Vienna 1897-99 Day By Day

February 9 Wednesday – H.H. Rogers wrote notice of receipt from Sam for $653.34 “which added to the $1,959.99 previously received makes the full amount of my claim against the late firm of C.L. Webster & Company at the time of its failure” [MTHHR 321].

January 1 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Fine sunny day” [NB 42 TS 52].

In Vienna, Austria Sam inscribed a copy of More Tramps Abroad, (FE) to Ida Speiser- Wegenstein: “To / Mrs. Ida Speiser-Wegenstein / Wishing her many Happy New Years. With the kind regards of, / The Author / Vienna, New Years’ Day 1898” [MTP: Sothebys London catalogs, July 13, 2000, Item 48].

He also wrote an aphorism to an unidentified person:

January 1 Sunday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam’s notebook:

NEW-YEAR, 1899. Note from Schelsinger [not extant], asking another month’s delay. … He would like me to promise the use of my name in advance, I think, & unconditionally.

It will be a marvel if he produces a play which I can work into a shape which will satisfy me, after all his delays. I shan’t allow my name to be used in connection with it unless it shall in all ways warrant the risk [NB 40 TS 52-3].

January 10 Monday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria Livy wrote for Sam to Chatto & Windus, acknowledging receipt of a six months statement and check for £1095.9.10; they were “greatly pleased with the excellent showing of the statement and the consquent size of the check” [MTP]. Note: in the six-month period from July 1, 1897 to Jan. 1, 1898, Chatto printed 18,000 copies of FE [Welland 238].

January 10 Tuesday – A PS excerpt from “Diplomatic Pay and Clothes,” in the March Forum ran in the N.Y. Times, and was published on Mar. 26, 1899, p.23, under “Current Literature.”

Mark Twain Wants $75,000.

From Mark Twain, in the Forum.

January 11 Tuesday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Livy wrote for Sam to Samuel E. Moffett.

“Your Uncle wants me to say that he desires you to keep the letter that I sent you entirely private” [MTP].

January 12 Wednesday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Sam wrote to Henry Loomis Nelson, editor at Harper’s Weekly (1894-1898) .

January 13 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Jan 13 ’98 Sent 3 fables to Century” [NB 42 TS 53].

At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to Henry C. Robinson’s Dec. 29, 1897 letter.

January 13 Friday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Eva Nansen; Livy added a note to Dr. Fridtjof Nansen. Sam thanked her for the photographs and sentiments and was sorry he and the family were out when the Nansen’s messenger delivered them. Livy added a paragraph to Dr. Nansen:

January 14 Friday – Sam’s notebook:

Jan. 14, 1898. Began to write comedy “Is He Dead?” (Francois Millet.)

———

Make Plays—with a German for Principal character (Dutchy) an Irishman, a Scotchman, a Chinaman[,] a Japanese, a negro (George) Uncle John Quarles who was very like the Yankee farmer in Old Homestead.

Write an Old Homestead of the South” [NB 42, TS 53]. Note: Denman Thompson and George W. Ryder’s The Old Homestead (4-act play 1886) [Gribben 700].

January 14 Saturday – The New York Times, on Jan. 15, ran on p.7, “Mark Twain Writes for Stead.”

LONDON, Jan 14.—Mr. William T. Stead’s new paper, intended to be the mouthpiece of his disarmament campaign, and entitled War Against War, made its appearance to-day. It is not a very striking production, its chief feature being communications from sympathizers, including some American public men.

January 15 Saturday – Charles De Kay (1848-1935), art and literary critic of the N.Y. Times for eighteen years, wrote a review of FE which was published this day in the Times, “Mark Twain’s Mixed Pickles,” p. BR 40:

Mark Twain’s new book will challenge comparisons with “Innocents Abroad,” because it is cast on similar lines, being a salmi of plain information spiced with wit and humor. With such works each reader must decide whether the mixture suits him or not. …

January 16 Sunday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to James Whitcomb Riley in Indianapolis, thanking him for a book sent in fulfillment of a “promise made …in Washington so many years ago…” He wrote he’d direct his Hartford publisher to send him a copy of his book (likely FE). After his signature he noted, “London weather in Vienna! / —fog to smell & the electric to work by at noon-day” [MTP].

January – Robert Barr’s sketch, “Clemens, Samuel L. ‘Mark Twain.’ A Character Sketch” ran in the January 1898 issue of McClure’s Magazine, as well as in the Feb. issue of Idler [Tenney 28]. Publishers Weekly (London) Jan. 8, reviewed Barr’s article: “Mr. Barr is a man who himself possesses the secret of devising humorous and grotesque tales, and as he has been the close personal friend of Mark Twain for a long time, he gives an interesting study of him.”

January – Edwin Wildman’s article “Mark Twain’s Pets,” ran in St. Nicholas Magazine, p.185-8. Tenney: “Describes a visit to MT’s study at Elmira, New York, by E.M. Van Aken, to take pictures of his cats. Two photographs are here reproduced, together with one of the ‘Quarry Farm’ house, and there are engravings of the outside of MT’s octagonal study (here called the ‘Pilot House’; it is covered with vines) and of MT at work inside (‘Drawn from a photograph by E.M. Van Aken’).

January 19 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook:

January 2 Sunday – Fatout lists a Vienna dinner and dance where Sam gave a speech or read a story [MT Speaking 665]. Note: Fatout gives no particulars and none were found.

January 20 Thursday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

“Yours of the 5th is to hand. It is very good news: that when you have paid Barrow up, & the last 25% div. to the other creditors (except Grant & the Bank) we shall still have about $1,000 left in cash. This is exceedingly bully; the best music we have heard lately.” [Note: there is no extant HHR letter for Jan. 5, but there is one for Jan. 6—possibly Sam refers to the Jan. 6 letter].

January 21 Friday – Sam’s notebook:

Jan. 21. The other day I wrote Percy Mitchell (Paris) & asked him to try & get a copy of “Aurore” for me (containing Zola’s grand letter.) This is his answer:

“I hasten gladly to send you Zola’s letter. I had put it away among my archives under ‘Clean French literature.’ The compartment is empty now” [NB 40 TS 7-8]. Note: L’Aurore. Littéraire, artistique, social. (French periodical) [Gribben 32].

January 21 Saturday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam cabled a response to a cable this day from H.H. Rogers. Rogers: “PROFIT $16,000.” Sam: “SPLENDID BIRD, SET HER AGAIN” [MTHHR 386n1 mentions; NB 40 TS 53].

January 22 Saturday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Sam replied to William Dean Howells’ Jan 9.

January 23 Sunday – Sam read a newspaper article in today’s Tagblatt, which inspired him to write the essay, “The New War-Scare.” [Sotheby’s sale catalog, The Maurice F. Neville Collection of Modern Literature, 13 April 2004, Lot NO7980] Note: source reads in part:

January 24 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

January 25 Tuesday – The New York Times, Feb. 5, p. BR94 ran “Vienna Letter,” by Johannes Horowitz, datelined Jan. 25.

January 26 Wednesday – William H. Payne of the Mt. Morris Bank wrote H.H. Rogers accepting $6,612.46 as a “correct and will be satisfactory to us” amount to settle all notes owed [MTHHR 320-1n1].