January 20 Wednesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London Sam wrote a short note to neighbor J. Woulfe Flanagan that he did not send: “You compliment me upon not having imitated your manners. I thank you very much” [MTP].

January 22 Friday – Sam’s notebook:

January 23 Saturday– Sam’s notebook: 23d. He [Wilson] rushed out of shop in the Strand, without noticing whither he was going—struck a hand-cart, fell & hit the curbstone with back of his head. Surgeon says if he lives he will be mentally damaged [NB 41 TS 5].

January 24 Sunday – Caroline B. Le Row wrote offering to return to Clemens his “financial gift” of $250 long ago, which the Century had paid him, which he then gave to her, for her “little book,” English As She Is Taught. Le Row was now a teacher of reading at a Girls’ high school in Brooklyn and could send it in a month or so if he needed it [MTP]. Note: Printed in MFMT 137-8

January 25 Monday – A London Daily News employee in Vienna wrote to Sam, thanking him for his “answer which I should consider perfectly justified if I thought you were going to lecture on improvisation.” He mentioned story titles that Sam was going to read (that page lost). He also answered a concern of Sam’s: “Alas there is nobody in all Vienna who can take an English lecture down in shorthand” [MTP].

January 26 Tuesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London Sam wrote to Patrick A. Collins, Consul General, also in London: “If there is a U.S. Consul at Venice, it will be a favor to me if you will kindly have his name & address put upon the enclosed card & posted” [MTP].

January 29 Friday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London Sam wrote to Patrick A. Collins, “ever so much obliged” for Collin’s evident supplying of a US Consul’s name in Venice. Sam explained the reason he had not called on Collins was that in their bereavement they had hidden away “until such time as we may be enabled to confront life again & resume relations with our species” [MTP].

January 30 Saturday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Ainsworth R. Spofford at the Library of Congress, Wash. D.C., making formal application for copyright renewal of IA, [MTP]. Note: He may have done this not certain that Bliss would perform in time.

January 31 Sunday – Fatout lists a dinner for Poultney Bigelow, where Sam told a story or gave a talk. Among guests were Lord Young, Chief of the Judiciary of Scotland; Sir William Vernon Harcourt, leader of the Opposition, House of Commons; and Herbert Gladstone, son of the former prime minister [MT Speaking 665]. Note: Fatout does not mention Armitage and gives no source, but it’s likely the following notebook entry.

February – The London Bookman p. 151-2 reviewed TS,D: “We have liked Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn better in other circumstances,” but there are “much feebler things” in the book: “In ‘Adam’s Diary’ Mark Twain is at his feeblest and vulgarest; he fell no lower in ‘A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur’” [Tenney 26].

February 1 Monday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus and signed himself “a hard working man.” He had 21 or 22 books of his he wished shipped to India and other places, with names on the fly-leaf and a slip inside each with names and addresses. Would they “send a cuss in a cab to carry them to you for packing & mailing?” [MTP].

Sam “finished” FE (for the first time) on this day [Feb. 2 to Rogers]. He would “finish” it at least twice more.

February 2 Tuesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Horatio David Davies (1842-1912) this year London businessman and politician who became Lord Mayor of London this year. Sam declined to dine on Mar. 2 with the Lord Mayor, “obliged by reason of family affliction to decline”

[MTP]. Note: Sam was still in mourning, or at least avoiding public contact. Davies established Pimms (cocktail) as an international brand name.

February 5 Friday – The Hartford Courant ran a short article, “A Letter From Mark Twain,” Keokuk dispatch, p. 6 that refers to a not-extant letter from Sam to brother Orion Clemens:

February 8 Monday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

Well, I’ve had my feathers cut. I was feeling too cocky. The minute I concluded to go on & make a 2 volume of this book [FE] I broke down. I haven’t touched a pen since. I am all right again, & shall go to work again to-morrow—but not to make 2 volumes. No, I’ve dropped that idea. I mean to write a third more matter for the one volume than necessary, then weed out & leave one compact & satisfactory volume.

February 9 Tuesday – Joe Twichell wrote to Sam.

February 10 Wednesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Robert Barr (1850-1912), who had sought a meeting with Sam for a piece about Mark Twain he would publish in the Century (Jan. 1898), Idler (Feb. 1898), and other magazines. But at this time Sam wasn’t having any interviews or contributing to any biographical features.

February 11 Thursday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, ordering two books, one “something that will explain the law of whom to leave cards on” [MTP: American Art Assoc. catalogs, Apr. 18, 1929, Item 76]. Note: English etiquette regarding calling cards was evidently somewhat foreign to the Clemens family.

February 13 Saturday – The Hartford Courant, p. 8, ran “An Appreciation of Mark Twain,” observing from William Dean Howells’ May 30, 1896 review of JA (reprinted in MMT p.150-6):

Mr. Howells, in his department in “Harper’s Weekly,” has a hearty appreciation of Mark Twain. He lauds in particular one of the humorist’s books which mortally offended the English [ CY] and which the majority of Americans, perhaps, will not agree with Howells in regarding as Mr. Clemens’s best work…

February 16 Tuesday – Dial included “Fenimore Cooper and Mark Twain,” by D.L. Maulsby, p. 107-9. “A general defense of Cooper against MT’s exaggerated charges, though conceding defects in characterization and style. Some of Cooper’s descriptions are based on personal observation, and MT, unfamiliar with the locale, is presumptuous to criticize. Cooper’s works have the merits of their out-of-door atmosphere and essentially American quality” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide First Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1977 p.

February 18 Thursday – Sam’s notebook:

Feb. 18/97. Brilliant morning (very rare). Some of the people looked glad to be alive. But not many. Walked an hour in King’s Road (as usual) between Markham Square & the Chelsea Polytechnic—back & forth. Shakespeare’s people all on hand, as usual.

O Mother of Thugs!

February 19 Friday – Sam’s notebook:

Feb. 19/97. Lunched with the Henry M. Stanleys. Anecdote by Mrs. Tennant of the American who wanted his portrait painted by Sir John Millais.

Dennis McCartney’s description of Jim Townsend’s voice—“A strong bass—immensely powerful—but raucous, reedy, raspy—sort of a horse-fly voice, you know.[”]

February 20 Saturday – The London Athenaeum p. 244 reviewed TS,D: “The title story is a disappointment, ‘How to Tell a Story’ does not make its case, and the chapters on Paul Bourget “hardly seem worth reprinting” [Tenney 26].

February 22 Monday – J.A. O’Brien wrote from Sydney, Aus. to Sam. The short note is half illegible, but refers to a tribute which “should be framed in gold.” He wrote he was “nobody” [MTP].

February 23 Tuesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to William Dean Howells. He thanked Howells for his “splendid phrases, so daringly uttered & so warmly” in his review of the first five volumes in Harper’s of Mark Twain’s “Uniform Edition” (HF, LM, P&P, CY, TSA, TSD).

February 26 Friday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, “nervous about the contracts” since Frank Bliss had delayed signing. Bliss’ contract specified an advance, non-refundable advance of $10,000 on Sam’s new book, (FE). Sam confessed to not being “strenuous now” and suggested they grant concessions should Bliss want them. He was pondering a good offer from a London publisher for FE, and wanted “to strike Chatto for a new and better arrangement,” but not until Bliss signed.