Vol 3 Section 0172

¹²⁸                                                                        1898

January 23 Sunday – Sam read a newspaper article in today’s Tagblatt, which inspired him to write the essay, “The New War-Scare.” [Sotheby’s sale catalog, The Maurice F. Neville Collection of Modern Literature, 13 April 2004, Lot NO7980] Note: source reads in part:

“James Pepper explains the genesis of the story [‘The New War- Scare’] in his preface to the 1981 Neville edition. “The New War-Scare was written in 1898 during Mark Twain’s sojourn in Vienna. The author found inspiration by reading a Viennese newspaper article in the Tagblatt of January 23, 1898, which contained a detailed listing of Monaco’s government expenses. Twain’s comic incorporation of this list provides the center around which the story is built.”

January 24 Monday

January 25 Tuesday – The New York Times, Feb. 5, p. BR94 ran “Vienna Letter,” by Johannes Horowitz, datelined Jan. 25.

Recently the Vienna sculptor Ernest [Ernst] Hegenbarth completed a life-sized bust of Mark Twain. The celebrated American humorist, who so soon became popular in Vienna, who otherwise dislikes such things, despite his gouty pains, for a whole fortnight daily went all the way to the artist’s studio, which is in the Prater, in order to sit to him for from two to three hours. The bust is a wonderful success, astonishingly true to nature, and most expressive. Hegenbarth has presented the original to the sitter himself. JOHANNES HOROWITZ.

[Note: Ernst Hegenbarth (1867-1944) was a noted Austrian sculptor, later President of the Künstlerhaus, the Metropolitan Museum of Vienna. This account suggests Sam made daily trips to his workshop in the first part of January, which may be correct; in his notebook on Nov. 6, 1897, however, Sam wrote he was then “sitting to Hegenbarth” [NB 42 TS 47]. Horowitz was the NY Times correspondent in Vienna.]

January 26 Wednesday – William H. Payne of the Mt. Morris Bank wrote H.H. Rogers accepting $6,612.46 as a “correct and will be satisfactory to us” amount to settle all notes owed [MTHHR 320-1n1].

January 27 Thursday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam replied by postcard to Miss Clara A. Nichols (her query not extant) at the Chelsea Typewriting Office, Chelsea, London on some question with Chatto, likely about typing some future MS for Sam. “Yes, do it. I am sure Messrs. Chatto will consent, with pleasure. / It may be that I shall have some MS ready before the end of Feb” [MTP].

January 28 Friday

January 29 Saturday – In Vienna, Austria, Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper. Sam posed the question to himself, “The Books Which Have Most Influenced My Life?” and then proceeded to answer it by listing ten of his own works! Then he asked Harper to publish the supposedly “private letter” as “from Mark Twain to a friend”:

“Things which can be an intrusion when uttered in a public way often lose the stink of impertinence when exuded from a private letter, & may then be diffused through the parlor without conveying noticeable offense to any” [MTP: Paraphrase: Estates of Mind catalogs, No.6, Item 91].

Saturday Review (London) reviewed More Tramps Abroad, (FE). Tenney: “At his best, MT is ‘the Greatest American Spirit, tongue in cheek, strolling irresponsibly around the universe. And, between its wads of padding, ‘More Tramps Abroad,’ does afford us this spectacle,’ but often it is merely labored and contrived’” [28].

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