Vol 3 Section 0321

Sam’s notebook: “Sat July 1—Saturday Ye Sette of Odd Volumes / Limmer’s Hotel Conduit st—dinner” [NB 40 TS 57]. See below.

Note: “Clemens attended one of the regular dinner meetings held by the Sette of Odd Volumes at Limmer’s Hotel in London. The gift volume [See July 4 and 5] which Manning presented to Clemens contains the inaugural address of Francis Elgar, fifteenth president, delivered on May 4, 1894” [Gribben 449].

Chatto & Windus’ financial statement of this date: £181.42.2 due to Clemens [1899 Financial file MTP].

July 2 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Sun [July] 2—Sunday. Mrs. Aklom” [NB 40 TS 57]. )

The New York Times, p. 17 ran a notice about the special English edition of Mark Twain’s works:

LITERARY EXODUS FROM LONDON

Publishing Season is Over—New Edition of Mark Twain’s Works.

LONDON, July 1.—The book publishing season is now practically over. No book of importance will be issued for another two months. The successful writers are already preparing for the holidays. Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Parker start for Carlsbad early in July, and Mr. Samuel L. Clemens (“Mark Twain”) and his family go to Sweden.

Mr. Clemens, while in London, has been much benefited by the treatment of a Swedish doctor, and he is now going to a remote town in Sweden to take the regular Swedish cure.

A limited edition of “Mark Twain’s” writings which Chatto & Windus will publish, consists of twenty-two volumes. They will be specially illustrated and will contain matter not included in any previous collection of his works.

July 3 Monday – Paine writes of a switch in hats between Twain and Basil Wilberforce at T. Douglas Murray’s (1841-1911) luncheon this day (except that he confuses July 3 with the period shortly after the Clemenses arrived in London):

They remained several weeks in London, where they were welcomed with hospitality extraordinary. They had hardly arrived when they were invited by Lord Salisbury to Hatfield House, and by James Bryce to Portland Place, and by Canon Wilberforce to Dean’s Yard. A rather amusing incident happened at one of the luncheon-parties. Canon Wilberforce was there and left rather early. When Clemens was ready to go there was just one hat remaining. It was not his, and he suspected, by the initials on the inside, that it belonged to Canon [Basil] Wilberforce. However, it fitted him exactly and he wore it away [MTB 1085].

Note: T. Douglas Murray was a barrister educated at Oxford. Sam’s relationship with him was close and cordial until Murray made numerous editorial changes in an Introduction Sam wrote for the Official Trial Records of Joan of Arc, a book edited by Murray, published in 1902. Fatout references this as an “unidentified luncheon” [MT Speaking 666]; now it is identified.

At the Prince of Wales Hotel in London, England, Sam wrote to Canon (Clergyman) Albert Basil Orme Wilberforce (1841-1916):

Dear Canon Wilberforce,—It is 8 P.M. During the past four hours I have not been able to take anything that did not belong to me; during all that time I have not been able to stretch a fact beyond the frontiers of truth try as I might, & meantime, not only my morals have moved the astonishment of all who have come into contact with me, but my manners have gained more compliments than they have been accustomed to. This mystery is causing my family much alarm. It is difficult to account for it. I find I haven’t my own hat. Have you developed any novelties of conduct since you left Mr. Murray’s, & have they been of a character to move

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