August 3 Thursday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote a long letter to H.H. Rogers
“Yours of July 6 [not extant] is just at hand. I wondered where it could have been spending its vacation; but I find by the N.Y. postmark that you didn’t mail it until it was 14 days old. …”
August 6 Sunday – Elizabeth Robins wrote from Vulpera Switzerland to Sam. “Your beautiful letter reached me last night and it has made me very happy. I have been proud for so long to sit at your feet, that to have you …speak such words is enough” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “From Miss Robbins, author of ‘An Open Question.’ Keep it. SLC”
August 7 Monday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote an aphorism to E.S. (not further identified):“Nearly all of us have Music & Truth in us, but the most of us can’t get it out” [MTP].
August 15 Tuesday – About this day Sam wrote the introduction for T. Douglas Murray’s use of the Official Records of the Joan of Arc Trial, which would not appear until 1902 as Jeanne d’Arc: Maid of Orleans, Deliverer of France [Aug. 25 to Murray].
August 18 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “August 18, 1899. Three years ago, to-day, Susy Clemens, aged 24 years & 5 months. / Escaped out of this life” [NB 42 TS 57].
August 19 Saturday – Joe Twichell wrote to Sam from Antwerp, Belgium. He explained why he hadn’t written—being far away from his “base which furnished the staple of my communication,” and keeping up with the pace of his Chicago friend (unspecified). Joe landed in Southampton July 5 and would sail again from there for home on Sept. 23. They were disappointed at being unable to see the Clemenses. He told of their adventures so far and of plans to go to the Hague, then to Milan, the Tyrol, and perhaps Venice.
August 20 Sunday – In Sanna, Sweden, Livy and Clara Clemens wrote to Chatto & Windus; Clara requested a copy of The Open Question by Elizabeth Robins (C.E. Raimond) and Livy asked for selections of Robert Browning’s poetry, “something not very expensive” [MTP].
August 21 Monday – The Polish Countess Emily De Laszowska wrote from Corinthia, Austria, a long, mostly illegible letter to Sam. “Dearest Mr. Clemens I have always put off writing letter to because I hate writing you a short letter, so the result has been a disgraceful silence” [MTP]. Note: Sam must have had a migraine trying to read this one. See Dolmetsch for more on the Countess.
August 22 Tuesday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
I have looked over the originals of the Dream Sweetheart & Wapping Alice, & perceive that the first does not convey my idea clearly at all; & so, for me it has no value & must remain unpublished. And I perceive that a part of Alice needs re-writing—so she can’t be publishable as she stands. She’ll never get that re-writing. She should have applied while I was interested in her—& she didn’t. I wash my hands of the business.
August 23 Wednesday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to General John Tatlock, Jr., 32 Nassau St., NYC. Only the envelope survives [MTP: eBay item 1839204511]. Note: Tatlock (d. 1902) was an astronomer and assistant actuary of the Mutual Life Ins. Co. of NY. He was also secretary of the Actuarial Society and a member of the American Mathematical Society.
August 24 Thursday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to Hans L. Braekstad
Unhappily for me I was obliged to telegraph a request to the National Theatre Director. Kellgren has promised to deliver me from an ailment of six years standing; I think it is rather plain that he is going to succeed; so it would not be fair to interrupt the process in the middle & risk the loss of the ground gained.
August 25 Friday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to T. Douglas Murray, who was working on publishing the Official Records of the Joan of Arc Trials in Rouen, and the “Rehabilitation.” Sam had agreed some time ago to write the introduction.
Yours (undated) has arrived [not extant]. I do hope his Majesty will give you leave, & I am very glad you think the prospect of it so good….
August 29 Tuesday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to T. Douglas Murray.
“Stop—I may be wrong; my bad memory may be deceiving me; I may be mistaken in thinking that the bulk of Joan’s history lies in the Rehabilitation Process. But you will know, & will pay no attention to me if I am in error. It is five years since I have seen the records.”
Sam had done some editing on the introduction for Murray’s Joan of Arc book to suit Livy and himself , and estimated it now ran 3,500 words [MTP].
August 31 Thursday
Autumn – Sam wrote a piece titled, “A Simplified Alphabet” in response to the simplified spelling movement in the United States. It began:
September – Sam’s article, “Concerning the Jews” first ran in the Sept. issue of Harper’s . It was collected in The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories (1900) and How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays (1903); a postscript was added to the essay in the English edition of the former as well as later American editions beginning in 1902. See Sept. 15 to Simon Wolf, with notes.
September 1 Friday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow.
We are progressing handsomely, and are greatly obliged to you for putting us on the track. I suppose you will be returning to London soon. We shall reach there the last day of this month and may remain till mid-winter or longer. Then I will powerfully discourage the weekly newspaper project unless you can prove that the wear and tear of it will not destroy your health [MTP].
September 3 Sunday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam replied to T. Douglas Murray (incoming not extant).
Yes, it does indeed remind one of the Rennes trial. I had a paragraph in my Introduction, particularising the twin-resemblances, & suggesting that French character has not improved in five centuries, but Mrs. Clemens knocked it out. And quite right: it was not the place for it. …
September 4 Monday – Chatto & Windus wrote to Sam that Bliss thought the cost of the 512 deluxe edition would “…be 5 cents a volume more for 500 sets than he reckoned for 1000…at these rates each 12/6 volume should bring you in 9/6” [MTP].
September 5 Tuesday – The New York Times, p. 1 speculated:
MARK TWAIN’S FUTURE PLANS.
Humorist Will Pass Winter at Princeton, and May Settle There.
Special to The New York Times.
September 6 Wednesday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to Joe Twichell.
September 7 Thursday – In Sanna, Sweden Livy replied for Sam to Chatto & Windus (their incoming letter not extant) about the special English issue of the Uniform Edition:
He asks me to say that he shall not be able to send out the prospectus, as he could not have the face to suggest to his friends to buy his books. It may be English but it is quite un-American to advertize oneself in this way [MTP].
September 8 Friday – An anonymous article, “An American Defender of the Faith,” ran in The Jewish Chronicle (London), p.11. Tenney: “Excerpts from ‘Concerning the Jews; editorial commentary is brief and descriptive [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Fifth Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1981 p. 164]. From Tenney’s Bibliographic Issue #4: “‘An article by Mark Twain in the March number (1899) of Harper’s Magazine attracted many letters from readers asking what in the writer’s opinion were the causes of anti-Semitism.
September 9 Saturday – The New York Times, p.BR 600, ran an article about Twain and Kipling.
MARK TWAIN ON RUDYARD KIPLING
September 12 Tuesday – Laurence Hutton wrote from Princeton, NJ to Sam.
Dear Marcus / Here we are again. This is what the Sun says about us. If you don’t mind it, I don’t. But, I wouldn’t accept your death, Mark, as a gift.
I hope your part of the statement is true. Tell us.
I wrote you a few days ago from Paris. We expect to be settled here—at the Inn—in a couple of weeks.
And to be “At Home” in the New House by Thanksgiving time. Come. / Love …. [MTP].
September 14 Thursday – Henry M. Alden for Harper & Brothers wrote to Sam to suggest they would publish two additional volumes: a book of stories, with “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg” as its “splendid pièce de résistance,” and a book of articles [MTHHR 414n3].