March 20 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka of Harper & Brothers about the illustrations for Eve’s Diary (1906).
We all think Mr. Ralph’s pictures delightful—full of grace, charm, variety of invention, humor, pathos, poetry—they are prodigal in merits. It’s a bonny Eve, a sweet & innocent & winning little lassie, & she is as natural & at home in the tale as if she had just climbed out of it. Now do you think draperies are indispensable to picture women? /Truly yours / SL. C.
Isn’t she cunning where she has been chasing Adam, & is looking after him in his flight? Do you note how dear & sweet & clean minded she is, & how charged with childlike wonder and interest? Clothes would vulgarize her—even a duchess’s [MTP]. Note: Sam won the argument; the illustrator for Eve’s Diary was Lester Ralph (1877-1927).
This was the day Mr. and Mrs. Frank Doubleday were invited for luncheon to hear Sam read his “Gospel of Self.” See Mar. 14 note to Lyon [MTP].
Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Frank Fuller that he was “not at all well” [MTP: City Book Auction catalogs, May 12, 1945, Item 77]. Note: This is a reply to a not extant letter from Fuller.
[OVER]
Sam also wrote to John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
I am very sorry that, after all, I cannot meet the honorary membership Thursday Evening. I am not sick—I have merely been sick, & the doctor requires me to keep to my room three of four days longer. In answer to my protest, he says, “Risks which a younger person might venture are forbidden the Methuselah of American Literature.” Do you suppose that that clumsy remark is meant as a compliment? If so, I shall find it where a doctor’s compliments are always to be found—in the bill. There should be a law against this kind of graft [MTP]. Note: see Sam’s Mar. 14 to Edward M. Foote about attending Rockefeller’s Bible class.
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Mr. Clemens began dictating again today, yesterday he couldn’t. I have just called up young John D.’s secretary to say that Mr. Clemens will not be able to be present at that famous Bible class meeting on Thursday evening.
About tea time 20 or more of the Lester Ralph illustrations for Eve’s Diary arrived from Harper’s. I carried them up to Mr. Clemens who found them beautiful, full of invention & poetry & purity & humor, and it was boundless delight to see Mr. Clemens examine & approve of each one. I often think that if the value of his approval is great, then the value of his disapproval is greater; with his loveliness & depth of character he can see & overlook many weaknesses, but where his really condemns, you won’t ever find any condemnation juster. He has temporary prejudices, thousands of them, but you learn the difference between those & the things he really condemns.
Today Mr. & Mrs. F.N. Doubleday were coming for luncheon & afterward Mr. Clemens was to read some of the Gospel, but he wasn’t well enough to do it, & so the engagement had to be cancelled. A pity too, he said, “When there’s nobody but myself issuing complete sets of microbes, we’ll invite the Doubledays again.” Jean has had a wretched cold for many days, & others of us are slightly infected, too [MTP TS 54-55].
Edward A. Cady wrote from San Francisco to ask who the original Tom Sawyer was. A man by that name lived there, a fireman on the Panama route for years who claimed to have met Clemens in Virginia City. Cady also asked if Sam recalled “poor old Ted McGinty of early days of the Comstock—he introduced you to me at Colfax Station in 1866” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote “No ans.” on the note. Neither man was identified.
Elisabeth Cutting wrote from Brooklyn, NY to Sam: “May I venture to recall myself to you as one of the many who paid their tribute to you on the evening of Colonel Harvey’s dinner?” Cutting was a member of the Women’s University Club and hoped to come to a reception in Sam’s honor on Apr. 2 [MTP].
T. Gilbert Pearson, secretary of the National Assoc. of Audobon Societies, wrote from N.Y. to ask Sam to protest by letter against the legalization of “certain species of foreign game in the State of New York during the entire year,” which would be enacted by an amendment to the state game law [MTP]. Note: Sam’s response came ca. Mar. 22.
Fatout lists Clemens as offering remarks to the Bohemians at the Hofbrauhaus, N.Y.C. [MT Speaking 675]. Note: no confirmation of this appearance was found; Fatout offers no supporting evidence but George Henschel wrote his thanks on Mar. 14 that Sam would attend this function.
Clemens’ A.D. for the day: About young John D. Rockefeller’s Sunday-school talks. Mr. Clemens is asked, as honorary member, to talk to the Bible Class. His letter of refusal. He accepts invitation from Gen. Fred Grant to speak at Carnegie Hall April 10th, for benefit of Robert Fulton Monument association. His letter of acceptance [AMT 1: 421-428]. Note: see April 10 entry.
Of the selections from Twain’s A.D.’s, DeVoto selected about half of the materials not chosen before by Paine to be included in Mark Twain in Eruption (1940); among DeVoto’s choices, was “Mr. Rockefeller’s Bible Class,” dictated this day, about John D. Rockefeller, Jr.’s class and Bible explanations [83-91].
We all think Mr. Ralph’s pictures delightful—full of grace, charm, variety of invention, humor, pathos, poetry—they are prodigal in merits. It’s a bonny Eve, a sweet & innocent & winning little lassie, & she is as natural & at home in the tale as if she had just climbed out of it. Now do you think draperies are indispensable to picture women? /Truly yours / SL. C.
Isn’t she cunning where she has been chasing Adam, & is looking after him in his flight? Do you note how dear & sweet & clean minded she is, & how charged with childlike wonder and interest? Clothes would vulgarize her—even a duchess’s [MTP]. Note: Sam won the argument; the illustrator for Eve’s Diary was Lester Ralph (1877-1927).
This was the day Mr. and Mrs. Frank Doubleday were invited for luncheon to hear Sam read his “Gospel of Self.” See Mar. 14 note to Lyon [MTP].
Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Frank Fuller that he was “not at all well” [MTP: City Book Auction catalogs, May 12, 1945, Item 77]. Note: This is a reply to a not extant letter from Fuller.
[OVER]
Sam also wrote to John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
I am very sorry that, after all, I cannot meet the honorary membership Thursday Evening. I am not sick—I have merely been sick, & the doctor requires me to keep to my room three of four days longer. In answer to my protest, he says, “Risks which a younger person might venture are forbidden the Methuselah of American Literature.” Do you suppose that that clumsy remark is meant as a compliment? If so, I shall find it where a doctor’s compliments are always to be found—in the bill. There should be a law against this kind of graft [MTP]. Note: see Sam’s Mar. 14 to Edward M. Foote about attending Rockefeller’s Bible class.
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Mr. Clemens began dictating again today, yesterday he couldn’t. I have just called up young John D.’s secretary to say that Mr. Clemens will not be able to be present at that famous Bible class meeting on Thursday evening.
About tea time 20 or more of the Lester Ralph illustrations for Eve’s Diary arrived from Harper’s. I carried them up to Mr. Clemens who found them beautiful, full of invention & poetry & purity & humor, and it was boundless delight to see Mr. Clemens examine & approve of each one. I often think that if the value of his approval is great, then the value of his disapproval is greater; with his loveliness & depth of character he can see & overlook many weaknesses, but where his really condemns, you won’t ever find any condemnation juster. He has temporary prejudices, thousands of them, but you learn the difference between those & the things he really condemns.
Today Mr. & Mrs. F.N. Doubleday were coming for luncheon & afterward Mr. Clemens was to read some of the Gospel, but he wasn’t well enough to do it, & so the engagement had to be cancelled. A pity too, he said, “When there’s nobody but myself issuing complete sets of microbes, we’ll invite the Doubledays again.” Jean has had a wretched cold for many days, & others of us are slightly infected, too [MTP TS 54-55].
Edward A. Cady wrote from San Francisco to ask who the original Tom Sawyer was. A man by that name lived there, a fireman on the Panama route for years who claimed to have met Clemens in Virginia City. Cady also asked if Sam recalled “poor old Ted McGinty of early days of the Comstock—he introduced you to me at Colfax Station in 1866” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote “No ans.” on the note. Neither man was identified.
Elisabeth Cutting wrote from Brooklyn, NY to Sam: “May I venture to recall myself to you as one of the many who paid their tribute to you on the evening of Colonel Harvey’s dinner?” Cutting was a member of the Women’s University Club and hoped to come to a reception in Sam’s honor on Apr. 2 [MTP].
T. Gilbert Pearson, secretary of the National Assoc. of Audobon Societies, wrote from N.Y. to ask Sam to protest by letter against the legalization of “certain species of foreign game in the State of New York during the entire year,” which would be enacted by an amendment to the state game law [MTP]. Note: Sam’s response came ca. Mar. 22.
Fatout lists Clemens as offering remarks to the Bohemians at the Hofbrauhaus, N.Y.C. [MT Speaking 675]. Note: no confirmation of this appearance was found; Fatout offers no supporting evidence but George Henschel wrote his thanks on Mar. 14 that Sam would attend this function.
Clemens’ A.D. for the day: About young John D. Rockefeller’s Sunday-school talks. Mr. Clemens is asked, as honorary member, to talk to the Bible Class. His letter of refusal. He accepts invitation from Gen. Fred Grant to speak at Carnegie Hall April 10th, for benefit of Robert Fulton Monument association. His letter of acceptance [AMT 1: 421-428]. Note: see April 10 entry.
Of the selections from Twain’s A.D.’s, DeVoto selected about half of the materials not chosen before by Paine to be included in Mark Twain in Eruption (1940); among DeVoto’s choices, was “Mr. Rockefeller’s Bible Class,” dictated this day, about John D. Rockefeller, Jr.’s class and Bible explanations [83-91].
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