October 21 Saturday – A New York Times article datelined London, Oct. 21, which ran Oct. 22, p.7, “Gen. Harrison in London,” cites Mark Twain was among the invitees to a banquet on Oct. 25. Sam did not go, as he was declining all public appearances for the present. See Oct. 26 to Whitmore.
Academy (London), p.445 ran a brief quotation from Mark Twain on his Christian Science article in Cosmopolitan [Tenney 30].
October 25 Wednesday – At 30 Wellington Court (Albert Gate) in London, Sam wrote to H. Walter Barnett, photographer, complimenting him on recent pictures taken, writing that they “have the distinctions of their predecessors,” and that Barnett didn’t seem to know how to make a bad one [MTPO].
October 26 Thursday – In London, England, Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore, who evidently had requested more money for taxes and other expenses.
Such money as is in Mr. Rogers’s hands draws interest & we don’t want to disturb it; so I am enclosing a request that Bliss let you have it. I do it without blushing, for I have been spending a hundred dollars’ worth of time to beguile the Harpers to make a concession or two in Bliss’s favor & by this morning’s mail they have done it & will so inform Mr. Rogers…
October 27 Friday – Samuel S. McClure wrote from N.Y. to Sam that he’d cabled his brother in London to see if they couldn’t get some articles and stories from Mark Twain for their magazine—“That seems to be the only important magazine that does not get struck by your lightning; you are in Harper’s and the Century, and even in the Cosmopolitan, but you are not with us” [MTP]. Note: every significant editor seemed to notice the unauthorized piece that Bliss had given Cosmopolitan.
October 28 Saturday – Sam drafted “My First Lie and How I Got Out of It,” which would run in the Sunday supplement of the N.Y. World of Dec. 10, 1899 [Oct. 30 to Alden; Budd, Collected 2: 1005]. Note: On Dec. 20, 1901 Frederick A. Duneka of the World wrote to Sam and mentioned that the subject for this “First Lie” piece “having been suggested by myself through Mr Tuohy in London in ’99.”
October 3 Tuesday – In New York, Katharine I. Harrison wrote a short note to Sam, enclosing James Henry Wiggin’s letter (see Sept. 30) [MTHHR 411].
October 30 Monday – In London, England, Sam replied to Henry M. Alden, whose incoming letter is possibly that of Oct. 12. Alden had enclosed letters showing good relations between Harpers and Frank Bliss, which gratified Sam. Alden evidently asked for any unpublished work Sam still had; Sam replied that only two short unpublished pieces remained—“Great Republic’s Peanut Stand,” which Alden already had, and two short chapters in Sam’s planned book on Christian Science. Also, The N.Y.
October 31 Tuesday – In London, England Sam replied to James B. Pond (incoming not extant):
No, no, write the book yourself—don’t pad it up with made-to-order puffs furnished by other people. No Pears’ soap business. If you are going to enter our profession you must keep up its dignity. Then I’ll wish you great & rich success! [MTP]. Note: Pond’s book, Eccentricities of Genius would be published by G.W. Dillingham Company, N.Y. in 1900.
October 4 Wednesday – In the a.m. in London, England, the Clemens family inspected various housing possibilities, and found one they liked that would be available in about ten days. Evidently they didn’t find the accommodations at Queen Anne Residential Mansions & hotel suitable; [Oct. 4 to MacAlister]. Note: The family needed to be close to Henrick Kellgren’s facility, since Jean needed daily sessions there. They settled on 30 Wellington Court, Albert Gate.
October 4 Thursday – At Brown’s Hotel in London, England Sam wrote to James B. Pond about Samuel Moffett’s editing of Pond’s proposed book:
“I don’t doubt that between you & Sam Moffett you will get the matter arranged all right & satisfactorily.
You always mean right, you old criminal. I am bound to concede that, anyway” [MTP].
October 5 Thursday – At the Queen Anne Residential Mansions & hotel London, Sam finished his Oct. 4 letter to H.H. Rogers.
P.S. Oct 4. ’99 [Sam misdated here]. As I said yesterday (and also in my letter to Harper) I don’t want Harper to hamper Bliss in adding the new short-story book to the Uniform. I think, also, that Harper should have no ownership in the plates made for the new book for the Uniform, and receive no royalty from Bliss on the book….Ain’t that your judgment?
October 5 Friday – At Brown’s Hotel in London, England Sam inscribed a copy of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Sketches to Archibald Clarke: “To / Mr. Archibald Clarke / with compliments of / Mark Twain / Oct. 5/00” [MTP]. Note: Clarke was a contributor to John Y. MacAlister’s quarterly journal, The Library and so this connection may explains his contact with Sam. To wit: 1900 Vol. I p.
October 6 Friday – A bill was given to Sam from Queen Anne Residential Mansions & hotel for this date in the amount of £25.11.8 for the period Sept. 30 to Oct. 6; it was paid on Oct. 12 [1899 Financial file MTP]. Note: there is no other bill in the files for the Queen Anne; it is assumed they moved after this day to 30 Wellington Court (Albert Gate).
October 6 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Lady Trevelyan 19 Easton Place, SW. / Mrs. Halsey 18 Stanhope Gdns / Lady Stanley (inquire) / Mrs. Sumner, 20 Hans Mansions / Sir Wm Des Voeux / Sailed from Tilbury 3 pm in the Minehaha [sic], 14,000 tons” [NB 43 TS 26].
October 9 Monday – In New York, William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.
September 1 Friday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow.
We are progressing handsomely, and are greatly obliged to you for putting us on the track. I suppose you will be returning to London soon. We shall reach there the last day of this month and may remain till mid-winter or longer. Then I will powerfully discourage the weekly newspaper project unless you can prove that the wear and tear of it will not destroy your health [MTP].
September 1 Saturday – At Dollis Hill House in London, England Sam wrote to Colonel Green (not further identified).
September 12 Tuesday – Laurence Hutton wrote from Princeton, NJ to Sam.
Dear Marcus / Here we are again. This is what the Sun says about us. If you don’t mind it, I don’t. But, I wouldn’t accept your death, Mark, as a gift.
I hope your part of the statement is true. Tell us.
I wrote you a few days ago from Paris. We expect to be settled here—at the Inn—in a couple of weeks.
And to be “At Home” in the New House by Thanksgiving time. Come. / Love …. [MTP].
September 12 Wednesday – At Dollis Hill House in London, England Sam replied to J.L. Bishop, whose incoming letter is not extant. Sam listed “The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg,” and “The book to be published 100 years hence” and said “No” to each of them; “3. Another? Yes.
And it promises to reach a finish by and by; though not very soon, I hope, since the fun is not in publishing a book, but only in writing it” [MTP]. Note: Bishop is not identified.
September 13 Thursday – Chatto & Windus published 2,000 additional copies of the 6s.0d. English edition of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, for a total of 8,000 [Welland 238].
September 14 Thursday – Henry M. Alden for Harper & Brothers wrote to Sam to suggest they would publish two additional volumes: a book of stories, with “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg” as its “splendid pièce de résistance,” and a book of articles [MTHHR 414n3].
September 14 Friday – At Dollis Hill House in London, England Sam wrote to James B. Pond.
September 15 Friday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam began a letter to Major H.F. Gordon Forbes, author, living at this time in Boulogne. (Sam added a PS on Sept. 23.) Forbes’ letter had taken over three months to reach Sam, but from postmarks where the delay was Sam could not tell. He informed Forbes he would be in Sanna until Sept. 27 and at the Queen Anne Mansions for the winter starting Sept. 30.
September 15 Saturday – The Clemens family was on a weekend jaunt to visit “some English friends” in Cromer, Norfolk, on the coast [Sept. 14 to Pond; Sept. 25 to Fiske].
September 16 Saturday – Sam inscribed a card later sold in a copy of HF to an unidentified person:
“Truly Yours, Mark Twain, Sanna, Sweden, Sept. 16, 99” [MTP: Swann Galleries catalogs, 30 Sept. 1948, Item 313].