Austria 1897-99 DBD

August 20 Saturday – In Bad Ischl, Austria, Sam wrote to John Brisben Walker, owner of Cosmopolitan. Sam had received a check for $120 and a receipt to sign, but in the “confusion of packing” the family for a summer outing, it had been lost. They would return to Kaltenleutgeben in about ten days  [MTP].

August 22 Monday – Sam’s notebook shows the family went to Hallstatt (Halstadt), Austria:

August 23 Tuesday – The Clemens party was in Hallstatt, Austria. Sam’s notebook:

Hallstadt, Aug. 23/98. Beautiful lake in a cup of precipices; surface littered with refuse & sewer-contributions; men (but not many—& not tourists) swim in it. Pre-historic remains are found here.

August 27 Saturday – The Clemens family left Bad Ischl, Austria and traveled the 174 miles to Vienna, where they arranged housing for the winter with the Krantz Hotel. They then traveled back in Kaltenleutgeben, arriving in the evening [Aug. 28 to Rogers].

The Pall Mall Gazette’s piece by Carlyle G. Smythe ran in the N.Y. Times as “Mark Twain’s Literary Taste,” p. BR567:

August 28 Sunday – In Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam replied to Frank E. Bliss’ Aug. 16 (not extant) statement. Sam pointed out the $1,000 for the FE excerpts given to McClure’s wasn’t on the statement— it would be all right if Bliss sent that amount to Rogers. Sam didn’t have any idea what to put in the suggested introduction to his Uniform Edition, and had never seen an intro that had value.

August 29 Monday – In Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam finished his Aug. 28 to H.H. Rogers.

P.S. Next Day. / Yours of the 19th has arrived [not extant], enclosing letter of Mr. Harper and opinion of Mr. Rives.

Good, I am glad a settlement is close at hand, though I wish Rives wouldn’t always keep on interfering with people’s arrangements.

August 3 Wednesday – On a warm day in Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

I must stop work a minute and congratulate you upon to-day’s telegraphic peace-prospects. I imagine you are feeling comfortable now.

Here the matter would be immensely discussed and written about—would have been, a week ago—but now it is cut down to a dozen lines, for now the whole reading-matter space in the papers is crowded with Bismarck’s life and death. It has been so for several days ….

August 30 Tuesday – In Kaltenleutgeben, Austria Sam wrote to William Dean Howells.

“This morning I read to Mrs. Clemens your visit to the Spanish prisoners, & have just finished reading it to her again—& lord, how find it is & beautiful, & how gracious & moving. You have the gifts—of mind & heart” [MTHL 2: 679]. Note: Harper’s Weekly of Aug. 20 had published Howells’ “Our Spanish Prisoners at Portsmouth.”

August 4 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Aug. 4, ’98. Finished ‘My Platonic Sweetheart[’] a day or so ago” [NB 40 TS 27].

August 5 Friday – In Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam wrote a sappy poem to Charles J. Langdon, whom he addressed as “Dear Cholley” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Mrs. Kate S. Littlewood (Mrs. Walter Littlewood); (d.1927) in Liverpool [MTP].

Oh yes indeed, your young wards can freely have any book of mine they want—the whole set if they like.

I enclose an order.

August 7 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Aug. 7 ’98. I think a few monarchs have died here & there during the past year, I do not now remember. It made a great silence. Bismarck has been dead five or six days, now, but the reverberations from that mighty fall still go quaking & thundering around the planet” [NB 40 TS 28].

Mark Twain stayed in Vienna with his wife Olivia and his daughters Clara and Jean from the end of September 1897 till the end of May 1899, except for a few weeks in the summer of 1898, spent at the summer resort of Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna.

The family took quarters in Hotel Metropole, beautifully situated on the Franz-Joseph's Quay, on the right bank of the Danube Canal.  Later they moved to the Hotel Krantz, opposite the old Capuchin Church and Monastery, in the center of the city.

The Human is a Fool, Hypocrite & Humbug – Contract at Last
London: “Chartless, Adrift Derelicts”– Victoria’s Jubilee – Orion Dies
N.Y. Herald Fund – Twain’s Death an Exaggeration – Peaceful Weggis & Writing Vienna &
“Leschy” for Clara – Stirring Times in Austria – FE Published

1897 – Sam recorded he was paid $11,398.65 this year by the American Publishing Co and
noted “Equator” by the entry. He estimated the Co. “cleared say $3,000” [NB 46 TS 17].

Leschy’s Salon – Stirring Times in Austria – Rampant Anti-Semitism & Zola – Debt Free! Honor Be Unto Mark Twain! – Sczepanik, Edison of Austria – Translating Plays Ossip Stuns Clara – War with Spain – Kaltenleutgeben - Summer Jaunt to Ischyl, Hallstatt & Heat – Elegy to Susy - Rogers Won’t Bite on Inventions, Makes Stock Gains – Clemenses Wealthy Again -  A Torrent of Magazine Articles – Assassination! –“Burn the Rhymes”– Plans for Home

Uniform Edition de luxe – $ 10,000 Tumbles In – “Splendid Bird, Set Her Again” Politics of Peace – Hadleyburg – Making Fun of Mrs. Eddy Budapest Reading – Karl Kraus & Critics – Twain in Top Ten– Authorized Bio Sketch – “Concerning the Jews”– Vienna Farewell – Kellgren’s “System” Becomes Osteopathy Club Dinners Galore – Sanna for the Damned – Boer War Not Boring – London Hermits

December 1 Wednesday – At the Metropole Hotel, Vienna, Austria, Livy wrote for Sam to Chatto & Windus, asking them to please forward an enclosed letter for Samuel McClure’s London office as Sam did not know the address [MTP].

December 10 Friday – At the Metropole Hotel, Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to Harold Godwin’s Dec. 9 that “a gratifying large per centage” of his creditors had written letters to him that he was “proud to keep.” Sam thanked him personally for his personal letter and “for the spirit which moved” Godwin to do what he did “in the matter of the indebtedness” [MTP]. Note: For Sam to have answered Godwin’s Dec. 9, he must have received a cable from Katharine Harrison regarding the matter. The cable is not extant.

December 10 Saturday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to an Frank Bliss.

I must give you my side of the McClure matter. You were dead opposed to having any part of the book [FE] into print before publication-day. I was of your mind—it could do no possible good, & would do very serious harm (to a subscription book) without the slightest doubt in the world. Your McClure publication cost you & me ten times the McClure check.

December 11 Saturday – Here—as in London—Livy & the girls find that the name Clemens is no sufficient disguise. They have Pleasant adventures.

Sam related an episode of Clara and Katy Leary’s the day before, with a cabbie and a box office man at a theater, who softened once Clara gave the name Clemens.

Livy has adventures, too. And Katy—but you know Katy. If I should start in on Katy’s adventures with this family’s name, a certain amount of time would be consumed.

December 11 Sunday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam added to his Dec. 8 to H.H. Rogers.

I worked yesterday & day before, & am in trim this morning to continue.

December 12 Sunday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote an aphorism to an unidentified person: “The proper proportions of a maxim: a minimum of sound to a maximum of sense. Truly yours, Mark Twain. Vienna,

Dec. 12/97” [MTP: Philip C. Duschnes catalog].

December 12 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam added to his Dec. 8 and 11 to Rogers. Sam made only a date entry for this day in the letter, as if interrupted [MTHHR 380].

Sam also cabled Harper & Brothers: “LACKS 500” [MTP]. Note: See Dec. 10 entry.

December 13 Monday – The New York World ran an article, “Mark Twain in Vienna” p.6, that contained Sam’s reply to the question, had he ever seen the like of this Austrian parliament?

December 13 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam finished his Dec. 8 and 11 letter to H.H. Rogers.

Mrs. Clemens wouldn’t let me charge the Harpers a fair price, so I cabled them that ther offer “lacks $500.” I would have made it double that. And she says the cablegram was from you, not the Harpers. Women are full of superstitions, & don’t know anything.

Did the Harpers pay you the $500 they “allowed” me for the Jew article? They didn’t send it here.

December 14 Tuesday – Charles F. Chichester for Century Co. wrote to Sam, acknowledging a check from Miss Harrison last week for $204.51 as partial payment [MTP].