Vienna 1897-99 Day By Day

January 26 Thursday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam responded in writing to Mr. C.S. Mason in Toledo, Ohio (Mason’s letter not extant). “Dear Sir— / The Sellers in the book is a fictitious name, necessarily. / Ys Truly / SL Clemens” [MTP].

January 27 Thursday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam replied by postcard to Miss Clara A. Nichols (her query not extant) at the Chelsea Typewriting Office, Chelsea, London on some question with Chatto, likely about typing some future MS for Sam. “Yes, do it. I am sure Messrs. Chatto will consent, with pleasure. / It may be that I shall have some MS ready before the end of Feb” [MTP].

January 29 Saturday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper. Sam posed the question to himself, “The Books Which Have Most Influenced My Life?” and then proceeded to answer it by listing ten of his own works! Then he asked Harper to publish the supposedly “private letter” as “from Mark Twain to a friend”:

January 3 Tuesday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria Sam added a PS to his Dec. 30, 1898 letter to William Dean Howells.

P.S. Jan. 3. I forgot to say, don’t reveal to any one that I have turned the corner & am prospering. It might get into the papers; & if there is one thing that is more fraught with annoyance than the repute of being in financial straits, it is the repute of being the other way.

January 30 Sunday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam’s recent letter to T.H. about Emile Zola (1840-1902) ran in the New York Herald as “Zola and Dreyfus.” Sam had been moved by Zola’s publication this month of J’Accuse to the French newspaper, L’Aurore. Zola cut up the French authorities for framing Captain Alfred Dreyfus:

January 31 Tuesday – Livy also wrote a short letter to Susan L. Crane complaining of “rheumatism or gout in the back,” that nothing seemed to help. She was going to try Sam’s gout remedy [MTP]. She added to the letter on Feb. 1 and Feb. 2.

January, late – Sometime in late January, Sam and Livy wrote to Pamela A. Moffett, who then wrote her son, Samuel Moffett:

January 5 Wednesday – H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam; letter not extant but referred to in Sam’s Jan. 20 reply.

Sam, and perhaps the family as well, saw the premiere of Theodor Herzl’s play Das neue Ghetto (The New Ghetto) at the Carltheater, a mid-nineteenth century theater. Here Sam may have met Sigmund Freud for the first time. Dolmetsch writes:

January 5 Thursday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote or cabled to Andrew Chatto about the adventures of de Rougemont [MTP]. Note: See Sept. 26, 1898 on Louis de Rougemont.

Sam wrote “Diplomatic Pay and Clothes” datelined “Vienna, January 5.”

January 6 Thursday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Austria, Livy wrote for Sam to Frank Marshall White, thanking him for his note which reinforced Sam’s belief that White could not “be guilty of such seeming discourtesy.” Also, Livy passed along Sam’s regrets that the cable from the N.Y. Journal asking for a rundown on “the Reichsrath’s affairs” had come “much too late” [MTP].

January 6 Friday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder, suggesting omitting “Republican” from “Republican Statemanship,” for a new Century Dictionary that Gilder and “other philologists” were “engaged in constructing” [MTP].

January 7 Friday – Katharine I. Harrison wrote to Sam, replying to his Dec. 18 and Dec. 21 letters (neither extant). She sent “the Calcutta letter” to John Brusnahan (foreman at the NY Herald) and would report back what he said.

January 9 Sunday – At the Hotel Metropole in Vienna, Livy wrote for Sam to Walter Bliss, replying to Bliss’ Dec. 24 (not extant). Sam verified a quotation on p.619. Receipt of six books was acknowledged; the Clemenses were “very glad the sale of the book has been satisfactory” [MTP].

William Dean Howells wrote to Sam after receiving one of Sam’s 50 printed “In Memoriam” poems with a large picture of Susy Clemens.

January 9 Monday – At the Hotel Krantz in Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote a short note and a letter to William T. Stead, editor of the Review of Reviews, London:

“The Czar is ready to disarm. I am ready to disarm. Collect the others; it should not be much of a task now” [MTP: Paine’s 1917 Mark Twain’s Letters, p.291; MTB 1072].

July 10 Sunday – In Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

July 15 Friday – Sam’s notebook:

July 15. The Duke de Frias gambled himself deep into debt & had to leave his Embassy & fly to Madrid with his young wife & young child. Count Coudenhove, & Countess Wydenbruck-Esterházy say his estates are exhausted & he is a ruined man. He is hardly 30.

————

Rudolph Lindau spent part of to-day with us—on his way back to his post at Constantinople. Looks as well as ever.

————

July – Noah Brooks’ article, “Early Days of the Overland,” ran in the Overland Monthly p. 3-11. Tenney: “Contains passing reference to MT, pp. 7-9, as one of the contributors to the Overland Monthly” [29]. Note: an excerpt from this article ran in the Apr. 1899 issue of the same publication [30].

July 20 Wednesday – At the Villa Paulhof in Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam wrote to Frank Bliss that it wasn’t possible for him to come over, what with advance rent paid, the “educational arrangements” of his daughters, and all.

July 24 Sunday – Sam’s June 28 letter on Anglo-American unity to Brainard Warner, Jr., United States Consul in Leipzig ran in the N.Y. Times as “Fourth of July in Berlin.”

July 25 Monday – Jean Clemens’ photograph with The “Professor,” her six month old puppy, was taken “the day before I put my hair up” [Harnsberger 229].

July 26 Tuesday – Jean Clemens’ eighteenth birthday.

July 28 Thursday – In Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam wrote a short note to Siegmund Schlesinger, advising that a MS “written in an unfamiliar hand” was “at a heavy disadvantage.” Sam recommended his MS be sent to Miss V. Kendler in Vienna to be typed. Sam offered to pay the cost [MTP]. Note: Sam collaborated on two comedy plays with Schlesinger and this was likely one. Neither play was performed and both are lost.

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.