Vol 3 Section 0419

1900                                                                            ³⁶⁷

Sam’s notebook: “Wrote Miss Carnegie. / Lunch—to see Doubleday? James McArthur. Meet them at 21 Bedford st. 1 pm” [NB 43 TS 13].

A contract dated May 28, 1900 between Sam, Paul Kester and his brother Vaughan Kester was drawn for sole rights to dramatize TS if they got it on stage before June 1, 1901. The deadline was not met

[MTHL 2: 762n1]. Note: Norton gives May 29 for the contract signing.

May 29 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Countess Hoyos? / (Dr. Hillyer [sic], open—30 Wimpole st W.[ )] / Andrew

Carnegie Skibo Castle Sutherlandshire N.B.” [NB 43 TS 13]. Note: Dr. Alfred Peter Hilliard.

         Rogers wrote to Sam. Only the envelope survives, upon which Sam wrote “Contract for Tom Sawyer” [MTP]. Note: TS the play. See Mar.25 to Rogers; also May 28.

J.W. Myers wrote a nearly illegible letter to Sam. Not even phrases could be deciphered from this mess

[MTP].

May 30 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Goerz ? YES 7.30 / Never tell a lie, even when it is the truth / He died in

1847—I was at the funeral. / Never tell a lie, even when it is the truth” [NB 43 TS 13]. Note: Sam inserted later in ink after

Goerz: “Died. July 28, 1900”.

Chatto & Windus published 6,000 copies of the 6s.0d. English edition of The Man That Corrupted

Hadleyburg [Welland 238].

Fatout lists a JA reading for Mark Twain for Canon Wilberforce

May 31 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Gilders here—dinner” [NB 43 TS 13]. Note: the NB also lists “P. of Wales

    Cromwell play” and the play Rip Van Winkle by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (1853-1917) on this the opening day for the performance. Gribben speculates Sam possibly saw the play this day [711]. Note: see July 1, 1897 entry for bio info. on Tree.

June – Harper & Brothers published the first edition of The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays . Two copies were deposited with the Copyright Office on June 11 [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Afterword materials p.23, Oxford ed. 1996].

June 1 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “LUNCH 1 pm. / Duke of York’s—3 p.m. / Doubleday—lunch Be at Savoy Grill Room, Strand entrance / 1 p.m./ Theatre (Mrs. C.) / Andrew Lang? / (A. Abbey, 8 pm” [NB 43 TS 13-14]. Note: Duke of York at this time was Prince George (1865-1936) who became King George V in 1910.

In London Sam attended a dinner hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Austin Abbey. In her 1931 reminiscences, Adele Chapin (Mrs. Robert Chapin) puts the dinner at two days before Whitsuntide (a UK designation for Pentecost, or seven weeks after Easter). Chapin counts among the guests herself and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Watson Gilder, James Abbott McNeil Whistler, Mark Twain and Miss Cecilia Beaux. Chapin writes this was the first time Sam and Whistler met:

When I entered the room Mr. Abbey told me that Mark Twain and Whistler had never met before; that he wanted them to discover each other, without warning or introduction, and that we were to watch for that moment. Whistler was the first to arrive. All eyes were turned to the door. He sauntered in, a Machiavellian or—yes, a Mephistophelian figure—the loose, black lock curved on his forehead, the waxed moustache, the shaggy brows, the loose-jointedness. He moved as if he were on ball-bearings; one was conscious of all his joints, and felt that he might stop and strike a pose on any chair or other article of furniture he passed.

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