August 7 Saturday – In Lucerne, Switzerland Sam replied to Samuel S. McClure’s July 28 (not extant). Evidently McClure had sought an interview or contribution from Mark Twain, but Sam replied there were “business reasons why it will be best for Barr to do the thing without corresponding with me.” After his signature, he added:
August 9 Monday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto: “These latter batches of sheets are divine—it is no vexation to read them.” He added that he forgot what his PS was, and asked for a “cheap ‘P’dn. Wilson. Unbound; just the sheets” [MTP].
August 12 Thursday – The Fisk Jubilee Singers were on a European tour, with stops at Basel, Bern, and Zurich. On July 1 they sang in Lucerne in the great hall of the Union Hotel; this was before the Clemenses arrival on July 14. After disappointing audiences at the July 1 and 3 performances, a second concert at the Hotel was planned for Aug. 8, which was “a great success,” with 200 in the audience. The singers then came to Weggis [Locher 18].
August 13 Friday – Sam’s notebook:
“The Jubilee Singers sang at the Lowen last night—diviner, even, than in their early days, 26 years ago. They came up to the house this morning & sang to us. They are as fine people s I am acquainted with in any country” [NB 42 TS 24-5].
In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, advising that Katharine Harrison’s July 30 had arrived with the news that Bliss had paid the $10,000.
August 14 Saturday – The Illustrated American ran “Dear Old Mark Twain” with several photos and an in-depth report with “Stories of Mark Twain’s Boyhood” [eBay items 350243764833 Aug. 31, 2009; and 120453602604, Aug. 3, 2009]. Thanks to JoDee Benussi.
August 15 Sunday – The Lucerne newspaper Vaterland reported his presence in the country but did not give away the village of Weggis:
The well-known American author Mark Twain lives presently in Switzerland finishing a new book which will be titled, “The Surviving Innocents” for American readers and “More Tramps Abroad,” for the English [Locher 16].
August 16 Monday – In Weggis, Sam recorded a local tragedy in his notebook:
August 17 Tuesday – Sam passed Katharine I. Harrison’s letter of July 30 (which had arrived on Aug. 13; see to Rogers that date) informing him of Bliss’ payment of the $10,000 for FE on to Chatto & Windus.
August 18 Wednesday – The anniversary of Susy Clemens’ death. From Sam’s Aug. 22 letter to Wayne MacVeagh:
August 21 Saturday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, enclosing “all the proof I have” for FE. He asked what date Bliss had settled on for Chatto to issue the book. Would Chatto coordinate terms with translators and Continental publishers? Sam also requested “2 dozen strong big envelops—of a size big enough to hold 3 quires of my paper comfortably.” He wanted them for unfinished articles.
August 22 Sunday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote to Wayne MacVeagh, having delayed in thanking him for “providing me a friend in Vienna.” Sam had just finished with the last proofs of his book the day before, and pronounced it “the only book I have ever confined myself to from title-page to Finis without the relief of shifting to other work meantime.” He had:
August 23 Monday – Samuel Rutherford Crockett (1860-1914) wrote to Sam.
“I’ve got some boys I’d like to send you, if I might. I think Tom and Huck would like to know them. One of them is called ‘Cleg Kelly.’ Hully Gee, what a scrap there’d a been if Tom and Cleg had met” [Gribben 165; MTP].
August 28 Saturday – An anonymous article, “Mr. Stead on Mark Twain,” ran in the London Academy Fiction Supplement, August 28, p. 58-9. Tenney: “An excerpt from the sketch of MT (here attributed to William T. Stead) in the Review of Reviews” [26].
August 30 Monday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote to the Editors of the Century , enclosing a tribute to his long-time neighbor, the incomparable scholar James Hammond Trumbull, who died on Aug. 5. Richard Watson Gilder, Robert Underwood Johnson, and Clarence C. Buel were running the Century Co. at this time and published Sam’s piece, “James Hammond Trumbull, The Tribute of a Neighbor” in the Nov.
September – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote to Clara A. Nichols (his NB gives her address as 219 King’s Road Cheasea SW London )with a note to Chatto & Windus . He asked her to “complete the address at the bottom of this page, & mail THE PAGE to Messrs. Chatto & Windus,” adding at the bottom, “— quick”. The note to C&W directed them to put the page on one of the front fly leaves [MTP].
September 3 Friday – In Weggis Sam replied to Chatto & Windus’ letter (letter not extant).
September 7 Tuesday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister. Sam didn’t know where MacAlister was spending his summer but hoped he was “having a recuperating good time.” He sent his regards also to Mrs. Kelly (not identified further), then asked if it were English custom to pronounce “trait” as “tray,” that there was a dispute about it in Weggis.
September 10 Friday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote to Francis H. Skrine in Perthshire, Great Britain.
The cigars have come, & they give me a noble relief & vacation from the Swiss article. Thank you ever so much. I do not know, now, what I wrote you; but whatever it was, be charitable—for there was no August day in which I was in my right mind—& there will never be an August day, perhaps, in which I shall be sane. It is our terrible month. …
….
September 11 Saturday – The New York Times passed part true, part false information on in “Mark Twain’s New Book,” p. BR1:
September 13 Monday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam received a letter (not extant) from H.H. Rogers. He replied that Rogers’ letter “has give us a grand uplift.” The Clemens’ funds invested by Rogers were doing well, and Sam suggested Rogers keep “all the money I can make on the platform” and take the profits Rogers could make it yield, “over and above its own personality.” They both were grateful. As to the debts, he requested Rogers to keep the money “a spell longer” until there might be enough “to sweep off our debts at one wipe.”
September 15 Wednesday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, asking that their mail be forwarded for ten days to Salzburg, poste restante, and after that in care of Thomas Cook & Son, Vienna. Livy requested a copy of Review of Reviews which contained a recent article of William Thomas Stead’s on Twain. Sam held in “grateful remembrance” all that Chatto and Spalding had done [MTP].
September 16 Thursday – Sam wrote an aphorism (from chapter 6 of PW) in the Guest Book of the Villa Bühlegg: “Please do not forget this important truth: Habit is habit—& not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed down-stair a step at a time. / Truly yours / Mark Twain / Villa Bühlegg, Sep 16, 1897” [Locher 20].
September 17 Friday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam replied to Samuel Rutherford Crockett’s Aug.
Sam noted that Crockett sending his letter to N.Y. “wasted a good deal of time,” which explains why it took him so long to reply.
I know Cleg, & am fond of him, & am ready to welcome him again, & Napoleon, too, when he gets on his uniform. Ten days hence I shall have an address in Vienna for the winter….
September 18 Saturday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers:
The Swiss vacation is ended & I am packing the trunks for Vienna. That is, I am superintending. …I leave all places with regret, & if there is ever to be an exception, this is not the one. We shall reach Salzburg next Wednesday 22d—no, a day or two later—& remain a week. We reach Vienna about Oct.1. Our address there for a few days will be c/o Thos. Cook & Son, while we hunt up a house to live in.
September 19 Sunday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote to Robert Barr, editor of The Idler: