January 10 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mr. Dole (the identical language used in Jan. 9 to Hirsch) declining an invitation and citing Livy’s health [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Frederick W. Peabody.
But aren’t you going to lend me those scraps & scribblings of Mrs. Eddy’s which you offered to lend me? I find I can’t buy such things. I have tried; the Bargain Counter will not take my money—imagines it is spiritual money, but it is not.
Have I your permission to use your name in quoting your visit to the Holy of Holies of the Mother Church? In what year was the visit paid? [MTP]. Note: Robert Hirst of the MTP offered the following to the Gallery of History on Nov. 1, 1983:
Peabody, a devoted opponent of Christian Science, was providing Mark Twain with material for use in articles on the subject that he was contributing to the North American Review (two already had been published…and two were yet forthcoming …). In mid -December he had offered to lend Mark Twain some extracts from the writing of Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, an offer Mark Twain reminded him of here. These extracts were of particular importance to Mark Twain since, as he states, he had been rebuffed in his attempt to buy them from the agency he sarcastically calls “the Bargain Counter,” actually the New York offices of the Christian Science Publication Committee [History For Sale document 31405].
Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam:
I have had several talks lately with our young friend, Mr. Paul Kester. Mr Kester’s play of “Tom Sawyer” seems to me pretty good, and I believe we can get it produced. Now, nothwithstanding the sad fate of “Huckleberry Finn” I fancy “Tom Sawyer” can be made to win out. Messrs. Klaw and Erlanger are quite willing to withdraw in favor of Mr. Kester, and I write to know whether you would be willing to let him have a chance to handle his play [MTP]. Note: Sam answered about Jan.11.
Frank Bliss wrote to Sam, enclosing a draft for $7,000, and proposed that he would go ahead and publish the book, unspecified [MTP].
The New York Times ran a rather strange article, with an unnamed “press agent” the source.
MARK TWAIN’S SKULL.
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They say Mr. Samuel R. Clemens either has bequeathed or will bequeath his skull to Cornell University, which, presumably, wants it. The announcement is made noisily, if somewhat vaguely, by a hired man, a “press agent,” in fact, who tries to imitate Mark Twain’s humor; but the incident is not humorous.
To be sure, Mark Twain used to be very amusing on the subject of dead men’s skulls. Was it not he who discovered in Italy one carefully preserved skull of the full-grown Columbus and another which was worn by the same benefactor of mankind in his youth? But in his gay Italian days, when he was an innocent abroad, Mark Twain was not thinking of his own skull as an asset or a benefaction.
Now the report of his bequest seems pathetic; one does not even quite know whether or not to take it seriously. Perhaps, like some of his recent seemingly serious magazine contributions and his vociferous public avowals of queer beliefs, this may only be a subtle joke. If it is not, it is a great pity any such announcement was made.
If Cornell University or any department thereof wants Mr. Clemens’s skull after he has finished using it, doubtless that educational institution, not being a dime museum or a circus, would prefer to take it quietly. Doubtless, too, one is impelled to reflect, a man seriously thinking of parting with his own head would not make light of the matter.
Sam’s notebook entry has more errands and some completed:
Get coupons of Int. Nav. Co.
See Harpers.
Take Livy’s paper to Safe Dep. (mine) Ask Grosvenor rooms for 1st October. Did cable to MacAlister Did [NB 46 TS 5]. Note: no cable for this or the past few days to MacAlister is extant.