Vol 3 Section 0040 – Mark Twain Day By Day

Mark Twain Day By Day – Volume III

The Human is a Fool, Hypocrite & Humbug – Contract at Last

London: “Chartless, Adrift Derelicts”– Victoria’s Jubilee – Orion Dies

N.Y. Herald Fund – Twain’s Death an Exaggeration – Peaceful Weggis & Writing Vienna & “Leschy” for Clara – Stirring Times in Austria – FE Published

1897 – Sam recorded he was paid $11,398.65 this year by the American Publishing Co and noted “Equator” by the entry. He estimated the Co. “cleared say $3,000” [NB 46 TS 17].

Sam inserted a note inside a copy of FE, probably to his publishers: “Please make a map & mark on it the courses steered during the 4,000 miles. SLC” [MTP: Sotheby’s catalogs, Apr. 30, 1975, No. 3478, Item 292]. Note: place unknown, but FE published in Nov. 1897.

Sometime from Sept. 27 to Dec. 31 Sam inscribed a copy of FE to Daniel Carter Beard: “Truly Yours, Mark Twain. Vienna, 1897” [MTP: Swann Galleries Inc. catalogs, Apr. 6, 1950, No. 258, Item 296]. Note: The Clemenses arrived in Vienna on Sept. 27 [Sept. 29 to Barr].

Sam also inscribed FE to an unidentified person: “Truly Yours / Mark Twain / Vienna, 1897” [MTP].

Sam also inscribed his photograph with an aphorism to Friedrich Eckstein (1861-1939):

“It is one’s human environment that makes climate. / Truly Yours Mark Twain” [Dolmetsch 271].

Note: Dolmetsch calls Eckstein “a charming, affable dilettante who visited Mark Twain in Hartford in the early 1880s” and had “fascination with Eastern cultures by traveling widely in the Middle East and India” [272]. No record of the Hartford visit has yet been found.

Sometime in 1897 in Vienna Sam signed a silk fan of a countess. The fan included other luminaries’ signatures, such as Sarah Bernhardt in 1893; Felix Dahn (1834-1912, German historian & novelist); Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945, Italian composer; Bronislaw Huberman (1882-1947 Polish violinist); Ruggerio Leoncallavo (1858-1919, Italian composer); and Queen Mary in Salzburg 1901 [ABE books, Sophie Dupre

Bookseller Apr. 18, 2009].

Sometime in 1897 in Vienna, Sam used “Vienna Albumen” as it was then called (later “Plasmon”) to cure a “fiendish dyspepsia of 8 years standing.” He would unsuccessfully try to invest in Plasmon in 1898, and finally did so in early Mar. 1900 [Apr. 8-9, 1900 to Rogers]. Note: dyspepsia is indigestion.

Sam also wrote to Robert Barr (Luke Sharp)

Let’s leave it where it is, Robert. You know there are some offences that exceed the reach of compromise. And certainly, trial on a grave charge, verdict rendered on the testimony of a single witness, & followed by the disgrace of a public posting is one of these. / Yours, Yesterday, to-day & always / Mark [MTP]. Note: this letter was published in facsimile in the Sept. 1903 issue of The Pilgrim.

Library of the World’s Best Literature, Charles Dudley Warner, ed., contained a section titled, “Mark Twain” (p.3787-89). Tenney: “An introduction to excerpts from LOM, CY, and P&P, emphasizing MT as an important writer as well as ‘the first of living humorists.’ The passages are selected to support the claim for his place as a writer who, ‘if the fashion of humor changes…will remain for other qualities—certain primordial qualities such as are exhibited in his work on the Mississippi—a force to be reckoned with in the literature of this century ’” [25].