December 17 Saturday – Joe Twichell wrote to Sam and Livy:
Yours of the 2nd inst. about Ned Bunce came this morning, and found me on the point of mailing you the enclosed. Yes, as you say, the old fellowship is now at the dissolving stage and we are writing one another’s obituaries. How could life ever have seemed anything but the stuff that dreams are made of. Only to hope andto grief it is long.
December 18 Saturday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, requesting that a book (FE) be sent to Frau von Versen (née Clemens) in Berlin [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Katharine I. Harrison, the letter not extant but referenced in Harrison’s Jan. 7, 1898 letter [MTHHR 314].
December – A cartoon of Mark Twain by F. Graetz as “The American Diogenes” appeared on the cover of the December issue of Der Floh. The background scene includes politicians rioting, with Sam standing amidst the rubble and street pipes being installed, which he had complained of. See insert.
Sam’s notebook entry lists Ralph Keeler’s 1869 novel, Gloverson and His Silent Partners: “librarian had a copy” [NB 42 TS 50].
December 19 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow.
I was astonished at the handwriting & took it to mean extreme age until I referred to the signature; then I judged it meant rheumatism and would presently disappear, you being young, as yet, and no proper subject for permanent infirmities of that nature.
….
December 2 Thursday – At the Metropole Hotel, Vienna, Austria, Livy wrote to Chatto & Windus, asking them to send her husband’s book which contained “the little farce ‘The Miesterschaft’” to Frau Hof Kapell -Meister Hans Richter, in Vienna. She also asked that the new Life of Lord Tennyson by his son be sent to Mrs. Langdon in Elmira ( Ida Langdon) [MTP]. Note: Hans Richter was the chief conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic.
December 2 Friday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote condolences to Mrs. Edward M. Bunce upon hearing of the death of her husband, “Ned” on Nov. 19.
It falls like a thunder-stroke, dear Mrs. Bunce, & is the heaviest I have known in my life, & the costliest loss, except our Susy’s death. It associates itself naturally with that bereavement because in some particulars Ned was nearer & dearer to the children than was any other person not of the blood. …
December 21 Tuesday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
Sam agreed that the letters from many of the creditors made his “heart glad.” With the “hateful burden” of debt soon to be extinguished, made his “same heart as light as Colby’s brain or the soul of the Mount Morris.” He commented on Rogers’ praise of FE and of the struggle he’d made to write it:
December 22 Wednesday – The ledger books of Chatto & Windus show that 5,000 additional copies of More Tramps Abroad, (FE) were printed (totaling 18,000 to date). The official English publication date was Nov. 25 [Welland 238]. See Aug. 12, Nov. 10, Nov. 25, Mar. 8, 1898, Oct. 11, 1900, and Aug. 7, 1907 for other print run amounts, totaling 30,000.
December 23 Thursday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, clarifying that the book should be made out in Livy’s name, as with the other books
[MTP]. Note: This likely refers to the Dec. 18 request for FE to be sent to Frau von Versen.
December 23 Friday – H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam, letter not extant but referred to in Jan. 3, 1899 to Rogers.
December 24 Friday – Walter Bliss of American Publishing Co. wrote to Sam, the letter not extant but mentioned in Livy’s Jan. 9 to Bliss [MTP].
December 24 Saturday – Sam related this family’s evening to William Dean Howells in his Dec. 30:
December 25 Saturday – Christmas – In Vienna, Austria Sam inscribed (probably a copy of FE) to Katie: “ To our seventeen- year-old Katie with the affection of the Author. Vienna, Dec. 25. 1897” [MTP]. Note: This may have been a servant girl; not Katy Leary, unless Sam was teasing Leary about her age; she was seventeen when she came to work for the Clemens family.
Sam telegraphed the N.Y. World a summary of news for the week [Dec. 26 to White].
December 25 Sunday – Christmas – The New York Times, ran “Hearst’s Borrowed Shirt,” a story about Sam Clemens loaning George Hearst a “biled shirt” back in Virginia City days. Hearst, unable to find a shirt to wear to a wedding, borrowed one of Sam’s, something greatly frowned on in those days, but was exposed after a fight. Just why the Times ran this story on Christmas is anyone’s guess. Roughing It, p. 416 (Chapter LVII): “For those people hated aristocrats.
December 26 Sunday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Frank Marshall White, gently chiding him for not showing “grace” to his letter, and saying there was nothing to telegraph to-night and nothing new this day except the resignation of Count Kasimir Felix Badeni, which was “an ordinary & foregone event” not worth telegraphing. What he had he’d sent to the N.Y. World the night before, which request had beaten White’s by 17 hours [MTP].
December 26 Monday – Louisa Wohl wrote to Sam; the letter not extant but referred to in Sam’s Dec. 28 to Gilder; see entry [MTP].
December 27 Monday – Sam’s notebook:
At Fraulein Ries’s Monday. Second sitting for bust. Her bust of Baron von Berger is perfect. The “Lucifer” is fine & strong & impressive—majestically so, I think. Ries is a quaint & naïve, & interesting young creature— Russian. She dropped the fact incidentally, that her grand hellion there in the corner (Lucifer) was begun as the Virgin, but looked too masculine for the part, so she turned the Mamma of God into Satan!
December 27 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote and cabled H.H. Rogers.
December 28 Wednesday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder.
December 29 Wednesday – In Vienna, Austria Sam replied to H.H. Rogers’ Dec. 17 (not extant).
“Yours of the 17th arrived this morning & is immensely gratifying in various ways. Lord, we are glad to see those debts diminishing! For the first time in my life I am getting more pleasure out of paying money out than pulling it in.”
December 29 Thursday – Sam wrote on Dec. 30 of Livy’s financial calculations:
December 30 Thursday – On this day or Dec. 31 Sam’s notebook reveals a performance by Leschtizky:
At Madame von Dutschka’s. Choice people there. Leschetizky played. A marvelous performance. He never plays except in that house (she says). He sacrificed himself for his first wife—believed she wd be the greatest pianist of all time—& now they have been many years separated. If he developed himself instead of her, he would have been the world’s wonder himself.
Baron von Berger lectured upon me yesterday [NB 42 TS 51-2].
December 30 Friday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria Sam began a letter to William Dean Howells that he added a PS to on Jan. 3, 1899.
December 31 Friday – The Boston Daily Globe, p.8, gave FE a glowing review, and praised the author.
NEW LITERATURE
December 4 Sunday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, from 10 a.m. to midnight, Sam read Sir John Adams’ book (see Dec. 5 entry) to page 232 without a break.