Vol 3 Section 0395
watching out for your interests all the time” [MTHHR 437-8]. Note: Evidently Rogers had the contracts drawn fairly soon, as Sam rec’d them on May 29; see entry.
March 26 Monday – London: Sam was free in the daytime for a meeting with John Y. MacAlister [Mar.
23 postcard #2 to MacAlister].
The New York Times, p. 1, ran a squib:
Mark Twain Coming Home Soon.
HARTFORD. March 25.—Letters received from Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) say that he and his family will return soon to Hartford and take up their permanent home there.
Sam’s notebook and also Fatout list an 8 p.m. dinner speech for Mark Twain at the Gilbert Parker Dinner, London [MT Speaking 666]. Note: Gribben points to this event as the date Clemens was introduced to Winston Churchill at the home of Sir Gilbert Parker, British novelist, dramatist, and member of Parliament [526: NB 43 TS 6].
March 27 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Burlingame, 11 am / Mr. Lucy of ‘Punch,’ lunch 1.30. / Enid Stoker, tea 4.30. / Lady Pontifex tea 5.30 / Görz, dinner, 7.30 / MacAlister, 11.30 p.m” [NB 43 TS 6].
Note: Some of these are mentioned in his postcard #2 to John Y. MacAlister. See Mar. 21 from Henry Lucy. Perhaps Edward L. Burlingame, editor of Scribner’s. Lady Pontifex was Mrs. Thomas William Gribble, whose husband had been Postmaster-General of Bengal, India, likely when Twain toured the country. Görz is likely Adolf H. Göerz (1857-1900), Sam’s “good friend, S. African Millionaire,” died in late 1900. See Nov. 2, 1900 from MacAlister.
Sam also wrote a postcard to John Y. MacAlister “I sent Tatlock an urgent telegram, but he answers it is impossible to come. Therefore we will drop him out of the running & say no more” [MTP].
March 27-31 Saturday – In London, England sometime during this period Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow. “Yes, tell him I will appear before the Copyright Committee next Tuesday” [MTP]. Note: See Apr. 3.
March 28 Wednesday – In London, England Sam cabled James R. Clemens and Katharine Boland
Clemens: “WE SEND LOVE AND THE HEARTIEST CONGRATULATIONS” [MTP]. Note: no doubt—a little Clemens!
Muriel Clemens Gotwals (1900-1989); exact birthday not determined.
Sam’s notebook: “Poultney Bigelow dinner, 7.30. To meet Boughton, artist, & the African Explorer. / Lady Seton, tea, 4.30 / Gilbert Parker later” [NB 43 TS 6]. Note: George Henry Boughton (1833-1905), Anglo-American painter. He illustrated Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poems. 53 of his illustrations complimented the 1893 edition of Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle and Sleepy Hollow, published in London. He was also well known for his 1867 painting, “Pilgrims Going to Church.” The unnamed “African Explorer” was likely Henry M. Stanley. Lady Seton, likely wife of Sir Malcom C.C. Seton (b.1872).
March 29 Thursday – The New York Times, p. 2, ran a memo sent from the Hartford Courant:
Mr. Clemens to Return to Hartford.
From the Hartford (Conn.) Courant.
Letters received from Mark Twain by friends in this city contains the welcome news that he and his family, who have been so long abroad, contemplate soon returning to Hartford and reopening their old home on
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.