April 6 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Marchesa Alli Macarani / Lung Arno del Tempio 2 / Spanish Consul / 1s t & 3d Wednesday s. / Princess de Rohan” [NB 47 TS 8].
Edward B. Caulfield wrote “a hurried pencil note” to Sam, that he would be engaged after 12 the following day and could not stop by [MTP].
Harper & Brothers wrote a short note that they were sending six copies of Extracts from Adam’s Diary with their compliments [MTP].
April 7 Thursday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister in Leysin, Switzerland.
April 8 Friday – In the evening at the Sala Filarmonica in Florence, Clara Clemens gave another performance of song. Sam was there and called the concert “a triumph.” Edward Caulfield in the Italian Gazette: “Miss Clemens possesses a very sympathetic contralto voce of considerable extension and of a remarkably sweet and touching quality” [ibid]. Clara would give another performance in the same venue on Apr. 15. Note: in his Apr.
April 9 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “About 10 to night, awful attack—for more than an hour Livy struggled for breath. Clara was in there, Jean & I listened at the door” [NB 47 TS 9]. Note: Hill confuses the “triumph” and midnight conversation Livy had with Clara on Apr. 8 with this 10 p.m. attack on Apr. 9, and suggests a connection between this near-fatal attack and Clara’s public triumph, similar to the time in 1902 when Clara returned to Bar Harbor on the very day of another near fatal attack [82].
December 1 Tuesday – Harper & Brothers wrote to Sam asking where they should send the vouchers due him and Livy [MTHHR 548n3]. At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam cabled to Harper & Brothers: “Make all payments to Rogers / Clemens” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to John Y. MacAlister in London.
December 10 Thursday – James Jourdan, President Brooklyn Union Gas sent Sam notices of stockholders’ meetings. There are two notices, one dated Dec. 14 [MTP].
Harper & Brothers wrote to Sam that “all applicants” must be referred first to them, and that the contracts with him “give them authority over everything you have published, also over everything you may write (for use in print)” [MTP].
Katharine I. Harrison wrote to Sam.
December 11 Friday – In Florence, George Gregory Smith wrote to his mother of this day at his home:
“Friday we had quite a gathering. Mark Twain, Labouchere (Mr & Mrs) Mrs McCalmont & a lot of others.” Smith praised Sam for his lack of pretense and was pleased that Sam had taken “a great liking to us & we see a lot of him.” He confided that Livy was “very very ill,” and that Clara, “who is 19 & very sweet & pretty slight & graceful & dark” [Orth 31].
December 12 Saturday – William Deason for Thomas Cook & Son, Florence wrote to Sam, that they rec’d his letter of Dec. 11 and were “most anxious to recover the amount which is due you” [MTP].
December 14 Monday – James Jourdan for Brooklyn Union Gas Co. sent Sam a form letter announcing a stockholders’ meeting for Dec. 30, at noon in the company office, Brooklyn [MTP].
December 15 Tuesday – Sam wrote a MS of ten pages, “Major General Wood, M.D.,” and a TS of five pages, typed and revised before Dec. 28. Not published until 1992 in Zwick [AMT-1: 707].
December 16 Wednesday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam began a letter to H.H. Rogers that he finished on Dec. 18. Sam enclosed a copy of Susan Crane’s Dec. 3 about John T. Lewis that Jean typed.
December 17 Thursday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to Francis H. Skrine.
It is a charming young lady. She brought the book, & I have dipped into it with satisfaction—here I only dip & sip, for I am at work, these days, on a steady long job. We are beginning to like it here; we are housed, but not quite homed yet. But we are a long journey from town, & I like that. The daughters pay the visits & I stay at home.
Mrs. Clemens is not prospering as we could wish [MTP].
December 18 Friday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam finished his Dec.16 to H.H. Rogers.
December 19 Saturday – Harper’s Weekly, ran an anonymous article, “Mark Twain’s Audiences,” p. 2071. Tenney: “A brief, undocumented anecdote of MT’s reply to a question of what audiences make the most responsive and sympathetic listeners: ‘college men and convicts.’ Also, p. 2030, photograph of MT, without comment, in ‘A Group of Our Harper Authors and Artists’” [38].
Sam’s notebook: “1 p.m. Mrs. Birch. / Villa Negri / Villa Bolognesi” [NB 46 TS 31].
December – Sam’s story, “A Dog’s Tale” first ran in Harper’s Monthly this issue. Budd: “Shortly afterward it was published as a pamphlet…by the National Anti-Vivisection Society in London, dated 1903, although it was apparently not distributed until 1904. The story was published in a separate edition in September 1904 as A Dog’s Tale…and was included in the collection The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories (1906)” [Collected 2: 1008].
December 20 Sunday – William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.
December 21 Monday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto Sam wrote to George Gregory Smith.
Thursday is our day, & I shall be unqualifiedly glad to welcome Mr. Ford, & thereto any other person ennobled by your accolade.
It was almost cruel that Mrs. Clemens should have been denied the sight of you & Mrs. Smith; she is not reconciled yet, altogether. )
December 22 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “ What is so rare as a day in June? That is this day, exactly. Brilliant sun, balmy air, heavy with the odor of roses” [: NB 46 TS 31; Gribben 427 in part]. Note: refers to a line from James Russell Lowell’s “Prelude” to The Vision of Sir Launfal (1861).
Joseph Blouin, builder, billed Sam $306.66 for additional repairs to the Tarrytown house; paid Jan. 15, 1904 [1903 Financials file MTP].
December 23 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook : “a perfect stranger called & I responded, thinking it was another Wade of 25 years ago. Knocked 2 hours out of my day’s work, for I could not resume. This is paying $250 cash for a tiresome stranger’s society. Too high” [NB 46 TS 31].
December 24 Thursday – Mr. & Mrs. George Gregory Smith visited the Clemens family [Orth 31].
December 25 Friday, Christmas – Sam went to the George Gregory Smith’s for a quiet lunch, and stayed most of the afternoon. “He is to meet Dr. Grazzini here” [Orth 31-2; Smith to sister].
Miss U. Fischer wrote from Milan, Italy to Sam. Only the envelope survives [MTP].
Livy gave Sam a copy of Charles Godfrey Leland’s Legends of Florence; Collected from the People and Re-Told by … (Hans Breitmann). Sam inscribed the book:
December 28 Monday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to George B. Harvey.
If Wood is confirmed, this is a pæan of drunken joy; if it’s the other way, it is a wail, a lament; in either case it is a note of contempt for the President & his catamite.
You may find it injudicious to print it. You are on the spot & will know. In case of non-printing, please return it to me, for there might come a time during election-year when the atmosphere might change & in your judgment make it available.
December 3 Thursday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to Eleanor V. Hutton (Mrs. Laurence Hutton). “I thank you ever so much for your congratulations, & for sending me that accurate description of me. Been in bed a week, but am getting around again. With love to you both…” [MTP].
Susan Crane wrote to Sam (here used the forwarded copy for Rogers typed by Jean with a few comments added by Sam):
December 30 Wednesday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka.
Happy New Years to you all—last shout for this year!
Before I forget it. You & the Colonel will naturally be on the lookout for first-class short-story talent— therefore, seek out the man that wrote the police-story (Irish & New York) in the Evening Post of Dec. 14, & secure him. If that story isn’t well told, tell me so & I will take my medicine.
December 31 Thursday – Josephine C. Wheeler (Mrs. Henry M. Wheeler) wrote to Sam, wishing his family a happy New Year, and asking if she might call. She wrote that she knew Mrs. Moffett and Mrs Webster (his sister and niece) of Fredonia, NY [MTP]. Note: Sam instructed on the env. “Please say our day is Thursday.”
C.H. Curtiss & Co., Hardware, Plumbing & Tinning billed Clemens $73.52; paid on Jan. 15, 1904 [1903 Financials file MTP].