Vol 3 Section 0392
Miss Penfold was not blameless in the matter. Your assertion to the contrary has no value, since it is discredited by better evidence. I do not hold grudges, & I hold none against Miss Penfold…For her sake— not yours—I have laid your letter [not extant] before the management at Harrod’s & begged them to look into her case again & see if they could not reinstate her [MTP]. Note: Miss Penfold had been employed by Harrod’s Dept. Stores (est. 1834) and, along with two others had suffered discharge after some conflict when Livy placed an order in the tea room there. See Mar. 2.
Paul Kester wrote to Sam with a plan to dramatize TS, enclosing William Dean Howells’ letter to Sam (not in MTHL).
“These boys, Paul and Vaughn Kester, are cousins of mine, and I’m mighty fond of them. They have both had stage experience, and know what they are about. If they can do anything with you for the dramatization of Tom Sawyer, I shall be very glad. Yours ever…” [MTP].
March 14 Wednesday – about this day Henry Ferguson of Hartford wrote again about the changes he’d requested in the article with his Journals from the Hornet saga.
“There seems to be no end to the trouble that you have brought upon yourself in your kind compliance with my wishes in regard to certain passages in my own and my brother’s journals. I greatly regret that it has been so but it is a great relief to me to have the slight modifications made” [MTP].
Sam’s Notebook: “Mailed March 14, letter to Mr. Rogers asking him to send me $12,500 so that it will reach here (London), Apl. 15. It is for Plasmon-syndicate & is 50% of my purchase. The other 50% to be paid later” [NB 42 TS 60].
March 15 Thursday
March 16 Friday – Jonas Henrick Kellgren Osteopath, billed £12.12.0 for March 7 through March 16 for Jean’s treatments [1900 Financial file MTP].
March 17 Saturday – At 30 Wellington Court in London, England Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister, entirely about Harper & Brothers plans to make two books out of his assorted sketches. MacAlister was editor of the Library in London, as well as being a principal in the Plasmon schemes, so may have had some interest in publishing a few of Mark Twain’s sketches. Or, Sam may have considered him a valued advisor in sorting out the complications of British copyright, simultaning, magazine articles, etc. Sam was trying to determine the date of publication by Harpers; he’d just received the proofs from the first book and part of the second. He had the right of veto over specific items [MTP].
Christian B. Tauchnitz wrote from Leipzig to Sam. “Certainly, it will always give me the greatest pleasure to include your fine books into my Continental Lines, and I shall be glad to receive proofs of your forthcoming volume, at your earliest convenience” [MTP]. Note: Tauchnitz replied to Sam’s not-extant letter.
Academy (London) ran an anonymous article, “Mr. Kipling and Mark Twain,” p. 237. Tenney: “On Kipling’s interview with MT, as reprinted in his From Sea to Sea. Here quoted extensively, it ‘is in some respects the best interview that we have ever read,’ revealing Kipling’s profound admiration for MT” [31-2]
March 18 Sunday – The New York Times, p. 14 reprinted a short letter from Sam to the London Anti-
Vivisection Society of London:
“Mark Twain” on Sport and Vivisection.
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.