Vol 3 Section 1134

1070                                      Addenda & Errata For Volume II (1886-1896)

Note: the dilemma here is that no other time spent in Hamburg (Homburg) was found besides these 3 periods, though it’s possible there were other visits there in 1892 while the Clemens family was staying at Bad Nauheim. In the 1878 period, Susy was only six; Corelli 23, and had not yet switched her career from music to writing (her first book, A Romance of Two Worlds (1886). The Clemens family was in Berlin in 1891-2, and it’s possible that they made a short visit to Homburg, a few hours away by train, though there is no record of such a trip—and, that Sam and Susy met Corelli on the street there in 1892. More research on Corelli’s whereabouts in 1878 and 1892 may prove to settle this question. For now, an addendum item has also been prepared for 1892, no specific date.

February 4, 1892 addition – A.F. Kingscote wrote Sam, the letter not extant but referred to in Kingscote’s Feb. 16 postcard

February 16, 1892 addition – A.F. Kingscote sent a postcard to Sam:

“I sincerely trust that you are getting better. My letter of 4th reached you quite safely, I trust? It will give me great satisfaction to hear from you yrself soon how you really feel” [Live Auctioneers, Mar. 6, 2009 Lot 35179].

February 18, 1892 addition – In Berlin, Germany Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus in regards to A.F.

Kingscote’s several overly-familiar letters:

Who is Mr. Kingscote? He keeps writing me. If an answer is due him, I will furnish it—otherwise not.

Please inquire about him for me.

In a week I shall be well enough to travel—no, in 10 days. Then I shall go to the Riviera for my health.

I haven’t seen the “Idler” yet. / Ys sincerely / SL Clemens [Live Auctioneers, Mar. 6, 2009 Lot 35179].

Note: Idler, the magazine featured “The Conglomerate Interview” with Sam in its Feb. 1892 issue. There was also a play Idler by Charles Haddon Chambers, which the auctioneers mistakenly cited as the source of his remark. See Feb. 1892 entry.

June 19, 1892 correction – The first printing of Sam’s letter to the unidentified doctor was not the Guide Through North and Central America, etc. but the North German Lloyd’s World’s Columbian Exposition 1893 (1893). Letter not yet catalogued by MTP.

September 26, 1892 addition – Sam’s A.D. for this date includes:

Sept. 26. ’92. Arrived in Florence. Got my head shaved. This was a mistake. Moved to the villa in the afternoon. Some of the trunks brought up in the evening by the contadino—if that is his title. He is the man who lives on the farm and takes care of it for the owner, the Marquis. The contadino is middle-aged and like the rest of the peasants—that is to say, brown, handsome, good-natured, courteous, and entirely independent without making any offensive show of it. He charged too much for the trunks, I was told. My informant explained that this was customary [MTP]. Note: see Sept. 29 A.D.

September 29, 1892 addition – Sam’s A.D. for this date includes:

Sept. 29, ’92 I seem able to forget everything except that I have had my head shaved. No matter how closed I shut myself away from drafts it seems to be always breezy up there. But the main difficulty is the flies. They like it up there better than anywhere else; on account of the view, I suppose. It seems to me that I have never seen any flies before that were shod like these. These appear to have talons. Wherever they put their foot down they grab. They walk over my head all the time, and cause me infinite torture. It is their park, their club, their summer resort. They have garden parties there, and conventions, and all sorts of dissipation. And they fear nothing. All flies are daring, but these are more daring than those of other nationalities. These cannot be scared away by any device. They are more diligent, too, than the other kinds: they come before daylight and