March 7 Monday – E.Y. Elliot wrote from San Francisco to ask for Sam’s autograph [MTP].
Dorothy Williams, “an earnest student of astrology,” wrote from Phila. Pa. to ask Sam if she might do his horoscope—what was the hour and day of his birth? “Answer to wit: Date, Nov. 30,/35 hour not known /Ans. Mar. 21, 1904” [MTP].
Ida White wrote from Brighton, England to thank Sam for his autograph received [MTP].
March 8 Tuesday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to Susan Crane.
March 10 Thursday – Miss G.S. Godkin wrote from Florence, sorry to hear that Sam was “ailing with the bronchitis.” She and her cousin would like to call next Thursday, his reception day, if he was well. She enclosed an article written by her brother in the NY Evening Post sent by her sister-in-law (not in the file) [MTP].
March 11 Friday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto, Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Frederick A. Duneka.
Mr. Clemens has been in bed for several weeks with bronchitis, and is going to write you himself when he is well. In the meantime he wishes me to say that he misread the Italian article about Joan of Arc. And that she has been canonized, as you will see by the enclosed clipping.
March 12 Saturday – H.E. Fisher for the Conklin Pen Co. wrote to Sam:
March 14 Monday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto, Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Frederick A. Duneka:
“Mr. Clemens wishes me to add a postscript to his letter saying that if there would better be a change in the title of ‘You’re a damfool Mary’—and he gathers that you desire one—the change which he would prefer is this; use the word Jackass instead of Damfool in both title & closing remark” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to William Dean Howells.
March 15 Tuesday – Frederick A. Duneka wrote to Sam, suggesting that the “Italian with Grammar” article could appear in Harper’s Weekly. As per Sam’s of Mar. 2, Duneka had not yet heard from Mr. Elliott of the Washington Magazine, “and—I don’t want to hear from him,” he wrote [MTP].
March 17 Thursday – Senator Odoardo Luchini wrote to Sam, glad to hear that he and Livy were better. “I am obliged to leave again for Rome, but in a few days you will receive my short request about every thing. Certainly in April we may made up our minds about what is to be done.
Mr. Smith will tell you something about the affairs , because to day he will call on you” [MTP].
March 18 Friday – The New York Times, Apr. 10, 1904, ran an anonymous feature datelined Mar. 18, 1904 from Florence:
MARK TWAIN TO REFORM
THE LANGUAGE OF ITALY
———
He Tells His Neighbors in Florence of His Proposal to Furnish
the Government with a Standard Grammar.
Special Correspondence THE NEW YORK TIMES.
March 20 Sunday – Dr. Giovanni Nesti wrote to Sam, itemizing his bill for 43 visits to Livy during the day (20 lire each, for 860 lire), 2 during the night (25 lire each), and 4 analyses of urine (20 lire) in Nov., Dec., Jan, and Feb. [MTP].
March 21 Monday – Clara Clemens had continued voice lessons in Florence. She sang at the Alfieri Theater on this evening, and would give other performances on Apr. 8 and 15 [Hill 82].
At the Villa Reale di Quarto Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
March 22 Tuesday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam added a PS to his Mar. 21 to H.H. Rogers.
March 23 Wednesday – This day saw the formation of the English Congo Reform Association by Dr. Henry Grattan Guinness (1861-1915); Edmund Dene Morel (1873-1924), British journalist, author and socialist politician; and Roger Casement (1864 -1916), Irish patriot, poet and British consul. Casement’s 1904 report on the Congo led to demands for action and the formation of the Assoc. Ultimately, the investigations led to the 1908 formation of the Belgian Congo.
March 24 Thursday – Miss Jennie Listenauer wrote from Superior, Wisc. to Sam, having been told a yarn of St. Ignace, Wisc., where Mark Twain was supposedly buried! [MTP].
March 25 Friday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister.
March 26 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Countess Montjoye” [NB 47 TS 7]. Note: this may be Alice Ann Lymer Monck (d. 1905), the widow of Count Montjoy, Richard Charles Stanley Montjoy Monck (1858-1892).
James Douglas Campbell for the Plasmon Co. of America wrote to inform Sam of a stockholders’ meeting on Apr. 28, 1904 at 2:30 p.m in the company offices, 116 Broad St. NYC [MTP].
March 27 Sunday – Mrs. E.H. Higinbotham wrote from Florence to Sam, asking if she might call and pay her respects. She was the bride of the wedding Sam had mentioned at the St. Louis Club in 1902; She remembered him as saying that “Mr. Papeu [sp?] had been guilty of a great oversight in having failed to be the prospective bridegroom” [MTP].
Dr. Giovanni Nesti wrote to Sam, thanking for his “kind letter with the cheque” [MTP]. Note: See Mar. 20 for Nesti’s itemized bill.
March 28 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Began dictating again, after an interval of 2 months” [NB 47 TS 7].
Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam, enclosing a financial statement and a check for $32.71 for one week’s performance of PW [MTP].
James Douglas Campbell for the Plasmon Co. of America wrote to Sam, enclosing a proxy form for him to use for the upcoming stockholders’ meeting [MTP].
March 29 Tuesday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich in Ponkapog, Mass. (only the envelope survives) [MTP].
Sam’s notebook: “Clara’s consert. (postponed)” [NB 47 TS 7].
March 31 Thursday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to Elizabeth Robins.
“The passage quoted by me is from William Morris’s ‘Well at the End of the World.’ It occurs in the second volume, but I do not know just where, for the book is not now on the premises. / With kindest regards” [MTP].
April – A text of Sam’s autobiographical dictation survives made from Isabel Lyon’s notes during this month, that Paine later titled, “Henry H. Rogers,” and joined with a later manuscript (MTA 1: 250-56) [AMT 192]. Note: the source gives a 1906 MS typed by Josephine Hobby (1862-1950) and points out that Hobby copied a now lost earlier TS created by Jean Clemens. This is the only of six known Florence A.D.’s that Sam did not include in his final Autobiography. See Jan. 8, 14 entries.
April 1 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Visit that Villa—leave here 9 a.m.” [NB 47 TS 8]. Note: Sam was still shopping for a better villa.
Edward B. Caulfield of the Italian Gazette wrote to Sam.
“The New York ‘Sun’ is misinformed. Maurice Hewlett is not spending the winter in Florence, & he has not even come to Italy for the tour he will make this spring through Tuscany to collect material.
April 2 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Tailor, 10 a.m.” [NB 47 TS 8]. Note: Sam’s Italian tailor is not known.
April 3 Sunday – John Y. MacAlister wrote to Sam, the letter not extant but quoted in Sam’s notebook: “I will put aside for you 500 or 1000 shares (whichever you prefer), & if at the end of a year they are paying or are worth their par value (in the market) you can pay for them with Plasmon Founders—say at the rate of 3 Plasmon F.’s for 1000 Ls. How is that?” [NB 47 TS 8]. Note: Sam wrote after this quote: “(From Mac’s letter of Apl. 3 / 04. I’ll call for 1000 shares on those terms” [ibid].
April 4 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Admiral Wilkes / 8 via Venezia. / [Horiz. Line separator] / Mrs. Royson Ryerson / via de’ Pinti 51. / [Horiz. Line separator] / Mead, 21 vis Cavour” [NB 47 TS 8]. Note: AMT 1: 595 gives this notation of Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes (1798-1877) as his first meeting of Mrs. Wilkes, born Mary H. Lynch. Admiral Wilkes was credited as “discoverer” of Antartica. In his A.D. of Feb. 20, 1906 Sam recalled this as “One of the last visits I made in Florence…”