Life in Exile: Day By Day

October 14 Friday – The Clemens family left Kaltenleutgeben, and moved into the Hotel Krantz in Vienna [NB 40 TS 47].

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 14 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Noon. About 500 miles to make. A spacious ship & most comfortable. Rides the seas level—hardly any motion. No sea-sickness on board. No table-racks” [NB 43 TS 27].

The New York World ran an article, “Mark Twain, the Greatest American Humorist, Returning Home, Talks at Length,” which included Twain’s ideas about autobiography given to reporters before sailing on Oct. 6 in London:

October 15 Thursday – In London Sam sent a one-liner to an unidentified person: “Can be used to filled up a crack” [MTP]. Note: something is missing here.

October 15 Friday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Eduard Pötzl that “his wife & daughters desire me to thank you cordially for the kind invitation extended to them, & to express their regret that they will not be able to take advantage of it” [MTP]. Note: this may relate to the Oct. 14 invitation for the girls to see a carnival.

October 15 Saturday – The New York Times, Oct. 30, p. 7, “Coffee Houses In Vienna…Mark Twain’s Warm Eulogy,” with dateline Oct. 15:

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].

October 16 Friday – In London Sam wrote to Edward M. (Ned) Bunce, sharing shock and sorrow over the loss of Susy.

Ah me, you knew how rare she was, & how far you would have had to go to find her peer.

We are so glad you had that last talk with her — it will be a grateful memory with us. …I have not forgotten, & shall not forget, that time that you and Henry Robinson offered to help me when all others failed [MTP].

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 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz, Austria, Sam wrote to Bettina Wirth. He explained the English expression, “So-long,” and the double-standard of its application.

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 17 Sunday – A letter purporting to be from Mark Twain about the Oct. 15 city council session to the editors of the Neue Freie Presse was published in that paper. The letter criticized the noise of the city’s traffic, the many street barricades where pipes were being laid, and observations about the Jewish question. Was this letter from Sam? It included an incident that did not happen, of Sam springing to his feet and shouting, “Long live Lueger!

October 18 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Dr. Rudolf Lindau called. He is now 5½ years in the German Embassy at Constantinople. On his way there. With the King of Servia [Serbia] & father apparently, but did not say” [NB 42 TS 44].

Charles A. Dana, longtime editor of the N.Y. Sun, died at Glen Cove, Long Island, N.Y. He was 78. The Nov. 1897 issue of McClure’s Magazine ran a complimentary bio on Dana.

October 18 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.

The 3 books have come. Many Thanks.

October – Sometime during the month Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow, confiding the secret address of 23 Tedworth Square for him to visit. Sam headed the note, “Private,” and explained:

October– In Vienna, Austria Sam inscribed a small card to an unidentified person: “Very Truly Yours / Mark Twain / Oct. ‘97” [MTP].

Sam also inscribed a copy of American Drolleries, a London book by Ward, Lock and Co. (1890), with one of his aphorisms: “By trying, we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man’s, I mean. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / Wien, Oct./97” [Liveauctioneers.com, Bloomsbury Auctions 25 Nov. 2007, Lot 56A]

October – Ladies’ Home Journal ran “The Anecdotal Side of Mark Twain, p. 5-6.

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 19 Monday – Sam signed a “Reader’s Guarantee Form” for the Chelsea Public Libraries, in effect, a library card, giving his address as 23 Tedworth Square and his occupation as “private.” See a reproduction of the form in the Fall, 1998 MTJ p.31

October 19 Tuesday – In the afternoon, Dr. Max Burckhardt, general manager of the relatively new Burgtheater gave Sam a private tour of the house. Sam looked the place over from top to bottom. (See Oct. entry for news article relating this). The special effects capabilities of the theater were the most advanced in Europe.

October 19 Wednesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Edmund Kloieda.

“I am sorry that I am not able to comply, but I shall lecture only once during the next twelvemonth, & for that lecture I have already engaged myself. When I was younger I had no distaste for lecturing, but now that I am old it is to me an almost unendurable distress & discomfort.”

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 2 Friday – In London, Sam wrote a short note to Percy Spalding:

No, we’ll not have the contract stamped. Disagreements & misunderstandings between the Garths & us are not possible. We are two pairs of constitutionally just & fair-minded people [MTP: TS: Anderson Auction Co. catalogs, Nov. 25, 1930 Item 48].

October 2 Saturday– In Vienna, Austria, Clara Clemens wrote to Chatto & Windus asking them to forward all letters to the Hotel Metropole [MTP].

Sam also replied to Andrew E. Murphy, whose “letter caught us on the rail & got mislaid.” Murphy’s letter is not extant. Only the American Publishing Co. would know about literary rights and be able to “answer propositions” that Murphy had inquired about [MTP].

October 2 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Plasmon 11.30 Cornhill” [NB 43 TS 26].

At Brown’s Hotel in London, England Sam inscribed a copy of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Sketches to Elise de Bouchere: “To Miss Elise de Bouchere with the kindest regards of the Author. Oct 2, 1900,” [MTP: Anderson Galleries catalog, Apr. 29, 1931, No. 3911, Item 106].