Life in Exile: Day By Day

May 20 Friday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Siegmund Schlesinger.

“We go to Kaltenleutgeben to-day to see if we shall like it. If we find it pleasant I think the family will be content to spend the summer there instead of going to a more distant place.”

Sam gave their new address as the “Paulhof” Kaltenleutgeben [MTP]. Note: Countess Pauline Fürstin von Metternich found the Villa Paulhof (insert) for the Clemenses [Dolmetsch 134-5].

Kaltenleutgeben – From May 20 to Oct. 14 1898. Dolmetsch writes:

May 20 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Lunch 10 m [a.m.?] to 1—come down Middle Temple Lane to Middle Temple—after lunch to Temple Church—get out at 4.30, oratorio begins at 3. Girls invited” [NB 43 TS 11].

May 21 Saturday – The London Spectator p.735 reviewed FE. Tenney: “It would have been easier to write a straightforward travel book than to write five hundred pages of uneven humor, and it would have given greater pleasure to the reader. ‘To be just, however, there are good chapters here and there, and a few pages of very fair fun; and although the book is not likely to add to the author’s reputation, it is readable and sometimes entertaining’” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Second Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1978 p.

May 21 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Somatose, a Swiss meat-extract & curer of all ills. / Is a £ $4.86? / $3,071— £632? / Speech at Lotos: Thank my 96 creditors, only one of whom was a Shylock—Thos. Russell & son” [NB 43 TS 11-12].

May 22 Saturday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam replied to H.S.W. Edwardes (whose request is not extant). Sam was a hermit and did not go out, but thanked Edwardes “all the same” [MTP].

Note: Sam did go out, but chose his times, places, and persons selectively.

May 22 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to John Y. MacAlister, who had written an offer (not extant) for a place for the Clemenses to stay upon their arrival in London.

I thank you ever so much for your kind offer, but as we shall be in London a couple of months only, it will no doubt be handiest to stay in a hotel.

We intend to try the Prince of Wales hotel in De Vere Gardens Kensington & see how we like it.

May 22 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Clara Sue & Bertha Underhill—early. / Bigelow, 7.30 10 Elm Park Gardens, S.W. / Irving Underhill wants to pay me $500—owing 7 years. Cannot allow it. He has had a hard time” [NB 43 TS 12].

In the evening in London, The Clemenses visited Irving S. Underhill and family (see above NB entry), who were visiting London [May 23 to Underhill]. Charles Underhill, son of Irving, writes of this evening in his 1928 reminiscence:

May 23 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “May 23, 1897. Wrote first chapter of above story to-day”

Paine writes of the beginning of “Which Was The Dream?” which was not published in Sam’s lifetime:

May 23 Tuesday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam cabled Chatto & Windus: “COMING BY CALAIS DOVER SHALL REACH PRICE WALES HOTEL ABOUT FIRST JUNE PLEASE GIVE THEM NOTICE” [MTP].

Sam also wrote a short invitation for Eduard Pötzl to dine on May 24 at 8 p.m. [MTP].

Sam also wrote a one sentence reply to an unidentified person: “It is not an inconvenience to me, but a pleasure to comply” [MTP].

May 23 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Dinner here to the Gilders & Chapins? ? ? / Offered $10,000 a year to edit ‘Judge’—the labor required estimated at ‘one hour’ of my time ‘per week.’ Can’t accept” [NB 43 TS 12].

May 24 Monday – The ledger books of Chatto & Windus show that 750 additional copies of Tom Sawyer, Detective were printed (totaling 5,750 to date) [Welland 238]. ,

Sam’s notebook:

May 24 Tuesday – At the Villa Paulhof in Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to an unidentified man, thanking him for his kind offer to send him some of his books—he would “now & then take advantage.” Sam had forgotten the address of the artist the man had inquired about (not extant) but Ludwig Kleinberg owned the picture and had given Sam permission for it to be reduced and used on postcards. He sent Kleinberg’s address [MTP].

May 24 Wednesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Dr. James R. Clemens, sharing their plans to leave Vienna on May 26 and to stay the Prince of Wales Hotel, Kensington, upon their arrival in England. The Clemens family intended to travel by daylight trains only [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Francis H. Skrine, another who had invited the Clemenses to stay with them upon arrival in London (invitation not extant):

May 24 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Noon—11 Cornhill—general Countess / Hoyos—dinner—the Farm House, Pont street” [NB 43 TS 12].

May 25 Thursday – Vienna, Austria. This is the day Mark Twain was ushered in to see the Emperor Franz Josef I. Dolmetsch discusses who invited whom, settling on the idea that the Emperor likely acted upon the suggestion of his royal minister of foreign affairs, Count Agenor Goluchowski von Goluchowo (1849-1921). For such a celebrity to leave Austria after meeting everyone who was anyone, yet not seen by the head man himself, was tantamount to an international snub.

May 25 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Henry Yates Thompson dinner—8. 19 Portman Square” [NB 43 TS 12].

May 26 Wednesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to advise Katharine I. Harrison that after June 15 letters should be posted in care of Chatto & Windus [MTP: CF Libbie & Co. catalogs, Mar. 3, 1915, Item 367].

Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister: “I have finished the book at last—and finished it for good this time. Now I am ready for dissipation with a good conscience. What night will you come down & smoke?” [MTP; MTB 1041].

May 26 shortly before – At the Villa Paulhof in Kaltenleutgeben Sam wrote to Joe Twichell:

May 26 Friday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to Sydney G. Trist, secretary of the London Anti-Vivisection Society , enclosing a typed page by Dr. Stephen F. Smith , read before the National Individualist Club in 1898 about the use of curare in vivisection. Trist’s letter is not extant.

May 26 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Col. Church 216 Crowell Rd, S.W. Ranelagh Club—dinner—morning dress. / Barns Elms—over Hamersmith bridge.”

———

In reply to Howard Taylor’s request, wrote him he could let the Yankee be played once or twice for the Technological Institute for 40 per cent of the gross [NB 43 TS 12]. Note: Taylor not further identified.

May 27 Thursday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam marked a letter to Frank Fuller “PRIVATE” after getting wind of a scheme by friends back home to host a “special benefit” lecture “at big prices for tickets and an auction of a dozen first-choice seats at Jenny Lind prices” as a way of putting him over the top in his efforts to pay his debts. Fuller was the first man he thought of to pull this off, a man who could handle “the engineering of so delicate and so large an undertaking.”

May 27 Friday – At the Villa Paulhof in Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam wrote to Dr. Thomas S. Kirkbride, who had mentioned a maid in his service at this boarding house (pension). The Clemenses needed a  cook and would “pay her expenses going & coming” from Vienna [MTP]. See also Livy to Kirkbride, May 26. On May 31 Sam reported to Rogers that they had a cook, so it may be this feeler was productive.

Sam’s notebook:

May 27 Saturday – The Clemens family rested at Prince of Thurn und Taxis’ country estate outside of Prague [Dolmetsch 312].

The New York Times, p BR351, ran an article about Sam’s desire to have his reminiscences published 100 years in the future:

MARK TWAIN’S BOOK.

Views as to Its Publication a Century Hence.

May 27 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Go up the Thames? MS of ‘The Death-Wafer[’] to Mr. Denny, (W.H.) Laira, Sheen Park, Richmond, Surrey. Telephone 2927 Gerrard. To be returned to me after next Friday” [NB 43 TS 12].

May 28 Sunday – The Clemens family rested at Prince of Thurn und Taxis’ country estate outside of Prague [Dolmetsch 312].