July 29 Friday – In Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow, this year a correspondent for the London Times during the Spanish-American War. On May 23 in Tampa, Florida, Bigelow wrote an article exposing the unpreparedness of American troops for combat which ran in Harper’s Weekly. He was denounced as unpatriotic. An excerpt of Bigelow’s article:
THE CONDITION OF THE ARMY
Who Is Responsible ?
July 4 Monday – Hartford leading men A.C. Dunham (Austin Cornelius Dunham) and Dr. Edwin Pond Parker visited the Clemens family for three days this week. Which days is not clear, but Sam wrote to Whitmore on July 9 that the pair was there when news came of the July 3 defeat of the Spanish fleet under Admiral Pascual Cervera y Topete at the Battle of Santiago. [July 9 to Whitmore]. Note: this is also supported by the following notebook entry.
July 6 Wednesday – In Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam replied to a letter, statistics, and a check from Chatto & Windus (theirs not extant). The book statistics were exactly what he wanted. The check was “beyond expectations large—would the English government “raid it with an income tax” if they deposited it in a London bank? Sam asked Chatto to check on two plays he’d translated and sent to people in London—did they still have the plays?
July 7 Thursday – At the Villa Paulhof in Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam wrote to Robert Collier (Lord Monkswell; 1845-1909), British Liberal politician.
Dear Lord Monkswell: / I feel like a criminal for putting you and Lady Monkswell and Mr. Murray to such a deal of trouble. You must try to forgive me. Mr. Murray’s British & German statistics cover all the necessary ground, & I am very glad to have them. I have altered my MS to suit.
July 9 Saturday – At the Villa Paulhof Whitmore (his not extant): in Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam replied to Franklin G.
“O come, what a cuss you are! What use can I make of letters 6 months old? Some of them needed immediate answers. Don’t treat me like that anymore. In the immediate cases, send the man a post-card to say I am traveling in China…”
June 1 Wednesday – Joe Twichell wrote to Sam, pasting a Hartford Courant clipping from May 27 at the top of the first page (not in file).
June 10 Friday – In Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
“I enclose with this a full authority from Mrs. Clemens to act for her with Bliss in regard to the books. “I would like Bliss to engage to furnish and ship to Chatto a de luxe edition at about cost.”
Sam also wanted Chatto to be able to buy only as many deluxe editions of his Uniform works as he “has a sure market for,” as he would act as Sam’s agent and take a ten percent royalty for his services.
June 11 Saturday – About this day Sam mailed his article, “The Austrian Edison Keeping School Again” to Richard Watson Gilder of the Century [June 17 to Gilder]. It was published in the August issue.
June 17 Friday – In Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder.
Near a week ago I sent you a paragraph or two—a small Szczepanik episode—& registered it, as per enclosed “Scheim.”
In London we could always buy the Century—here, we’ve got to get down to business & order from headquarters.
Please put my name on the books & take it out in trade. / Yours, permanent, / Mark [MTP].
June 18 Saturday – In Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Frank Bliss, advising him to put “In Memoriam—Olivia Susan Clemens” into the Uniform Edition, and noted it ran in Harper’s Monthly for Nov. 1897 [MTP].
Sam’s article, “The Spanish American War” ran in the Critic [Camfield bibliog.].
June – Sam sent a part-printed subscription form to the Vienna Neue Freie Presse (“ New Free Press”) seeking a run of July 1 to Oct. 31, and asking to “Please send the bill by the postman.” Under the line for “character” (title), Sam wrote “Hasn’t any” [MTP: Bomsey Autographs catalogs, No. 46, Item 103].
A. Hoffman puts this month as the one Clara Clemens decided to give up the piano as a career and to choose what her late sister excelled in, singing. Though he errs on this date, he observes:
June 19 Sunday – In Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to the Vienna correspondent for the London Daily News, Bettina Wirth.
I sent the play to my business friend in New York & said I would translate it if it was likely to make a success there. The response was not sufficiently encouraging—war-plays are all the go there, these days.
June 20 Monday – In Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Robert Collier, Lord Monkswell (1845-1909). Sam wanted to confirm statistics he’d read in a magazine article on copyright, that there were about 4,000 books published in each country including America, England, France, and Germany. Did those books indeed represent 1,000 “professional authors” in each? He didn’t need to be exact but there were no books in the village and he was depending on what he’d read in Berlin eight years before [MTP].
June 21 Tuesday – In Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Frank Bliss, who evidently had requested (not extant) original photos of Mark Twain for the Uniform Edition. Sam directed him to ask Franklin G. Whitmore to get any pictures in his Hartford house, or with Fred Hall or Annie Moffett Webster’s hands in Fredonia; if Bliss wrote to her she “would do the best she can for you” [MTP].
June 24 Friday – Sam also wrote to Dr. Henry Walker. Cue: “I thank you ever so much for the impulse which” [MTP]. Note: letter UCCL 12961 is currently unavailable at MTP.
June 25 Saturday – John A. Steuart’s article, “American Fiction in England,” ran in Outlook, p. 658-9 [Tenney 29].
June 26 Sunday – In Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Samuel S. McClure.
June 28 Tuesday – In Kaltenleutgeben near Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, asking how many new books had been copyrighted in England for the past year. He needed it for an article [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Brainard Warner, Jr., United States Consul in Leipsic (Leipzig).
June 29 Wednesday – In Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
June 30 Thursday – In Kaltenleutgeben Sam sent his photo-postcard to Thomas Bailey Aldrich:
“Ho. T.B.!— / Why, it has been all of 15 years since I sent you a portrait—then I sent you 56, of different vintages. I am ashamed of the long neglect. Here’s the latest. (Don’t get scared, I haven’t any more)” [MTP].
June 4 Saturday – Sam wrote a sketch given this date in Kaltenleutgeben, unpublished until 2009: “A Group of Servants” [Who Is Mark Twain? xxvi, 61-9; AMT 1: 120-4]. Note: title assigned by Paine. Sam describes the new servants in this getaway village near Vienna, including one “garrulous older maid” he nicknamed “Wuthering Heights.” See last source p. 500 n121.21 for speculation as to why Sam chose the name of Emily Brontë’s classic novel.
June 8 Wednesday – Clara Clemens’ 24th birthday. Sam’s notebook entry of June 11 describes the family’s collective ignoring of such events since the death of Susy:
March 1 Tuesday – Sam also replied to a non-extant query from Charles F. Mosher, a journalist with the Cincinnati Post and later an auditor with the Scripps newspaper network; he was now in Covington, Kentucky.
Oh, no—I can’t have that. Obviously the story has but one purpose, one intention: to so place Brown that he can not be saved.
March 1 Wednesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam began a letter to John Kendrick Bangs that he added to on Mar. 11 and finished on Mar. 12. At this time Bangs was “Editor of the Departments of Humor” for Harper’s three publications.
March 10 Friday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Auguste Wilbrandt-Baudius (Mrs. Adolf von Wilbrandt).
“I am rested-up again, & am young again; & as my first pleasure I wish to thank you in the best & heartiest words for taking half my burden off my shoulders, & for so stirring the hearts of those people with the beauty & pathos of your reading; & for saying those gracious things of me.”