Vol 3 Section 0123

1897                                                                              79

novels which were based on the history of Scotland or his native Galloway. On Aug. 5, 1897 Vanity Fair ran a caricature of Crockett. Sam replied on Sept. 17.

August 24 Tuesday

August 25 Wednesday

August 26 Thursday

August 27 Friday

August 28 SaturdayAn anonymous article, “Mr. Stead on Mark Twain,” ran in the London Academy Fiction Supplement, August 28, p. 58-9. Tenney: “An excerpt from the sketch of MT (here attributed to William T. Stead) in the Review of Reviews” [26].

August 29 Sunday

August 30 Monday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote to the Editors of the Century , enclosing a tribute to his long-time neighbor, the incomparable scholar James Hammond Trumbull, who died on Aug. 5. Richard Watson Gilder, Robert Underwood Johnson, and Clarence C. Buel were running the Century Co. at this time and published Sam’s piece, “James Hammond Trumbull, The Tribute of a Neighbor” in the Nov. 1897 issue (it also ran in the Hartford Courant on Nov. 1, p.3) Sam’s note that accompanied the tribute:

Dear Boys—

You might find place for this—I should say among the small-type correspondence over in the back of the magazine.

But if you are “full up,” as the ‘bus drivers say, please return it to [MTP].

August 31 Tuesday

September – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote to Clara A. Nichols (his NB gives her address as 219 King’s Road Cheasea SW London )with a note to Chatto & Windus . He asked her to “complete the address at the bottom of this page, & mail THE PAGE to Messrs. Chatto & Windus,” adding at the bottom, “— quick”. The note to C&W directed them to put the page on one of the front fly leaves [MTP].

The Chautaquan for September included “Mark Twain’s Place in Literature,” p.61-14. Tenney: “MT has worked to overcome the handicap of his early reputation as a comic writer, and has done significant serious work. ‘While not a master of literary technique,’ he surpasses his contemporaries in the directness, clarity, and vividness of his prose” [27].

September 1 Wednesday

September 2 Thursday

September 3 Friday – In Weggis Sam replied to Chatto & Windus’ letter (letter not extant).

Your letter caught me in bed this morning, & that is the best place for digging maxims. Put Nos. 1 & 2 or 1 & 3 together over one chapter, but don’t use all three. The Archbishop of Canterbury’s uncle is here, & he thinks we should not use No. 3 at all. He says it has a subtle & indefinable odor of irreverence about it. I do not see what gives him that idea, still I do not insist; I leave the matter in your hands…[MTP]. Note: Sam enclosed “the required maxims,” including No. 3: “The Bible of one eon is the toilet-paper of the next.”

Sam also wrote to Robert Farquharson Sharp (1864 -1945), who was compiling A dictionary of English authors: biographical and bibliographical (1897) and included Mark Twain on p. 286. Sharp was sort of an

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