England 1899-1900 DBD

May 25 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Henry Yates Thompson dinner—8. 19 Portman Square” [NB 43 TS 12].

May 26 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Col. Church 216 Crowell Rd, S.W. Ranelagh Club—dinner—morning dress. / Barns Elms—over Hamersmith bridge.”

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In reply to Howard Taylor’s request, wrote him he could let the Yankee be played once or twice for the Technological Institute for 40 per cent of the gross [NB 43 TS 12]. Note: Taylor not further identified.

May 27 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Go up the Thames? MS of ‘The Death-Wafer[’] to Mr. Denny, (W.H.) Laira, Sheen Park, Richmond, Surrey. Telephone 2927 Gerrard. To be returned to me after next Friday” [NB 43 TS 12].

May 28 Monday – In London, England Sam wrote to three- year-old Miss Margaret Carnegie (1897-1990), daughter of Andrew Carnegie, in a unique approach to get her father to buy stock in the Plasmon Syndicate of London, of which Sam was a director.

You are so little that you probably can’t remember so large a bulk as I am, but that is no matter, I remember you very well, & this is only a business letter, anyway.

May 29 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Countess Hoyos? / (Dr. Hillyer [sic], open—30 Wimpole st W.[ )] / Andrew Carnegie Skibo Castle Sutherlandshire N.B.” [NB 43 TS 13]. Note: Dr. Alfred Peter Hilliard.

Rogers wrote to Sam. Only the envelope survives, upon which Sam wrote “Contract for Tom Sawyer” [MTP]. Note: TS the play. See Mar.25 to Rogers; also May 28.

May 3 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “11 p.m. ball in honor of the King of Sweden & Norway” [NB 43 TS 9].

May 30 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Goerz ? YES 7.30 / Never tell a lie, even when it is the truth / He died in 1847—I was at the funeral. / Never tell a lie, even when it is the truth” [NB 43 TS 13]. Note: Sam inserted later in ink after Goerz: “Died. July 28, 1900”.

Chatto & Windus published 6,000 copies of the 6s.0d. English edition of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg [Welland 238].

Fatout lists a JA reading for Mark Twain for Canon Wilberforce

May 31 Wednesday – The Clemens family left Cologne, Germany at 6 a.m. on their way to England. Livy didn’t want to split the last stage in two, so they made a single trip of it, from 6 a.m. to 7:30 p.m

[June 1 to Twichell].

In Calais, France Sam cabled Chatto & Windus: “SHALL ARRIVE BY CALAIS DOVER TODAY SEVEN THIRTY = CLEMENS” [MTP].

May 31 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Gilders here—dinner” [NB 43 TS 13]. Note: the NB also lists “P. of Wales Cromwell play” and the play Rip Van Winkle by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1853-1917) on this the opening day for the performance. Gribben speculates Sam possibly saw the play this day [711]. Note: see July 1, 1897 entry for bio info. on Tree.

May 4 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Director Kellgren discovered that Jean has turned the corner & will get well / Dinner—8(?) Moberly Bell, 98 Portland Place” [NB 43 TS 9]. See May 17 to Moffett. MTHHR 445n1

May 5 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Mr. Hapgood” [NB 43 TS 9].

May 6 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Lord Russell 2 Cromwell Houses—2 o’clock” [NB 43 TS 9].

May 7 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Jim Clemens—dinner / Royal Academy / Mr. Roche—6 to 7—here / Bergheim has returned from Paris. Rothschild takes 6 months’ option on French plasmon patent—can then make it final or withdraw” [NB 43 TS 9-10].

At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to Bertha von Suttner in Vienna. The following is headed “Copy” and “(Rough draft)”:

May 8 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Mrs. Low—dinner—7.45. 2 Durham Place, Chelsea, S.W.” [NB 43 TS 10]. Note:

Sir Sidney James Low (1857-1932) lived at this address, and editor of the St. James Gazette (1888-1897).

May 9 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Dinner, St. Bartholomew’s Hospital. Trevor Laurence [sic], Treasurer. 6.45” [NB 43 TS 10]. Note: Fatout lists a speech or story for Twain at this event [MT Speaking 666]. Sir James John Trevor Lawrence (1831-1913) English horticulturist and politician, was treasurer for St. Bartholomews from 1892 to 1904.

November 1 Wednesday – In London, England Sam replied to Edward Everett Hale’s note of Oct. 11. Hale (1822-1909) was an American author and Unitarian minister; Nathan Hale, Revolutionary hero executed by the British was his great uncle. Edward had written Sam about his article on Christian Science.

I thank you ever so much for your note.

Before November 10 Friday – In London, England Sam wrote two notes to Poultney Bigelow. The first agreeing to walk at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 10. The second a P.S. “Too bad! Clara is to perform with [Blanche] Marchesi  Friday eve the 10th. I had forgotten it. I’ve got to be there” [MTP].

November 10 Friday – In London, England Sam replied to H.F. Gordon Forbes, whose incoming letter is not extant, but the subject was politics and the Boer War:

November 11 Saturday – In London, England Sam replied to E. Duncan Lucas that he’d forgotten “what the project was,” but if Lucas would call between 4 and 4:30 nearly any day he would see. Sam provided Chatto’s address and warned: “Show this card, or Chatto will tell you I have gone to the continent—& it will not be true” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to an unidentified man and used his Wellington Court address.

November 12 Sunday – In London, England Sam wrote to Miss Eva L. Farrell, niece of Robert G. Ingersoll, who died July 21 of congestive heart failure.

“Except for my daughter’s, I have not grieved for any death as I have grieved for his. His was a great & beautiful spirit, he was a man—all man, from his crown to his foot-soles. My reverence for him was deep & genuine; I prized his affection for me, & returned it with usury” [MTP].

November 13 Monday – Sam wrote an aphorism on a card that was later pasted on the flyleaf of RI: “Let us save the to-morrows for work. Truly Yours, Mark Twain, London, Nov. 13/99” [MTP: City Auction catalogs, Feb. 28, 1942, Item 56].

November 16 Thursday – Eva A. Spiridon (Mrs. Ignace Spiridon) wrote from Monte Carlo to reply to Livy’s questions about the portraits they did of the Clemens girls, which the Spiridon’s had already sent to Paris Exposition. “After the Exposition they will be sent to America and I shall write you before we send them in time so you can give your orders” [MTP].

November 17 Friday – In London, England Sam replied to H.H. Rogers (incoming not extant but before his mother’s death on Nov. 9), asking that their money be put “into a safe thing which stands to rise in value.” Sam agreed with a suggestion (not specified) by Rogers about the Mt. Morris Bank. Unaware she had passed away on Nov. 9, Sam wrote he was glad Rogers’ mother was “up & about again.” He took another jab at Clarence C. Rice:

Before November 18 – Sam wrote to his sister Pamela A. Moffett, who then conveyed his news to her son, Sam’s nephew, Samuel E. Moffett on Nov. 18. Sam thought that osteopathy in America was a theft—it had been invented in Europe nearly 40 years before, but he was glad they had the science now for they would spread it around, while in conservative England an osteopath was seen as a quack.

November – Sam’s article about the Hornet wreck, “My Debut as a Literary Person,” ran in the Nov. issue of Century Magazine. It was collected in My Debut as a Literary Person, with Other Essays and Stories (1903) [Budd Collected 2: 1004]. Note: See Feb. 25 entry. See also AMT 1: 127-44 and 501-6.

November 2 Thursday – In London, England Sam wrote an aphorism to an unidentified person: “It is not best that we use our morals weekdays, it gets them out of repair for Sundays. / Truly Yours/ Mark Twain. Nov. 2/99” [MTP].