Vol 3 Section 0231

learn—partly from the papers but mainly from talk—he was kept in a cell 48 hours & then heavily fined [NB 40 TS 32]. Note: Martinus Sieveking; see Aug. 22 entry for this “adventure.”

August 30 Tuesday – In Kaltenleutgeben, Austria Sam wrote to William Dean Howells.

“This morning I read to Mrs. Clemens your visit to the Spanish prisoners, & have just finished reading it to her again—& lord, how find it is & beautiful, & how gracious & moving. You have the gifts—of mind & heart” [MTHL 2: 679]. Note: Harper’s Weekly of Aug. 20 had published Howells’ “Our Spanish Prisoners at Portsmouth.”

Sam also wrote to J. Henry Harper about the new arrangement (Supplement) that their attorney, George Lockhart Rives, was working on; he had hoped that Harpers would handle all his books in the trade while Frank Bliss would deal only in Uniform Edition sets. If it wasn’t too late, could a date be set for release of the Uniform Edition? Sam then suggested an article “of a reminiscent sort.”

The first magazine article I ever published appeared in Harper’s Monthly 31 years ago under the name of (by typographical error) MacSwain. Can you send it to me? I think it appeared in the first half of 1867. It is the diary of a passenger who was shipwrecked in the “Hornet,” a clipper ship which was burned on the Line, & the survivors made their way (4,000 miles) to Honolulu, & were 43 days in an open boat [MTP].

Note: the article appeared to be unsigned; the table of contents for vol. 34 of Harper’s Monthly, (the Dec. 1866 issue) did not come out until May, 1867, and attributed writer as “Mark Swain.” Harper evidently sent Sam tear sheets to his story in the Dec. 1866 issue of Harper’s Monthly.His typist, Marion von Kendler , made a typescript of it (not extant) which Sam revised. It was published in the Nov. 1899 issue of the Century Magazine [AMT 1: 127]. Sam’s rework and narrative about the the essay, “My Debut as a Literary Person,” was used as the title piece in the 1903 My Debut as a Literary Person and Essays and Other Stories.

August 31 Wednesday

September – Pall Mall Magazine issue for Sept. ran “The Real Mark Twain,” p. 28-36 by Carlyle G. Smythe, Sam’s “down under” tour manager and companion in London prior to Susy’s death [Gribben 464]. Review of Reviews (London) for this month summarized Smythe’s article and quotes passages on “His Literary Tastes” [Tenney 27].

September 1 Thursday

September 2 Friday – In Kaltenleutgeben, Austria, Sam wrote to Edward Bok, editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal, suggesting “My Platonic Sweetheart” as suitable “for a periodical whose specialty is the fireside, the home.” It was longer than Bok had wanted and Sam’s price was $1,000, but Sam was mailing it that day—if Bok didn’t want it would he please mail it to H.H. Rogers. Sam had found a long letter he’d written Bok “3 or 4 months ago” among his papers, in which he “explained how I must have managed to give Mrs. Selfridge a wrong idea of what I was meaning to say” [MTP]. Note: Bok did not want the story; it was published by Harpers, Dec. 1912. Susan Kearny Selfridge, daughter of General Philip Kearny. Sam’s notebook in early 1897 lists: “Permanent address: / Mrs. Susan Selfridge (for Bok’s Home Journal) / c/o B.F. Stevens / 4 Trafalgar Square” [NB 41 TS 2].

Sam’s notebook: “Wrote Mr. Speiser we have concluded to live at the Krantz” [NB 40 TS 32]. Note: Speiser may have been connected with either the Krantz or the Metropole Hotel, as a bidding contest had ensued.

September 3 Saturday

September 4 Sunday

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