Vol 3 Section 0075

up his hands and in a few moments was dead. It was heart disease. It seems that he had had more or less trouble from this source for a considerable time.

George had waited on me at the Union League Club, where I live, for about four years. He never lost an opportunity to praise you and your family. His loyalty to you was unbounded…He leaves a wife and one child, a boy about two months old. He was, I think, about forty seven [MTP].

May 18 Tuesday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, “unspeakably glad” to report that “just this minute” he had “finished this book again” (FE). He’d been able to add 30,000 words by “making fun” of the Jameson raid, an account he’d feared would be boring and uninteresting. Evidently Bliss had paid the required $10,000, so Sam thought he would send the MS directly to Bliss.

I was offered 20% royalty here by one good house & 25 by another; but as Chatto is anxious to pay the latter rate I think I shall end by staying with him. …

It has taken me 7 months to write this book—& all of a sudden I feel tired. Love to you all [MTHHR 276-7].

Sam also wrote a note on a calling card to Livy: “May 18 / Livy dear, the book is finished. / SLC” [MTP].

Sam’s notebook: “Finished the book again. Addition of 30,000 words” [NB 41 TS 24].

May 19 Wednesday – The date placed on the typed form for renewal of copyright for IA sent by The American Publishing Co. and signed by Sam on May 31 in London [MTP].

May 20 Thursday – Independent included an anonymous review of American Claimant and Other Stories and Sketches, (volume 21 of the Uniform Edition) p.650. In full:

“Mark Twain is always amusing, but he is often-times more; he can be very entertaining in a serious way. Some of these stories are strikingly good. The ‘£1,000,000 Bank Note’ is capital, not making a pun, and he is a stupid reader who does not follow it breathlessly. ‘A Curious Experience,’ which we enjoyed some years ago in a magazine, is a captivating piece of work. The initial story, ‘The American Claimant,’ is more in Mark Twain’s earlier vein. We like it in spots, but it is unequal. Colonel Sellers appears here somewhat fallen away from what he was in the ‘Gilded Age’” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Sixth Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Spring 1982 p. 8].

Before May 21 Friday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam wrote asking Andrew Chatto if the house lease expired on July 3 or July 1 [MTP]. Note: a June 29 note to Douglas Garth with check for an extra week, would answer for July 1 expiration date. Also, Sam noted on July 8 that the family took rooms at the Hans Crescent Hotel.

May 21 Friday

May 22 Saturday – At 23 Tedworth Square in London, Sam replied to H.S.W. Edwardes (whose request is not extant). Sam was a hermit and did not go out, but thanked Edwardes “all the same” [MTP].

Note: Sam did go out, but chose his times, places, and persons selectively.

Sam also wrote to Elliott & Fry, a Victorian photography studio founded in 1863 by Joseph J. Elliott (1835 -1903) and Clarence Fry (1840-1897) Their main business was photography of well known figures from all walks of life, including Darwin, Tennyson, Gladstone, and others. Sam chose No. 1 of three proofs he had taken there, date unknown. The firm survives today [MTP].

The Hartford Courant reported on p.3 “Manuscript of Mark Twain’s New Book”:

SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.