August 3 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Hock! Hock! dear Abott H. Thayer! Jean asked him to dine here tomorrow night with Mr. and Mrs. Pumpelly, but he said he couldn’t! He said it was so lovely to see Mr. Clemens all alone, and to hear him talk when there weren’t others around, that—Oh, he couldn’t—And that is only the borderland of it all, for if it is better to hear Mr. Clemens without an audience, then how best it is to just be near him in his beautiful silences [MTP TS 84].
F.R. Hantz for the Contemporary Club, Indianapolis, Ind. wrote to invite Sam to visit their club “sometime during the winter of ’05 and ‘06.” Hantz listed recent guests, including Henry James, Edward Everett Hale, Owen Wister, Woodroe [sic] Wilson and Norman Hapgood [MTP].
In Dublin, N.H Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to decline an invitation from F.R. Hantz; Mark Twain “has retired permanently from the platform” [MTP]. Note: Hantz’s note was dated Aug. 3. Sam’s response is cataloged as “on or after 3 August”—allowing mail to reach Dublin puts this at ca. Aug 7.
Sam also wrote to daughter Clara in Norfolk, Conn.
Ben dear, do not fail to carry out your project—even the healthiest of us cannot afford a depressing influence that is abolishable. Relieved of that; your food & drink restored; pleasant comradeship; & your voice on its way back: all this is first-rate, & is very good news to hear; & best of all: that you expect to be at 21 with us in the Fall, moccasined, feathered, & in your war paint. (But I have broken my bow & burned my arrows.)
Jean thinks I could pay you a visit of a day or two without harm to you or inconvenience, & so I am planning to go to Boston next Monday, (Hotel Touraine) to Hartford next morning, making close connection there with the Norfolk train—but I am giving you time to defeat this scheme if it would be best for me to wait a while. Telegraph yes or no, as soon as you get this letter.
It is clear again. From my window I can see our most distant mountain-range swelling along in purple billows under the horizon. I kiss you, dear ashcat. / Father
P.S. We can have this delightful house again next year, if you & your health approve. So I am securing the refusal of it against all comers. I am broken down with this past few-days’ explosion of social dissipation, & have retired. I shall go out, hereafter, on Tuesdays & Saturdays only—& on the following days I shall rest & attempt no work [MTP]. Note: the Hotel Touraine in Boston was where the Rogers family stayed during the lawsuit against Standard Oil there. Sam delayed going to Boston until the following Wed., Aug. 9.
Roi Cooper Megrue (assistant to Elisabeth Marbury, Sam’s dramatic agent) wrote to Sam from N.Y.C.
I have a letter from Miss Marbury asking me to take up with you the possibility of your giving Mr. Timmory an extension on his contracts with you,—one year if possible; also will you grant Mr. Timmory free choice of theatre, as, of course, he will only act in the best interest of the play. It is quite possible the pieces could be produced first in some other French theatres, and then afterwards in Paris [MTP]. Note: Sam answered on Aug. 5.
Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Koy-Lo Co. letterhead to Sam.
“A week or two ago the Special Commissioner in our case against the Butters-Hammond crowd decided against us….To-day the Judge has handed down a decision completely reversing the decision of the Special Commissioner, and holding that the Board which we elected September 1st is the legal Board of the Plasmon Company….It is a great victory for us. I feel rather chesty” [MTP].
Frederick A. Duneka wrote to Sam. “That is a fine idea about the postal cards and ought to prove attractive to the public and profitable to author and publisher. I am taking it up with a big manufacturer and distributor of post-cards and will let you know, of course, of the progress of matters / Yours” [MTP].
Hock! Hock! dear Abott H. Thayer! Jean asked him to dine here tomorrow night with Mr. and Mrs. Pumpelly, but he said he couldn’t! He said it was so lovely to see Mr. Clemens all alone, and to hear him talk when there weren’t others around, that—Oh, he couldn’t—And that is only the borderland of it all, for if it is better to hear Mr. Clemens without an audience, then how best it is to just be near him in his beautiful silences [MTP TS 84].
F.R. Hantz for the Contemporary Club, Indianapolis, Ind. wrote to invite Sam to visit their club “sometime during the winter of ’05 and ‘06.” Hantz listed recent guests, including Henry James, Edward Everett Hale, Owen Wister, Woodroe [sic] Wilson and Norman Hapgood [MTP].
In Dublin, N.H Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to decline an invitation from F.R. Hantz; Mark Twain “has retired permanently from the platform” [MTP]. Note: Hantz’s note was dated Aug. 3. Sam’s response is cataloged as “on or after 3 August”—allowing mail to reach Dublin puts this at ca. Aug 7.
Sam also wrote to daughter Clara in Norfolk, Conn.
Ben dear, do not fail to carry out your project—even the healthiest of us cannot afford a depressing influence that is abolishable. Relieved of that; your food & drink restored; pleasant comradeship; & your voice on its way back: all this is first-rate, & is very good news to hear; & best of all: that you expect to be at 21 with us in the Fall, moccasined, feathered, & in your war paint. (But I have broken my bow & burned my arrows.)
Jean thinks I could pay you a visit of a day or two without harm to you or inconvenience, & so I am planning to go to Boston next Monday, (Hotel Touraine) to Hartford next morning, making close connection there with the Norfolk train—but I am giving you time to defeat this scheme if it would be best for me to wait a while. Telegraph yes or no, as soon as you get this letter.
It is clear again. From my window I can see our most distant mountain-range swelling along in purple billows under the horizon. I kiss you, dear ashcat. / Father
P.S. We can have this delightful house again next year, if you & your health approve. So I am securing the refusal of it against all comers. I am broken down with this past few-days’ explosion of social dissipation, & have retired. I shall go out, hereafter, on Tuesdays & Saturdays only—& on the following days I shall rest & attempt no work [MTP]. Note: the Hotel Touraine in Boston was where the Rogers family stayed during the lawsuit against Standard Oil there. Sam delayed going to Boston until the following Wed., Aug. 9.
Roi Cooper Megrue (assistant to Elisabeth Marbury, Sam’s dramatic agent) wrote to Sam from N.Y.C.
I have a letter from Miss Marbury asking me to take up with you the possibility of your giving Mr. Timmory an extension on his contracts with you,—one year if possible; also will you grant Mr. Timmory free choice of theatre, as, of course, he will only act in the best interest of the play. It is quite possible the pieces could be produced first in some other French theatres, and then afterwards in Paris [MTP]. Note: Sam answered on Aug. 5.
Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Koy-Lo Co. letterhead to Sam.
“A week or two ago the Special Commissioner in our case against the Butters-Hammond crowd decided against us….To-day the Judge has handed down a decision completely reversing the decision of the Special Commissioner, and holding that the Board which we elected September 1st is the legal Board of the Plasmon Company….It is a great victory for us. I feel rather chesty” [MTP].
Frederick A. Duneka wrote to Sam. “That is a fine idea about the postal cards and ought to prove attractive to the public and profitable to author and publisher. I am taking it up with a big manufacturer and distributor of post-cards and will let you know, of course, of the progress of matters / Yours” [MTP].
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