April 13 Tuesday — In the evening Sam attended daughter Clara’s concert at Mendelssohn Hall, NYC. The New York Times, Apr. 14, p.11, gave her performance mixed reviews, as did other city papers. One unnamed paper follows the Times report:
MISS CLARA CLEMENS SINGS.
Mark Twain’s Daughter Heard at Recital with Miss Littlehales.
Miss Clara Clemens, contralto, daughter of Mark Twain, and Miss LIllian Littlehales, cellist, gave a recital at Mendelssohn Hall last night. Miss Clemens sang songs by Haendel, Scarlotti, Coldara, Schubert, Schumann, Strauss, Gabrilowitsch, Debussy, Tirindelli, Sjorgen, Bath, White, Chadwick, and Vannuccini, and Miss Littlehales played a sonata by Johann Ernst Gailliard and the obligato to Vannuccini’s “La Visione,” which Miss Clemens sang.
It seems a pity that a singer with as good a natural voice as that of Miss Clemens, who sings with so much feeling, should not use her voice to better advantage. Her tones last night were too often uneven and muffled.
Miss Littlehales showed in her playing good technique and true feeling. The audience was moderately enthusiastic.
And from an unnamed newspaper collected by Thomas Tenney at the Mark Twain Library, Redding, in 1981:
Mark Twain Attends His Daughter’s Concert
Miss Clara Clemens Heard in a Numer of Delightful Songs at Mendelssohn Hall.
Mendelssohn Hall was given over yesterday to the musical children of eminent fathers. Following a recital in the afternoon by Karl Klein, the violinist, son of Composer Bruno Oscar Klein, Clara Clemens, the singing daughter of “Mark Twain,” was heard in the evening in conjunction with Lillian Littlehales, the ‘cellist.
Miss Clemens is a beautiful young woman and has the foundation of a great contralto voice. There are occasional evidences in her singing of an unripeness which with practice and a good instructor can easily be eliminated, Some of the notes in her middle register are magnificent, but her high and low notes are faulty.
Miss Clemens’s programme was most attractive and diversified. She sang songs by Handel, Schubert, Schumann, Gabrilowitsch (a charming love-song, dedicated to Miss Clemens), Strauss, two iridescent things by Debussy and several others.
....
Mark Twain was seated among many other literary lights and fashionable listeners and applauded his daughter’s efforts discreetly.
[See also article from the New York Evening Post, Apr. 14, “Miss Clemens and Miss Littlehales’ MTP Autodict. 4]
Likewise, the NY Sun called Clara “A Young Contralto with Excellent Voice but Unfinished Technic” [Apr. 14, p.7]. Note: William Dean Howells was present for the performance [MTHL 846n2].
Sam/’s new guestbook:
| Name | Address | Date | Remarks |
| Frederick Peterson | 4 West 50 NYC | April 13,1909 | [Note: Dr. Peterson, Jean’s Dr.] |
Mrs. Samuel McKnight Green, Jr. wrote from St. Louis to ask Sam for the D.A.R. to “write the words for our patriotic State Song” [MTP].
S. Louise Patterson wrote from Cleveland, Ohio: “I am deeply interested in your library for the farming community around you, and take pleasure in sending you a copy of each of my books for this worthy enterprise” [MTP]. Note: Patterson was the author of several books on cats, including, Pussy Meow: The Autobiography of a cat.