November 11 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook : “Take 2 p m. train for Hartford. / Bought …180 ½ Chi. Milwaukee & St. Paul, common 8% & 5 shs purchasable at par” [NB 45 TS 33]. Note: Sam decided not to go to Hartford due to Livy’s worsening condition [Nov. 9 to Dillingham].
In N.Y.C. William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.
Here is a thing as perfectly hopeless as to print, as “The Burning Shame,” but isn’t it the very thing? I appeal to your greater knowledge. This fellow has got it in him, if he can stop getting it out in the present style of facts. Let me have the MS back. Are you coming to the Cambon dinner on Saturday? [MTHL 2: 748-9].
Notes: Howells sent Sam a story by Clark B. Wakefield, a 21-year-old writer in Denison, Texas. See n1 in source. Gribben concludes, “evidently the story did not survive” [732]. “The Burning Shame” was the original title of the King and the Duke’s indecent skit in HF, which in the revised version became “The King’s Camelopard.” A dinner on Nov. 15 at Sherry’s Restaurant in N.Y.C. was held for Jules M. Cambon, French ambassador to the U.S., who was being transferred to Madrid. Sam was scheduled to be a speaker (see Nov. 6 to Hyde) but did not attend, probably due to Livy’s worsening condition.
Charles Warren Stoddard wrote to Sam from Wash. D.C., relating how he’d been mistreated by Frederick Harriott, husband to actress Clara Morris. Harriott had not paid Stoddard royalties due, after taking on the duties of an agent. Thus began a campaign by Howells and Sam to recover the $500 owed Stoddard [MTP]. Note: at the top of a copy of the letter, Sam wrote: “I am not attesting to its genuineness, Charley’s spelling will take care of that. / Mark”
Jean Clemens wrote to Grace Sewell in York Harbor, Maine:
For the past twelve days there had been absolutely no improvement in Mother’s condition. Indeed two of her heart attacks were quite as bad or worse than the ones she had at York. Dr. Dana the nerve specialist is partly to blame. He ordered some heart stimulants which had an extremely bad effect. We are tired of experimenting doctors & shall call in NO more consultants. Dr. Moffat seems good and says Mother’s condition isn’t really dangerous even tho’ she is so weak that she cannot have alcohol baths. Clara is on the verge of a serious illness, I am afraid, caused by nervousness and anxiety. I hope she will be able to withstand the strain she is constantly under, but it seems doubtful. Of course being in such a condition physically makes her mental condition very bad & in her anxiety she is constantly building mountains out of mole-hills where Mother’s illness is concerned [Heritage Auction Archives Oct. 15, 2009, Lot 35132; “Be Sure and Save the Gentians,” by Peter Salwen, 2005].
In Hartford, Lee Arthur’s dramatization of HF had its first performance at Parson’s Theatre in Hartford. The New York Times reported on Nov. 12, p.9, “Huckleberry Finn,” that the play “scored a success,” and “It incorporated spectacular and musical elements calling for gorgeous scenery and a company of 80 people.” See also the Hartford Courant, Nov. 12, p.8.