November – “From the ‘London Times’ of 1904” first ran in the November issue of Century. It was collected in How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays (1900) and The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays (1900) [Budd Collected 2: 1004].
Life in Exile: Day By Day
November 2 Wednesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to James M. Tuohy of the New York World, who had requested a story for Christmas (Tuohy’s letter not extant):
For several months I have been at work a little, at considerable intervals, on two stories; & when your letter came both happened to be very close to the finish; I then added the necessary work and now they are done. …
November 5 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Wrote Pond the Forum check hadn’t come” [NB 40 TS 49]. Note: “About Play Acting” ran in the Oct. 1898 issue of the Forum. “
November 6 Sunday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam began a letter to Richard Watson Gilder that he finished Nov. 13. Sam directed him to reject the MS of “My Platonic Sweetheart” if he hadn’t already. Sam felt the article was a mistake, though he’d liked it when he wrote it [MTP].
Sam also began a letter to H.H. Rogers that he finished Nov. 7.
November 7 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam finished his Nov. 6 to H.H. Rogers with a playful paragraph:
November 8 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote a note and enclosed a MS to James M. Tuohy of the N.Y. World, who had requested a story for the Christmas season. If Tuohy didn’t want the story sent (“The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg”) would he please forward it on to H.H. Rogers, and the same with “Wapping Alice” when he received it [MTP]. Note: see Nov. 2.
November 10 Thursday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote again to James M. Tuohy of the N.Y. World, to correct the price “Wapping Alice,” sent earlier, to $2,000.
November 11 Friday –At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam answered H.H. Rogers’ Nov. 10 cable with one of his own: “Sign thanks splendid Clemens” [NB 40 TS 50].
Sam then wrote to H.H. Rogers.
November 13 Sunday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam finished his Nov. 6 letter to Richard Watson Gilder. His P.S. focused on the fact that Gilder had already rejected “Platonic Sweetheart”—he was convinced it was another case of “Mental Telegraphy,” which was :
November 14 Monday – Translation of the article “Mark Twain als Gratulant” from Neue Freie Presse,
Vienna, 15 Nov 1898, p. 6, reveals the celebration the entire Clemens family attended this day:
November 15 Tuesday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote an aphorism postcard to an unidentified person: “Never put off till to-morrow what can be done day after to-morrow just as well. / Truly Yours/ Mark Twain / Nov. 15/98” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Louise Yates Waring (Mrs. George E. Waring, Jr.)
November 16 Wednesday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to John Malone of the Players Club in N.Y.
November 17 Thursday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.
I put in 5 days on 50 pages of Introduction, & then put it in the fire. A thousand dollars’ worth of work for nothing. An author cannot successfully write about his own books nor a mother about her own children—nothing but a poorly-concealed parade of silly vanities results. No one can do the job creditably but an outsider. No one can do it best for me but Howells or Brander Matthews.
November 18 Friday – Estimated to be this day or just before, Andrew Chatto answered Sam’s Nov. 13 “scheme” about a special, limited, expensive edition of “Omar’s Old Age,” which was to be referred to in correspondence as “ABC”:
As a scathing satire on the crazy literary taste of today I consider the ABC a work of great genius—But in all my experience I have never known a case in which the writer of works of like inspiration did not at some time in after life regret the printing of them.
November 19 Saturday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote one sentence on a postcard to Chatto & Windus, perhaps relating to his “quatrains” sent on Nov. 13: “I agree to the unwisdom of it—in fact, in any form or at any figure” [MTP].
November 21 Monday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam cabled Harper & Brothers: “ROGERS HAS
HADLEYBURG. CLEMENS” [NB 40 TS 51]. Note: MTHHR 380n2 reveals that Henry M. Alden did not understand
the message, unaware of what “Hadleyburg” was. It quotes a letter of this date by Alden to H.H. Rogers: “We do not know exactly what this means, but we shall be glad to consider anything of his that you may have.”
November 24 Thursday – Thanksgiving – Charlemagne Tower, US ambassador in Vienna, gave a reception at his residence on Alleegasse for all Americans. Sam and Clara were in attendance. Dr. and Mrs. Hiester Bucher (Vara Kalbach Bucher) met Sam and Clara, as recorded in Mrs. Bucher’s diary and published in Mary Leah Christmas’ A Honeymoon in Vienna, 1898-1899:
November 25 Friday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote right after this day, reporting on the festivities at the US Consul Charlemagne Tower’s home to Bettina Wirth.
November 27 Sunday – Livy’s 53rd birthday.
November 29 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to unidentified men.
The enclosed have reached me from America.
It seems to me that your own condensed statement is sufficient, but if it needs enlargement there is an over-abundance of material in the American sketch—which is so minutely & so faithfully exact that I judge it was furnished by the Austrian police [MTP].
November 30 Wednesday – Sam’s 63rd Birthday.
December 2 Friday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote condolences to Mrs. Edward M. Bunce upon hearing of the death of her husband, “Ned” on Nov. 19.
It falls like a thunder-stroke, dear Mrs. Bunce, & is the heaviest I have known in my life, & the costliest loss, except our Susy’s death. It associates itself naturally with that bereavement because in some particulars Ned was nearer & dearer to the children than was any other person not of the blood. …
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 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 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].