May 28 Monday – In London, England Sam wrote to three- year-old Miss Margaret Carnegie (1897-1990), daughter of Andrew Carnegie, in a unique approach to get her father to buy stock in the Plasmon Syndicate of London, of which Sam was a director.
You are so little that you probably can’t remember so large a bulk as I am, but that is no matter, I remember you very well, & this is only a business letter, anyway.
May 29 Monday – At Prince of Thurn und Taxis’ country estate outside of Prague, Clara wrote on a postcard to Frau Malvine Bree in Vienna: “Komen Sie bald nach America und besuchen Sie / Clara C.” Livy and Sam each signed the card [MTP].
May 29 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Countess Hoyos? / (Dr. Hillyer [sic], open—30 Wimpole st W.[ )] / Andrew Carnegie Skibo Castle Sutherlandshire N.B.” [NB 43 TS 13]. Note: Dr. Alfred Peter Hilliard.
Rogers wrote to Sam. Only the envelope survives, upon which Sam wrote “Contract for Tom Sawyer” [MTP]. Note: TS the play. See Mar.25 to Rogers; also May 28.
May 3 Monday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam replied to Frank Bliss’s long-awaited letter, not-extant
Now you’re speaking up! Your letter had a virile ring to it. I had concluded weeks ago that your interest in the book was a little pale.
Yes, come over here. I have thought of it fifty times.
May 3 Wednesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam cabled James R. Clemens and Katharine Boland on their marriage: “CONGRATULATIONS KATHARINE JAMES. CLEMENS” [MTP].
Sam wrote on a calling card to Percy Spalding: “Enclosed please find the papers, duly executed” [MTP].
May 3 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “11 p.m. ball in honor of the King of Sweden & Norway” [NB 43 TS 9].
May 30 Sunday – Frank Marshall White, London correspondent of the NY Evening Journal had a “chat” with Sam to inform him of the report in New York that Mark Twain was dying of poverty in London [NY Journal article datelined June 1 and reported by the Hartford Courant, June 3, p. 12, “Mark Twain All Right”]. Note: see June 2.
May 30 Monday – At the Villa Paulhof in Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Siegmund Schlesinger, who evidently had asked for more time, likely on their play collaborations. Sam wrote him to “Take another month—and don’t hurry; hurrying doesn’t help a sick man to get well” [MTP].
May 30 Tuesday – In the a.m., the Clemens party left Nuremburg and traveled 179 miles by rail to Cologne, Germany, where they spent the night.
The New York Times ran this article on June 11, p.19, datelined Vienna, May 30 by Dr. Johannes Horowitz: “Twain’s Farewell to Vienna,” rehashing again his audience with Emperor Franz Josef I, and his plan of killing the whole human race by depriving them of air [MTCI 339-40].
May 30 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Goerz ? YES 7.30 / Never tell a lie, even when it is the truth / He died in 1847—I was at the funeral. / Never tell a lie, even when it is the truth” [NB 43 TS 13]. Note: Sam inserted later in ink after Goerz: “Died. July 28, 1900”.
Chatto & Windus published 6,000 copies of the 6s.0d. English edition of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg [Welland 238].
Fatout lists a JA reading for Mark Twain for Canon Wilberforce
May 31 Monday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Ainsworth R. Spofford, enclosing his signed application form on American Publishing Co.’ s letterhead for renewing copyright on IA, The form carries a July 12 date [MTP].
Sam also signed the renewal copyright for IA form and returned it to Frank Bliss [MTP].
Sam also wrote a squib to the London correspondent for the N.Y. Journal, Frank Marshall White:
May 31 Tuesday – In Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers. First, he was “very glad indeed” to learn that Rogers’ daughter, Cara Broughton (Mrs. Urban H. Broughton), was now healthy, with no “peril” to her life.
May 31 Wednesday – The Clemens family left Cologne, Germany at 6 a.m. on their way to England. Livy didn’t want to split the last stage in two, so they made a single trip of it, from 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m
[June 1 to Twichell].
In Calais, France Sam cabled Chatto & Windus: “SHALL ARRIVE BY CALAIS DOVER TODAY SEVEN THIRTY = CLEMENS” [MTP].
May 31 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Gilders here—dinner” [NB 43 TS 13]. Note: the NB also lists “P. of Wales Cromwell play” and the play Rip Van Winkle by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1853-1917) on this the opening day for the performance. Gribben speculates Sam possibly saw the play this day [711]. Note: see July 1, 1897 entry for bio info. on Tree.
May 4 Tuesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to
Richard Edgcumbe : “I shall be very glad indeed to come. With many thanks I am / Sincerely Yours / SL Clemens” [Sotheby’s June 19, 2003 catalog, p.72 Lot 85].
May 4 Thursday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Sam cabled Chatto & Windus:
PLEASE FIND MADAME BLANCHE MARCHESI THROUGH HER CONCERT AGENT ASK HERE WHERE SHE WILL SPEND THE SUMMER AND WILL SHE TEACH MY DAUGHTER TELEGRAPH ANSWER AND KEEP THIS PRIVATE = CLEMENS [MTP]. Note: see May 10.
Sam also replied to John M. Hay, at this time US Secretary of State. (Hay’s incoming not extant.)
May 4 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Director Kellgren discovered that Jean has turned the corner & will get well / Dinner—8(?) Moberly Bell, 98 Portland Place” [NB 43 TS 9]. See May 17 to Moffett. MTHHR 445n1
May 5 Thursday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore.
He gave his future address the Villa Paulhof in Kaltenleutgeben; Sam often did this when about to move; they would not go to the health resort until May 20.
May 5 Friday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam replied Ambrose Poynter (1867-1923), who evidently had asked if he might use a story or a passage. Sam had no objections and the story and details were “set down in a book of mine—‘Old Times on the Mississippi,’” he didn’t remember the chapter.
May 5 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Mr. Hapgood” [NB 43 TS 9].
May 6 Thursday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to James Ross Clemens, sorry that he was “having this ill turn,” and offering to do anything to help. Livy had offered to help [MTP]. Note. James’ illness was the source of the rumor that Sam was desperately ill, or dying, or even dead. Paine writes:
May 6 Friday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, enclosing an article intended to “excite public curiosity about the Fable, & make people hunt around & get hold if it and circulate it everywhere.”
listed in American Book Prices- Current Vol. 21 p.753 (1915) . See also Dolmetsch, 187 -9, 337n9 for the claim that this piece was written in Feb. of 1898. The article was about France’s treatment of Monaco. It was for:
May 6 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Lord Russell 2 Cromwell Houses—2 o’clock” [NB 43 TS 9].
May 7 Friday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus: “Please send me Garrett’s book, reviewed this morning: ‘Story of an African Crisis’—Constable & Co” [MTP]. Note: Edmund Garrett. Sam annotated the book throughout in both pencil and ink, and mentioned Garrett’s book in ch. 65 of FE, “characterizing Garrett as ‘a brilliant writer partial to [Cecil] Rhodes’.” Sam praised Garrett’s account of the Jameson raid as “the best one I have met with” [Gribben 253]
May 7 Saturday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam telegraphed Chatto & Windus:
RETURN THE THICK LETTER POSTED YESTERDAY = TWAIN [MTP]. Note: Livy wanted the May 6 article suppressed; see May 13.