November 21 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Andrew Carnegie about speaking at the Sons of Scotland banquet at Delmonico’s on Nov. 30.

I find I am to be there. Mrs. Clemens came in, a minute ago, and furnished the information. If I had had another 18 hours I could have made up my mind myself. At bottom I am afraid of religious banquets, but now that the matter is settled I am not feeling so worried as I was.

To me, the clatter & clash of two or three hundred men rattling dishes & talking is maddening; so you must let me feed at home & take my doze & my smoke and arrive at Delmonico’s at 9.20 or 30—my train pulls in at the Grand Central at 9.15.

“Scotch Humor.” That will do—let it stand. …

Put me in the speaker-list about No. 3—can’t you? Not earlier, and not more than one later. Won’t you send this page to Mr. Morrison, in lieu of a formal acceptance, etc. from me? I’m a crowded and busy poor devil. / Ever your friend [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Frederick A. Duneka: “Ever so many thanks for the books. If I could get time I’d like to review the one on the raising of babies but doubtless I’ll never get the time. Mark” [MTP: Parke-Bernet Galleries catalogs, 19 Feb. 1945, Item 137].

Sam also wrote to William Dean Howells.

Yours [not extant] has arrived just as I was about to mail you the Baker letter.

Your comment on that son of a bitch’s “Ideals” letter reminds me that I preached a good sermon to my family yesterday on his particular layer of the human race, that grotesquest of all the inventions of the Creator. It was a good sermon; but coldly received, & it seemed best not to try to take up a collection.

Thank you for sending me Aldrich’s beautiful letter [not extant]. Mrs. Clemens is not here, but she will want to read it; I will return it after that.

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Read the Baker letter several times; it is one of those supreme & unapproachable masterpieces which one must read & re-read in order to get all the juice of it. If one were writing a novel & had this poor rotten old Christian in it, what a nugget that letter would be! No genius & no training can equip one to successfully imitate that phrasing.

After his signature he added a few thoughts: he didn’t think Harpers kept a proof-reader; he noted how God discriminated between H.H. Rogers and “poor” Baker. He noted Livy had returned and “captured” his letter and he was “enduring the compliments” [MTHL 2: 733]. See MTHHR 497n2.

Note: William H. Baker’s Nov. 15, 1901 letter to Rogers is referred to. Note 2 of the source: “Baker was a semiliterate resident of Fairhaven….Baker points out the need for an old people’s home. A later letter from Baker thanks Rogers for a gift of money (Fairhaven, 17 December, 1901, TS in MTP).” Howells answered on Nov. 23. See also MTHHR 497n2.

Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers.

The Baker letter hasn’t its match in literature anywhere. It can’t be approached—it stands alone. I’ve sent it to Howells—but only lent it. If he loses it I must have another copy. I think Twichell ought to be allowed a sight

of it when he comes [MTHHR 475-6]. Note: the lengthy letter by William H. Baker to H.H. Rogers (copy at MTP) dated Fairhaven, Nov. 15, 1901 is semi-literate and a “begging letter” for an old people’s home in Fairhaven; see MTHHR 497n2.

Harper & Brothers sent a form letter to Sam for renewing his subscription [MTP].

Augusta Kortrecht (supposedly a six-year-old girl in N.Y.C.) wrote to Sam: “I have a cat named Kitty, and a dog named Pup. I like to guess puzzles. Did you write a story for the Herald Com-pe-ti-tion? I hope you will answer my letter” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the margin “Lame attempt of a middle-aged liar to pull an autograph”.

Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam that she’d advised Francis Wilson that Sam didn’t want to have the title of the book used without its material and that $50 a week was “far too small a compensation.” She enclosed a copy of his reply that he was afraid Sam didn’t understand—“I believe the book should be all of the play—except the lyrics” [MTP].

Theodore Weld Stanton wrote from the Grand Hotel d’Europe in Avignon, France to Sam. Stanton was trying to find the “Lost Napoleon”—the hill or mountain Sam had once seen in France. He would write again from Arles [MTP]. Note: see Nov. 17 entry.