December 11, 1899 Monday
December 11 Monday – In London, England Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
I didn’t really want to write for the World, but I was loafing for a few days, & they furnished me with a text & asked for only 2,000 words & offered $500, & I thought I might as well put in an afternoon on it.
But in my case if I had sent it to Harpers they wouldn’t have wanted it enough to pay the half of that….
December 12, 1899 Tuesday
December 12 Tuesday – In London Sam inscribed a photograph of himself for Mrs. Hinck: “We all have music & truth in us, but the most of us can’t get it out. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / To Mrs. Hinck, with kindest regards of her friend. / S.L. Clemens / Dec. 12, 1899” [MTP: Joseph M. Maddalena catalogs, No. 12 Item 92].
Sam applied to Henrick Kellgren for a bad case of lumbago, and he claimed a cure with one treatment [Dec. 22 to Crane].
December 16, 1899 Saturday
December 16 Saturday – The Saturday Evening Post anonymously published an article “Mark Twain as a Cub Pilot” [Tenney 29].
Elizabeth Davis Fielder’s article, “Familiar Haunts of Mark Twain,” ran in Harper’s Weekly p. 10-11.
Tenney: “A description of Hannibal, Missiouri, with several photographs, including ‘Laura Hawkins as a girl’ and the ‘Hannibal of Fifty Years Ago.’” [30].
December 18, 1899 Monday
December 18 Monday – Somewhat before this date, Mr. & Mrs. Louis I. Seymour sent a fold-out Seasons Greetings card (with only their signature) picturing Capetown, S. Africa’s harbor [MTP].
December 1899
December – “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg” first ran in Harper’s Monthly. It was collected in The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays (1900), and My Debut as a Literary Person, with Other Essays and Stories (1903) [Budd, Collected 2: 1005].
Mercure de France for December anonymously reviewed Mark Twain’s Collected Works in an article titled, “Lettres Anglaises” [Tenney 29].
December 19, 1899 Tuesday
December 19 Tuesday – In London, England Sam wrote to James M. Tuohy, London correspondent of the N.Y. World.
I forgot. I am barred by the arrangement which I made lately & which I mentioned to you in a note.
However, I should be barred anyway, by my set policy of not appearing with frequency in print.
December 21, 1899 Thursday
December 21 Thursday – In London, England Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper.
I return the list of articles for the 2 vols. You will notice that I have made a couple of small transpositions. The arrangement as it now stands, seems to me to be good.
I think it may be well to advertise the fact that the “Peanut Stand” (with original unaffected and unstudied drawings of great merit) and half of the “Xn Science” paper have not been published before [MTP].
December 22, 1899 Friday
December 22 Friday – In London, England Sam added a second PS to his Dec. 21 letter to Katharine I. Harrison.
I’ve withdrawn the Harper letter, & hereby enclose it to you, as his letter was to you, & as I don’t know what may have been happening in the Harper affairs since Harper wrote his letter (Dec. 4). …
December 26, 1899 Tuesday
December 26 Tuesday – In London, England Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
If you approve, won’t you please send the enclosed to Harry Harper & see what comes of it?
December 30, 1899 Saturday
December 30 Saturday – An anonymous review of IA in Author’s Edition Deluxe ran in Athenaeum (London), p. 897. Tenney:
December 31, 1899 Sunday
December 31 Sunday – Clara and Jean Clemens “danced till 1 o’clock this morning, seeing the Old Year out & the New one in” [Jan. 1 to Hutton].
December 4, 1899 Monday
December 4 Monday – In London, England Sam wrote to Richard R. Bowker.
Indeed I should like to have a proof -slip of that compilation which I could keep—for although it is not likely that at this time I could find time to write an article, I might get the chance in the bye & bye.
The best of the century for you! [MTP].
J. Henry Harper wrote to Rogers, the letter referred to in Sam’s Dec. 22 PS to Harrison. See in MTHHR 421n4.
December 7, 1899 Thursday
December 7 Thursday – In London, England Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers asking to see if Harpers would agree to Sam having rights to cancel the contracts after ten years, the same rights granted to Harpers under the contract. And, since he’d given the new book to Harpers under the assurance of Samuel McClure who was joining forces with Harpers, and now the union was off under a reorganization plan, wasn’t Sam “morally entitled to withdraw the book”?
December 8, 1899 Friday
December 8 Friday – Henry Ferguson replied from Hartford to Sam’s Nov. 20 offer, giving particulars on names he wished edited in his and his brother’s journals, written during the Hornet saga. He was:
England - 1899-1900
On May 10, 1899, Sam wrote in a letter, "We shall reach London May 31, by way of Bremen & the steamer “Lahn” to Southampton.
February 1, 1900 Thursday
February 1 Thursday – Jonas Henrick Kellgren Osteopath, billed £10.10.0 for the last half of January, Feb. 1, 1900 included, for Jean’s treatments [1900 Financial file MTP].
February 12, 1900 Monday
February 12 Monday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam replied to Samuel G. Blythe (incoming letter not extant).
Objections? Indeed no. On the contrary I shall be glad.
February 13, 1900 Tuesday
February 13 Tuesday – Sir Gilbert Parker (1862 -1932) wrote from London to Sam. “We have been so sorry to miss you this afternoon, a regret that owing to our electric bells having gone wrong your ring was evidently not heard.” Parker found Sam’s card after he’d left [MTP].
February 14, 1900 Wednesday
February 14 Wednesday – Henry C. Robinson, longtime friend of the Clemenses, and ex-mayor of Hartford, died at his home at 6 a.m. [Hartford Courant “Death of Mr. Robinson” Feb. 15, 1900 p.9]. Note: See Feb. 16 to Lucius Robinson; Mar. 30 to Whitmore.
Lucius Robinson cabled news of his father’s death. Cable not extant; referred to in Sam’s Feb. 16 reply.
John M. Hay wrote on State Department note paper to Sam.
February 15, 1900 Thursday
February 15 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “In my father’s house are many flats” [NB 43 TS 5].
Jonas Henrick Kellgren Osteopath, billed £21.0.0 for the last half of February, Feb. 15, 1900 included, for Jean’s treatments [1900 Financial file MTP].
Patrascan wrote a long fan letter (in French) from Bacau, Romania to Sam [MTP].
February 16, 1900 Friday
February 16 Friday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to Lucius Robinson.
Your cablegram gave me another stab in the heart—& there have been so many in these four disastrous years! Susy Clemens, Ned Bunce, Libby Hammersley, the Cheney children, others and still others—& now Henry Robinson, friend, wise adviser & beloved comrade from the day we first met till now.
February 17, 1900 Saturday
February 17 Saturday – Sam looked in on Henry M. Stanley, who had been treated by Dr. Henrick Kellgren from Sam’s recommendation. Stanley had improved greatly since his first treatment on Feb. 15; he had bacon and eggs and spoke with Sam for an hour and a half [Feb. 27 to Rogers]. See also Feb. 15 letter from Mrs. Stanley.
February 18, 1900 Sunday
February 18 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “There are no wild animals until man makes them wild” [NB 43 TS 6].
February 1900
February – Sam also wrote an aphorism to Alfred E. Mann. “Never do wrong when people are looking” [MTP].
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