October 16 Monday – At 30 Wellington Court (Albert Gate) in London, Sam wrote, a short note of introduction for Mark Hambourg to Richard Watson Gilder. Hambourg was an accomplished Russian pianist and student of Leschetizky in Vienna [MTP].
Sam also wrote a similar note of introduction to Georgiana R. Laffan (Mrs. William Mackay Laffan).
October 17 Tuesday – At 30 Wellington Court (Albert Gate) in London, Sam sent a telegram to Percy Spalding: “CANNOT LUNCH TILL AFTER SEVERAL DAYS WILL EXPLAIN CLEMENS” [MTP].
October 19 Thursday – At 30 Wellington Court (Albert Gate) in London, Sam replied to William Dean Howells’ Oct. 9 letter. Sam told of writing the Introduction to the Official Trial records of Joan of Arc to be published by T. Douglas Murray, and also about Basil Wilberforce asking him to speak “in his drawing room to the Dukes & Earls & M.P.’s” about Joan, which he couldn’t do because it would have taken him out of his seclusion.
October 20 Friday – In London, Sam wrote on his calling card to T. Douglas Murray: “When I made it appear to my wife, My dear Mr. Murray, that you manifested an interest (which I enlarged,) in my portrait, she was mightily pleased, & hopes you will not regard it as an intrusion if she begs you to let her offer you this one” [MTP: ebay.com item #2254961173]. Note: evidently this card accompanied a photo of Sam as a gift.
October 21 Saturday – A New York Times article datelined London, Oct. 21, which ran Oct. 22, p.7, “Gen. Harrison in London,” cites Mark Twain was among the invitees to a banquet on Oct. 25. Sam did not go, as he was declining all public appearances for the present. See Oct. 26 to Whitmore.
Academy (London), p.445 ran a brief quotation from Mark Twain on his Christian Science article in Cosmopolitan [Tenney 30].
October 25 Wednesday – At 30 Wellington Court (Albert Gate) in London, Sam wrote to H. Walter Barnett, photographer, complimenting him on recent pictures taken, writing that they “have the distinctions of their predecessors,” and that Barnett didn’t seem to know how to make a bad one [MTPO].
October 26 Thursday – In London, England, Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore, who evidently had requested more money for taxes and other expenses.
Such money as is in Mr. Rogers’s hands draws interest & we don’t want to disturb it; so I am enclosing a request that Bliss let you have it. I do it without blushing, for I have been spending a hundred dollars’ worth of time to beguile the Harpers to make a concession or two in Bliss’s favor & by this morning’s mail they have done it & will so inform Mr. Rogers…
October 27 Friday – Samuel S. McClure wrote from N.Y. to Sam that he’d cabled his brother in London to see if they couldn’t get some articles and stories from Mark Twain for their magazine—“That seems to be the only important magazine that does not get struck by your lightning; you are in Harper’s and the Century, and even in the Cosmopolitan, but you are not with us” [MTP]. Note: every significant editor seemed to notice the unauthorized piece that Bliss had given Cosmopolitan.
October 28 Saturday – Sam drafted “My First Lie and How I Got Out of It,” which would run in the Sunday supplement of the N.Y. World of Dec. 10, 1899 [Oct. 30 to Alden; Budd, Collected 2: 1005]. Note: On Dec. 20, 1901 Frederick A. Duneka of the World wrote to Sam and mentioned that the subject for this “First Lie” piece “having been suggested by myself through Mr Tuohy in London in ’99.”
October 30 Monday – In London, England, Sam replied to Henry M. Alden, whose incoming letter is possibly that of Oct. 12. Alden had enclosed letters showing good relations between Harpers and Frank Bliss, which gratified Sam. Alden evidently asked for any unpublished work Sam still had; Sam replied that only two short unpublished pieces remained—“Great Republic’s Peanut Stand,” which Alden already had, and two short chapters in Sam’s planned book on Christian Science. Also, The N.Y.
October 31 Tuesday – In London, England Sam replied to James B. Pond (incoming not extant):
No, no, write the book yourself—don’t pad it up with made-to-order puffs furnished by other people. No Pears’ soap business. If you are going to enter our profession you must keep up its dignity. Then I’ll wish you great & rich success! [MTP]. Note: Pond’s book, Eccentricities of Genius would be published by G.W. Dillingham Company, N.Y. in 1900.
November – Sam’s article about the Hornet wreck, “My Debut as a Literary Person,” ran in the Nov. issue of Century Magazine. It was collected in My Debut as a Literary Person, with Other Essays and Stories (1903) [Budd Collected 2: 1004]. Note: See Feb. 25 entry. See also AMT 1: 127-44 and 501-6.
November 1 Wednesday – In London, England Sam replied to Edward Everett Hale’s note of Oct. 11. Hale (1822-1909) was an American author and Unitarian minister; Nathan Hale, Revolutionary hero executed by the British was his great uncle. Edward had written Sam about his article on Christian Science.
I thank you ever so much for your note.
November 2 Thursday – In London, England Sam wrote an aphorism to an unidentified person: “It is not best that we use our morals weekdays, it gets them out of repair for Sundays. / Truly Yours/ Mark Twain. Nov. 2/99” [MTP].
November 3 Friday – In London, Sam wrote to Mrs. Keenan
Your letter has given me very great pleasure, & I wish to thank you for taking the time and trouble to write it.
I had half a notion to put Huck & Tom into the Spanish war, but I was so slow about it that the war was over before I got them in.
November 4 Saturday – In London, England Sam replied to James M. Tuohy of the N.Y. World, who evidently sent payment for Sam’s “Lie” article. He enclosed the receipt and responded that he didn’t believe he “could write on those subjects—& anyway, I mustn’t; because I must punch myself up & bang along with my regular work” [MTP]. See Oct. 30.
November 6 Monday – Sam restarted his osteopathy treatments at Kellgren’s facility [Nov. 9 to Rogers].
Joe Twichell wrote from Hartford to Sam.
November 7 Tuesday – Sam wrote to his sister, Pamela A. Moffett:
It was really very kind of Dr. Steele to invent Osteopathy after Kellgren (the actual inventor of it) had already been curing all kinds of diseases with it when Dr. Steele was in his cradle cutting his teeth.
November 8 Wednesday – In London, England Sam wrote to Dr. Sullivan, declining “an almost unresistable temptation” to appear at a club function, for he was a “bond slave to Fitzgerald’s Omar”. He didn’t want his name to appear in the papers while he was “doing the hermit act.” He thanked Mr. Walker for the invitation and Sullivan for conveying it. He also mentioned Livy, his family, and Dr. Jonas Henrick Kellgren:
November 9 Thursday – In London, England Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
Before November 10 Friday – In London, England Sam wrote two notes to Poultney Bigelow. The first agreeing to walk at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 10. The second a P.S. “Too bad! Clara is to perform with [Blanche] Marchesi Friday eve the 10th. I had forgotten it. I’ve got to be there” [MTP].
November 10 Friday – In London, England Sam replied to H.F. Gordon Forbes, whose incoming letter is not extant, but the subject was politics and the Boer War:
November 11 Saturday – In London, England Sam replied to E. Duncan Lucas that he’d forgotten “what the project was,” but if Lucas would call between 4 and 4:30 nearly any day he would see. Sam provided Chatto’s address and warned: “Show this card, or Chatto will tell you I have gone to the continent—& it will not be true” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to an unidentified man and used his Wellington Court address.
November 12 Sunday – In London, England Sam wrote to Miss Eva L. Farrell, niece of Robert G. Ingersoll, who died July 21 of congestive heart failure.
“Except for my daughter’s, I have not grieved for any death as I have grieved for his. His was a great & beautiful spirit, he was a man—all man, from his crown to his foot-soles. My reverence for him was deep & genuine; I prized his affection for me, & returned it with usury” [MTP].
November 13 Monday – Sam wrote an aphorism on a card that was later pasted on the flyleaf of RI: “Let us save the to-morrows for work. Truly Yours, Mark Twain, London, Nov. 13/99” [MTP: City Auction catalogs, Feb. 28, 1942, Item 56].
November 16 Thursday – Eva A. Spiridon (Mrs. Ignace Spiridon) wrote from Monte Carlo to reply to Livy’s questions about the portraits they did of the Clemens girls, which the Spiridon’s had already sent to Paris Exposition. “After the Exposition they will be sent to America and I shall write you before we send them in time so you can give your orders” [MTP].