Mark Twain

After installing Susy and Clara in school at Geneva, Twain and Livy began a peripatetic year of health-seeking and economy. Twain treated his rheumatic arm at Aix-les-Bains, mocked its sulfur baths, and struggled to write syndicated travel pieces. The family endured Wagner marathons at Bayreuth, “cure” regimes in Marienbad and Bad Nauheim, and Twain’s solitary raft journey down the Rhône. 

In Berlin he met Kaiser Wilhelm II, then suffered pneumonia; Livy’s heart troubles prompted further moves to Menton, Florence, and finally Bad Nauheim, where Twain encountered Oscar Wilde and the Prince of Wales. Throughout, mounting debts, Livy’s fragile health, and Susy’s homesickness shadowed their restless Continental circuit.

The Twain family’s first full year in Europe (1891 to 1892) found Twain driving himself to earn fast cash with The American Claimant—a hastily expanded Colonel Sellers tale written in 71 days and sold to McClure’s. Twain also dashed off the pot-boiler Tom Sawyer Abroad. 

Amid this spasmodic work, Twain’s rheumatism forced dictation experiments, and family finances remained precarious as Villa Viviani’s elegance proved costly. Livy’s heart and intestinal ailments worsened. Clara pursued studying piano in Berlin, provoking Twain’s anxious lectures on propriety, while Susy, adrift, studied voice in Florence while secretly nursing romantic turmoil.