Vol 3 Section 0333
August 6 Sunday – Elizabeth Robins wrote from Vulpera Switzerland to Sam. “Your beautiful letter reached me last night and it has made me very happy. I have been proud for so long to sit at your feet, that to have you …speak such words is enough” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “From Miss Robbins, author of ‘An Open Question.’ Keep it. SLC”
August 7 Monday – In Sanna, Sweden Sam wrote an aphorism to E.S. (not further identified):“Nearly all
of us have Music & Truth in us, but the most of us can’t get it out” [MTP].
August 8 Tuesday
August 9 Wednesday
August 10 Thursday
August 11 Friday
August 12 Saturday
August 13 Sunday
August 14 Monday
August 15 Tuesday – About this day Sam wrote the introduction for T. Douglas Murray’s use of the Official Records of the Joan of Arc Trial, which would not appear until 1902 as Jeanne d’Arc: Maid of Orleans, Deliverer of France [Aug. 25 to Murray].
August 16 Wednesday
August 17 Thursday
August 18 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “August 18, 1899. Three years ago, to-day, Susy Clemens, aged 24 years & 5 months. / Escaped out of this life” [NB 42 TS 57].
August 19 Saturday – Joe Twichell wrote to Sam from Antwerp, Belgium. He explained why he hadn’t written—being far away from his “base which furnished the staple of my communication,” and keeping up with the pace of his Chicago friend (unspecified). Joe landed in Southampton July 5 and would sail again from there for home on Sept. 23. They were disappointed at being unable to see the Clemenses. He told of their adventures so far and of plans to go to the Hague, then to Milan, the Tyrol, and perhaps Venice. He reminisced about their old Tramp Abroad vacation. He also added: “Minister Choate, in London, spoke with warm interest of meeting you, and of a very successful speech he heard you make” [MTP].
August 20 Sunday – In Sanna, Sweden, Livy and Clara Clemens wrote to Chatto & Windus; Clara requested a copy of The Open Question by Elizabeth Robins (C.E. Raimond) and Livy asked for selections of Robert Browning’s poetry, “something not very expensive” [MTP].
Sam wrote to Joe Twichell “The first of the Christian Science articles merely ridiculed the cult. I have sent it for print, but shall not use the others at present. Curiously enough this Swedish Gymnastic Cure is like that fraud in one way: it uses no medicines. Has used none since Kellgren invented it 35 years ago.” Sam wrote of the treatments, of the ineffective medicines of the past, and urged Joe to travel to England to see it. He told of his chronic bronchitis which Kellgren cured in four days [MTP].
August 21 Monday – The Polish Countess Emily De Laszowska wrote from Corinthia, Austria, a long, mostly illegible letter to Sam. “Dearest Mr. Clemens I have always put off writing letter to because I hate writing you a short letter, so the result has been a disgraceful silence” [MTP]. Note: Sam must have had a migraine trying to read this one. See Dolmetsch for more on the Countess.
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.