Vol 3 Section 0160

¹¹⁶                                                                        1897

was Nov. 25 [Welland 238]. See Aug. 12, Nov. 10, Nov. 25, Mar. 8, 1898, Oct. 11, 1900, and Aug. 7, 1907 for other print run amounts, totaling 30,000.

December 23 Thursday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, clarifying that the book should be made out in Livy’s name, as with the other books

for FE to be sent to Frau von Versen.

December 24 Friday – Walter Bliss of American Publishing Co. wrote to Sam, the letter not extant but mentioned in Livy’s Jan. 9 to Bliss [MTP].

December 25 Saturday – Christmas – In Vienna, Austria Sam inscribed (probably a copy of FE) to Katie: “ To our seventeen- year-old Katie with the affection of the Author. Vienna, Dec. 25. 1897” [MTP]. Note: This may have been a servant girl; not Katy Leary, unless Sam was teasing Leary about her age; she was seventeen when she came to work for the Clemens family.

Sam telegraphed the N.Y. World a summary of news for the week [Dec. 26 to White].

The Athenaeum, No. 3661 p.883-4 anonymously reviewed FE. Tenney: “It is too long, and there are passages in it that are too diffuse; but none of his works would stand better for a sample of all his wares—humour, good sense, good nature, genuine good fun, shrewd observation, and bits of description which would be hard to equal in the writings of the most serious travelers” [26].

The Academy (London) summarized reviews of More Tramps Abroad, (FE), p. 580 [Tenney 26].

December 26 Sunday – In Vienna, Austria Sam wrote to Frank Marshall White, gently chiding him for not showing “grace” to his letter, and saying there was nothing to telegraph to-night and nothing new this day except the resignation of Count Kasimir Felix Badeni, which was “an ordinary & foregone event” not worth telegraphing. What he had he’d sent to the N.Y. World the night before, which request had beaten White’s by 17 hours [MTP].

December 27 Monday – Sam’s notebook:

At Fraulein Ries’s Monday. Second sitting for bust. Her bust of Baron von Berger is perfect. The “Lucifer” is fine & strong & impressive—majestically so, I think. Ries is a quaint & naïve, & interesting young creature— Russian. She dropped the fact incidentally, that her grand hellion there in the corner (Lucifer) was begun as the Virgin, but looked too masculine for the part, so she turned the Mamma of God into Satan!

A good change. The Mother & Son have been a little over-worked. Jesus died to save men—a small thing for one immortal to do, & didn’t save many, anyway; but if he had been damned for the race that would have been an act of a size proper to a god, & would have saved the whole race. However, why should anybody want to save the human race, or damn it, either? Does God want its society? Does Satan? [NB 42 TS 51].

Joe Twichell replied to Sam’s Dec. 10. He related running into Isa (not further identified) at the Warner’s, she being embarrassed by the meeting since she’d been a “royal old drunk” at his classmate’s place in Richmond some time before. He also had to suffer through a service with the wayward young man he’d written of before sitting with his parents and his new bride, but the man had the “grace” enough not to make eye contact. The man had gotten another woman pregnant, deserted her, then became engaged with another woman; Joe had written about it in an earlier letter. He added:

Your letters are hugely interesting, every one of them. Many a time I have wished to goodness I could give passages out of them to the press. But I haven’t and I won’t—unless you give me leave….Your correction of

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