and Germany. Did those books indeed represent 1,000 “professional authors” in each? He didn’t need to be exact but there were no books in the village and he was depending on what he’d read in Berlin eight years before [MTP].

June 20 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook entry: “Bryce lunch 1.45 54 Portland Place / American Citizen (Duke of York [)]” [NB 40 TS 56]. Note: James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce (1838-1922), British historian, jurist, statesman, at this time a Liberal member of the House of Commons; he would be the British Ambassador to the US (1907-1913); see MTB 1085. Bryce invited Sam and Livy on June 14.

June 20 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Joseph Pulitzer, 1.30—8 Chesterfield Gardens Curzon st. / Royal Society, 9. (pm?) Burlington House” [NB 43 TS 17].

Sam and Livy had been invited by the Royal Society to a gathering at 9 p.m. on this evening. He accepted on June 14.

June 21 Monday – Percy Mitchell , in Paris, telegrammed: (“not aware anything had been cabled”); and wrote to Sam that James Gordon Bennett, Jr. had not returned from Paris, so Mitchell telegraphed Bennett a summary of “our conversation” Was there anything else Mitchell could do? [MTP]. Note—this about Sam trying to get the Herald fund canceled.

June 21 Tuesday – In Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Frank Bliss, who evidently had requested (not extant) original photos of Mark Twain for the Uniform Edition. Sam directed him to ask Franklin G. Whitmore to get any pictures in his Hartford house, or with Fred Hall or Annie Moffett Webster’s hands in Fredonia; if Bliss wrote to her she “would do the best she can for you” [MTP].

June 21 Wednesday – In London, England, Sam wrote to an unidentified man that he would “look in,” if he could “manage it before leaving town” [MTP].

June 21 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Seton Thompson. / MacArthur—1.15. Berkeley Restaurant. / CALL at 22 Wilton st (Bridge) about 5. / Mrs. Clemens, Mrs. Bigelow / Plasmon 12? / Lady Trelawney 13 Lancaster Gate W.—10 p.m. / 5 lb. PLASMON” [NB 43 TS 17].

June 22 Tuesday – In London Sam attended the grand procession of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. Paine writes of the date and of Sam’s accounts to the Hearst Syndicate:

June 22 Thursday – In London, England, Sam wrote to Arthur Spurgeon declining an invitation (unspecified; text not available) [MTP: MS: AAA Jan. 5, 1927].

Sam also inscribed a copy of More Tramps Abroad, [FE]: “If we try, we can easily learn to endure adversity. 
Another man’s, I mean. / Mark Twain” [MTP].

June 22 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “H.L. Trower 9 Bryanston St . Kinsmen, 8 Willis’s Rooms King st St James’s Penley’s. Go to MacA 20 H at 12.45. / Then to GOERTZ” [NB 43 TS 18].

At 30 Wellington Court in London, Sam wrote to Joe Twichell.

June 23 Wednesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

June 23 Friday – The Clemens family had decided to go to Sanna, Sweden to pursue treatments for daughter Jean from famous osteopath, Jonas Henrick Kellgren 

Sam purchased tickets on this day for the family to depart in a fortnight

Sam’s notebook: “Görtz [Goerz] the Spalding[s], 9 Harley Gardens SW” [NB 40 TS 56].

June 23 Saturday – The New York Times article, “New Volumes of Fiction,” included a section, “Stories and Essays by Mark Twain,” p. BR1, which gives insight into the regard the nation held for Mark Twain at this time:

June 24 Thursday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to James Gordon Bennett, Jr. in Paris, France, thinking that his letter of June 19 failed to reach him (he learned on June 25 that it had not; see letter that day to H.H. Rogers). Sam repeated his request to “close the subscription list” made for his relief [MTP].

June 24 Friday – Sam also wrote to Dr. Henry Walker. Cue: “I thank you ever so much for the impulse which” [MTP]. Note: letter UCCL 12961 is currently unavailable at MTP.