September 15 Friday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam began a letter to Major H.F. Gordon Forbes, author, living at this time in Boulogne. (Sam added a PS on Sept. 23.) Forbes’ letter had taken over three months to reach Sam, but from postmarks where the delay was Sam could not tell. He informed Forbes he would be in Sanna until Sept. 27 and at the Queen Anne Mansions for the winter starting Sept. 30.
September 16 Saturday – Sam inscribed a card later sold in a copy of HF to an unidentified person:
“Truly Yours, Mark Twain, Sanna, Sweden, Sept. 16, 99” [MTP: Swann Galleries catalogs, 30 Sept. 1948, Item 313].
September 17 Sunday – In Sanna, Sweden, Livy wrote to Chatto & Windus, asking they send her at their “earliest convenience” a copy of JA [MTP].
September 18 Monday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to Mai Rogers Coe, now in London at the Carlton Hotel.
It was a great pleasure to get your note [not extant] this morning & know that you were again within reaching distance of us. Also that you have found Harry & have got him under control. I hope you are not intending to sail before we reach London—which will be the afternoon or evening of Sept. 30. …
September 19 Tuesday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, asking them to “send no more postal matter after Sept. 24th / Nor the ‘Chronicle’—it can go to the Queen Anne Mansions” [MTP]. Note: postcard postmarked this date, possibly written earlier.
September 21 Thursday – The New York Times, p.5 reported that Mark Twain had canceled arrangements to stay in Princeton, N.J., and would spend the winter in London.
September 22 Friday – H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam, the letter not extant but referred to in Sam’s Oct. 4 reply.
September 23 Saturday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam added a PS to his Sept. 15 to H.F. Gordon Forbes: “P.S.—8 days later—Sept. 23.
I learn this morning from London, in answer to my inquiries, that you are still at Boulogne—so I need not have waited” [MTP].
September 24 Sunday– In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, asking him to reach Madame Dreyfus, suggesting she see Kellgren to “bring back health & strength to her husband.” Sam claimed to have spent 20 minutes each morning for the past ten weeks in Dr. Jonas Henrick Kellgren’s “work-room watching him perform upon his patients,” and that he made some 7,000 words of notes. He told of Nathaniel Rothshchild, the daughter of Mr.
September 26 Tuesday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to William Dean Howells, advising him to learn his lectures by heart, and describing “a trick” he learned in Vienna, by accident—to carry a book and use it to talk with, gesture with and making it seem he was not reading it. Sam also had read the recent installment of Howells’ Their Silver Wedding Journey in Harper’s, which he thought “delicious— every word of it. You haven’t lost any of your splendid art” [MTHL 2: 705-6].
September 27 Wednesday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers. On the left corner of the envelope: “Dear Mr. Rogers: Won’t you please examine & correct the enclosed & send it to Gilder & ask him to cable?” [MTP; not in MTHHR]. Note: the enclosed is not known.
Jonas Henrick Kellgren Osteopath billed Sam £300.6.0 for “treatment board and lodging to the 27 Sept. inclusive” [1899 Financial file MTP].
September 28 Thursday – The Clemens family likely spent the day in Götenburg.
September 29 Friday – The Clemens family left Götenburg by ship to London.
September 30 Saturday – In his Oct. 1 to Franklin G. Whitmore, Sam detailed the Clemens’ family arrival in London:
October – Sam wrote “Private” to Richard Watson Gilder:
“Can’t you send to Professor Henry Ferguson, Trinity College, Hartford, & get him to photograph a page or two of Samuel Ferguson’s Diary for reproduction?”
October 1 Sunday – At the Queen Anne Residential Mansions & hotel, London, Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.
We reached England last night. May remain here till spring, to let Jean continue the treatment which is restoring her health.
I have signed the application for copyright & will send it.
What have the Harpers to do with my English editions?
Mrs. Clemens hereby acknowledges receipt of your check for $2246.34.
October 3 Tuesday – In New York, Katharine I. Harrison wrote a short note to Sam, enclosing James Henry Wiggin’s letter (see Sept. 30) [MTHHR 411].
October 4 Wednesday – In the a.m. in London, England, the Clemens family inspected various housing possibilities, and found one they liked that would be available in about ten days. Evidently they didn’t find the accommodations at Queen Anne Residential Mansions & hotel suitable; [Oct. 4 to MacAlister]. Note: The family needed to be close to Henrick Kellgren’s facility, since Jean needed daily sessions there. They settled on 30 Wellington Court, Albert Gate.
October 5 Thursday – At the Queen Anne Residential Mansions & hotel London, Sam finished his Oct. 4 letter to H.H. Rogers.
P.S. Oct 4. ’99 [Sam misdated here]. As I said yesterday (and also in my letter to Harper) I don’t want Harper to hamper Bliss in adding the new short-story book to the Uniform. I think, also, that Harper should have no ownership in the plates made for the new book for the Uniform, and receive no royalty from Bliss on the book….Ain’t that your judgment?
October 6 Friday – A bill was given to Sam from Queen Anne Residential Mansions & hotel for this date in the amount of £25.11.8 for the period Sept. 30 to Oct. 6; it was paid on Oct. 12 [1899 Financial file MTP]. Note: there is no other bill in the files for the Queen Anne; it is assumed they moved after this day to 30 Wellington Court (Albert Gate).
October 9 Monday – In New York, William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.
October 11 Wednesday – On a day when England’s ultimatum to the Boers expired and war was to begin, Sam wrote a squib, just to whom has not been determined..
October 12 Thursday – At 30 Wellington Court, London, Sam replied to James Henry Wiggin’s Sept. 30 letter. Wiggin was one of the editors who revised Mary Baker Eddy’s “bible.”
October 14 Saturday – At 30 Wellington Court (Albert Gate) London, Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow.
(Don’t give that address away)
We waited and waited and yearned and yearned for you two Bigelows last night and you horribly disappointed us. See that you do better tomorrow night.
October 15 Sunday – Rene Doumic’s article “Revue Litteraire: Nos Humoristes” ran in the Revue des Deux Mondes, p. 924-5. Tenney: “Brief mention of MT (p. 932), citing The Stolen White Elephant as an example of his works famous in the English- and German-speaking countries” [30].