Vol 3 Section 0308
“We arrived last night after a journey of several days. Livy concluded she wouldn’t split the last stage in two, but make a single bite of it—& a bite it was! All the way from Cologne to London—from 6 a.m. till 7.30 p.m., & 4 customhouses to dig through. She is well fagged out. So am I.”
Sam was too tired to write more but enclosed a “very nice letter” from Professor Peirce of Harvard
[MTP]. Note: this may have been Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), philosopher, mathemetician and scientist, who did not teach at Harvard but who lectured at or near there. He is best known as the founder of pragmatism, and for contributions to logic, mathematics, philosophy, and semiotics. He was called “the most original and versatile of American philosophers and America’s greatest logician.” Charles William Eliot, Harvard President from 1869-1909, repeatedly blocked Peirce efforts to join the faculty.
Livy wrote to Percy Spalding, thanking him and his wife for a package of books sent and the flowers.
She also thanked them for “making our arrival so pleasant last evening” [MTP].
Livy also wrote a similar letter to Andrew Chatto, thanking “for the exquisite basket of roses & orchids which I found awaiting our arrival last evening” [MTP].
Sam also inscribed an aphorism in a copy of CY to an unidentified person: “If we try, it is easy to endure
adversity. Another man’s, I mean. / Truly yours, / Mark Twain / June 1st, ‘99” [MTP].
June 1-3 Saturday – Sam left a calling card for R.H. Russell, confirming Wednesday, June 12 at 1 p.m. at the National Club [MTP]. Note: his notebook shows an appointment at the Authors’ Club before noon on June 12 for a photographer [NB 40 TS 56].
June 2 Friday – At the Prince of Wales Hotel in London, England Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister.
Yes, I’m for the Savage supper. Let us make it Friday the 9th.
Can Chatto and Spalding come—or is that inadmissible? Let me know.
Mrs. Clemens & our obstructions will be glad to see you & your wife any time you will come [MTP].
Sam also replied to Richard Watson Gilder’s (not extant) letter.
It was not the Shipwreck of the Hornet (from my abandoned Autobiography) that I sent to Walker. It must be in Mr. Rogers’ hands—if not, then I don’t know what I did with it. Send down & ask, if you would like to look at it. If you find it and use it, decide its value yourself & send the check to Franklin G. Whitmore, Hartford, Conn. I don’t need money here, England is such a rich country [MTP: Am. Art Assoc catalogs Mar. 4, 1921, Item 144].
Livy began a letter to Susan L. Crane that she finished on June 4.
“Here we are at last, Sue darling, having reached here night before last. We are rather in despair because our trunks have not yet come.
We are very pleasantly situated…but in spite of that we are obliged to go down to the sea for a week. We leave tomorrow. I took Clara this morning to a doctor & he said she had a good deal of catarrh & must get out of London at once” [MTP]. See June 4. for her added line.
Sam also inscribed an aphorism in a copy of More Tramps Abroad, (FE) to Charles C. Auchincloss: “If we try, we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man’s, I mean. / Truly yours, / Mark Twain / London /.June 2, 1899” [MTP]. Note: Compare the wording variation with the aphorism given the day before.
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.