Vol 3 Section 1022

protective measures myself. Yet straightway an elaborate report appeared in the local paper. I have waited for an explanation—& have expected one. As your disregarded promise will cost me 8,352 Lire, I feel that I have a just right to ask you where I am to look for reimbursement [MTP].

Note: the doctor is listed in several medical journals of the time as from Edinburgh, but with a practice later in Florence. He was connected with the British Relief Fund in Florence; Sam gave a reading for the Fund, “Italian Without Grammar” [Fatout, MT Speaking 673]. Fatout lists this event as “March (?)” but this letter suggests it had already been given before Feb. 26, since Sam wrote he “waited for an explanation” after seeing a newspaper report. It is so placed.

Miss Sarah Malcohn Freeborne (1861-1906), an American sculptor living in Florence, invited Sam to

visit her studio [MTP]. Note: well known in America as a portraitist, Sarah became a sculptor, moved to Egypt and then lived in Florence for the last 14 years of her life. She died in Boston shortly after returning for a visit.

N.H.R. Walker wrote to Sam. “Please let me know if you consider that I have taken a liberty with all of your writings and with the ‘Buffalo Express’ in using them to concoct (?) the enclosed? Would you consider it plagiarism should I offer this for publication?” Walker enclosed a sheet full of phrases from Mark Twain’s works [MTP]. Note: “Tell him no, it would not be plagiarism. / SLC / Ans. March 14, 1904”

February 28 Sunday – Lyon’s journal: Isabel and the Clemenses went “to the theatre to see a play by Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949), acted by his wife” on an unspecified date during the month [TS 14, MTP].Note: Maeterlinck was a Belgian playwright and poet who wrote in French. He won the Nobel prize in Literature in 1911. By 1904 he had written at least fourteen plays.

February 29 Monday – Miss Emily Katherine Bates (usually seen as E. Katherine Bates) English novelist, travel writer, member of the English Society for Psychical Research, wrote from Rome to Sam.

Dear Mr. Clemmens [sic] / I am writing to you instead of to Mrs Clemens because I think it may be easier to find you!

I wonder if either of you will remember having met me once at luncheon in England at the Albemarle Club when the late Mr. Frederic Meyers was our host & Sir Oliver Lodge and Mr. Andrew Lang were also present? Mr Meyers told me that you had kindly expressed a wish to see me again or I should not venture to recall myself of yr. recollection knowing what a large circle of friends you have & therefore how little time for passing acquaintances.

It seems to me however that we might have some subjects of interest in common & in any case it would be a great pleasure to me to see you & Mrs. Clemmens once more.

I knew you had returned to America shortly after our meeting & it was only yesterday that I chanced to hear from an American lady ‘en voyage’ that you were established for a time in a villa near Florence—I have no idea of the name, nor had she, so must trust to the good offices of the Poste Restante.

I have only just arrived in Rome & expect to be here for 2 or 3 weeks—Then I shall have to pass through Florence en route for Milan & Switzerland before returning to England—In any case I should spend a day in Florence to rest, not being very strong just now—

It would be a great pleasure if I thought there were any chance of our meeting there—say about the 3d. week in March—Perhaps at yr. leisure you or Mrs. Clemens would let me know yr. address & probable movements about that time— / With kind regards, believe me ….[MTP].

Note: Sam had Isabel Lyon write a note about this to Livy and she replied: see entry Mar. 1, after. Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge (1851-1940), English physicist. Lodge strove to reconcile science and religion and was an ardent believer in spiritualism and life after death.: Sam would quote Lodge in “Three Thousand Years Among the Microbes” (1905); see Gribben 415-16. Frederic William Henry Myers (1843-1901), English poet and psychical researcher, founded the Society for Psychical Research in 1882 (See Gribben p.495). Andrew Lang (remembered now mainly for his fairy tale collections) was also active in the Society. The Albemarle Club was a private and rather Bohemian club founded in 1874 open to both sexes. A scandal in

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