October 6 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara, soon to be at 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y., where Sam addressed the letter:
Why, you little rat, somebody had to be blamed, so I selected [Dr. Edward] Quintard in place of myself. I was thinking of having him hanged, but for your sake I will let him off, for the present.
So you have got at the “real cause” of your ill turn, & it was a doctor. I could have told you that much. It’s an awful trade for a Christian.
But I am very glad your voice is back. I believe it will stay, if the doctors will let it alone.
Oh, Clara dear, I am sorry I meddled with the paper on your room, & am the cause of keeping you away from 21 & Katy’s ministrations—I won’t do such a thing again. I didn’t know Josef Hoffman has been marrying a divorcèe—it escaped me, yet I read the paper daily.
At 3, an hour ago, I got up, & the western landscape was such a miracle of varied loveliness that I said I would try to photograph it with a pen at that same hour to-morrow; for I remembered that the Harpers want some account of this house & of the house we have secured for next year.
The Selfish article? I have so changed it that I believe it could be published now without offending any one. After a few months I will examine it & see how it looks then [MTP]. Note: Sam then described the prior evening’s reading performance; see in Oct. 5 entry.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: This afternoon Mr. Clemens read “A Horse’s Tale” aloud to Mr. and Mrs. Henderson and Hildegard and Nancy and Gerome Brush. He began at 5:15 read until within a few minutes of 7 and dinner and then finished it up in an hour and a half leaving us all moved and speechless. We had the music, Soldier Boys Call and The Bugle Calls [MTP TS 104]. Note: This somewhat duplicates what she wrote in journal # 2 for Oct. 5. Gerome Brush (1888-1954), 18 at this time, son of George de Forest Brush.
Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Wrote to Colonel Harvey asking him to grant Collier permission to use a short story in a Short Story Classic book which wouldn’t, couldn’t be complete without one by Mark Twain in it” [MTP TS 31].
Nelly Goyder of Lancetown Tasmania, Australia wrote asking for a photograph of Sam, being unable to “procure a likeness” there. She wrote his books were a “perpetual delight & the memory of your lectures in Australia is with me still” [MTP]. Note: After receiving Goyer’s note, likely some weeks later (ca. Oct. 20), Sam wrote on the letter to Lyon: “Stir Mr. Champlaine (Boston) up—we want the 12 photos. / SLC” [MTP]. Note: MTP catalogs Sam’s directive to Isabel Lyon as “on or after 6 October,” but of course it would have taken about two weeks for a letter to arrive in N.H. from down under. Estimated here as ca. Oct. 20.
Frederick A. Duneka wrote to thank Sam for his appreciation of “Editorial Wild Oats,” as he had “fussed a long time before I got that title and was rather pleased with it…” He informed of a “matter of business of some importance”—an obscure publisher in the West was hinting at bringing out a “Mark Twain Library of Wit and Humor”—they could likely stop them or maybe it was only a threat. The plates had been destroyed on Mark Twain’s Library of Humor, but Harpers wanted to “revive and reprint this with the possible addition of a few more sketches, bringing it down to date” [MTP].
Roland Phillips for Harper’s Weekly wrote enclosing proofs on Sam’s story of John Hay [MTP].
Why, you little rat, somebody had to be blamed, so I selected [Dr. Edward] Quintard in place of myself. I was thinking of having him hanged, but for your sake I will let him off, for the present.
So you have got at the “real cause” of your ill turn, & it was a doctor. I could have told you that much. It’s an awful trade for a Christian.
But I am very glad your voice is back. I believe it will stay, if the doctors will let it alone.
Oh, Clara dear, I am sorry I meddled with the paper on your room, & am the cause of keeping you away from 21 & Katy’s ministrations—I won’t do such a thing again. I didn’t know Josef Hoffman has been marrying a divorcèe—it escaped me, yet I read the paper daily.
At 3, an hour ago, I got up, & the western landscape was such a miracle of varied loveliness that I said I would try to photograph it with a pen at that same hour to-morrow; for I remembered that the Harpers want some account of this house & of the house we have secured for next year.
The Selfish article? I have so changed it that I believe it could be published now without offending any one. After a few months I will examine it & see how it looks then [MTP]. Note: Sam then described the prior evening’s reading performance; see in Oct. 5 entry.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: This afternoon Mr. Clemens read “A Horse’s Tale” aloud to Mr. and Mrs. Henderson and Hildegard and Nancy and Gerome Brush. He began at 5:15 read until within a few minutes of 7 and dinner and then finished it up in an hour and a half leaving us all moved and speechless. We had the music, Soldier Boys Call and The Bugle Calls [MTP TS 104]. Note: This somewhat duplicates what she wrote in journal # 2 for Oct. 5. Gerome Brush (1888-1954), 18 at this time, son of George de Forest Brush.
Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Wrote to Colonel Harvey asking him to grant Collier permission to use a short story in a Short Story Classic book which wouldn’t, couldn’t be complete without one by Mark Twain in it” [MTP TS 31].
Nelly Goyder of Lancetown Tasmania, Australia wrote asking for a photograph of Sam, being unable to “procure a likeness” there. She wrote his books were a “perpetual delight & the memory of your lectures in Australia is with me still” [MTP]. Note: After receiving Goyer’s note, likely some weeks later (ca. Oct. 20), Sam wrote on the letter to Lyon: “Stir Mr. Champlaine (Boston) up—we want the 12 photos. / SLC” [MTP]. Note: MTP catalogs Sam’s directive to Isabel Lyon as “on or after 6 October,” but of course it would have taken about two weeks for a letter to arrive in N.H. from down under. Estimated here as ca. Oct. 20.
Frederick A. Duneka wrote to thank Sam for his appreciation of “Editorial Wild Oats,” as he had “fussed a long time before I got that title and was rather pleased with it…” He informed of a “matter of business of some importance”—an obscure publisher in the West was hinting at bringing out a “Mark Twain Library of Wit and Humor”—they could likely stop them or maybe it was only a threat. The plates had been destroyed on Mark Twain’s Library of Humor, but Harpers wanted to “revive and reprint this with the possible addition of a few more sketches, bringing it down to date” [MTP].
Roland Phillips for Harper’s Weekly wrote enclosing proofs on Sam’s story of John Hay [MTP].
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