March 27 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Jean arrived suddenly this morning & quite white, & all day reporters have been flitting in & out trying to get Mr. Clemens to say something because Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer are reported as under ban in a Brooklyn library. Mr. Clemens hasn’t anything to say, he never does have, except from the depths of that glory of a bed & for private ears. Those reporters wanted to get hold of the letter he wrote to Mr. Asa Don Dickinson, “a most characteristic & most damndest letter” — but it would be a damaging letter if they could get hold of it.
Gerald Thayer came in at tea time & he & Mr. Paine closed in on a friendship—quickly as that [MTP TS 59]. Note: Sam replied to Dickinson on Nov. 21, 1905 and Mar. 26, 1906.
Clemens’ A.D. for the day: Calvin Higbie’s spelling—Clemens scheme for getting Higbie a job at the Pioneer—in 1863 Clemens goes to Virginia City to be sole reporter on Territorial Enterprise—Clemens tries his scheme for finding employment for the unemployed on a young St. Louis reporter with great success—Also worked the scheme for his nephew, Samuel E. Moffett [AMT 1: 446-451].
Sam met Charlotte Teller Johnson (b. 1876), when she knocked on his door and asked Isabel Lyon to speak with him. Teller was active in the movement to support the Russian revolutionaries, and lived a few doors down from Clemens at 3 Fifth Ave.
Robert Hirst of the MTP in a Nov. 2000 Mark Twain Forum post quoted from Teller’s (1925) privately printed S.L.C. to C.T. of how she met Mark Twain:
It was during the Russian Revolution of 1905 [sic] that word came to a group of us who were living at 3 Fifth Ave, all of us writers, that Tschaikowsky was coming with Gorki to raise money in the U.S. When he arrived I saw him, and found him much depressed because he did not know how to reach Mark Twain, whom he wanted as chairman for a big mass meeting. Although I did not know Mark Twain myself, I offered to see what could be done. I went to 21 Fifth Ave. and asked for Mr. Clemens’s secretary. She said to bring Tschaikowsky back at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. I did, and introduced the two men, both of them white haired and most distinguished in appearance. As I started to leave, Mark Twain asked me my name and when he found that I had written a “Joan d’Arc” play which was considered the previous year by Maude Adams, he asked me to come back the next morning [Mar. 28] and read him the play. I did, and when I finished he was much moved . . . . From that day I saw him almost every day for nearly three months [Note: the next day, Mar. 28, Isabel Lyon made a journal recording, touching on this day and Charlotte Teller’s return with Tschaykoffski.]
Note: Charlotte had married a Washington engineer, Frank Minitree Johnson in 1902, but at this time was either separated or divorced. After 1915 she was Mrs. Hirsch. At this time she wrote under the name Charlotte Teller and lived with her grandmother. After 1900 several of her short stories and articles were published in newspapers and journals, including Everybody’s Magazine, Harper’s Weekly, and Metropolitan Magazine. Gribben identifies the 30 year old Teller and the reading of her MS of The Cage, a play about the Haymarket Riot, which Appleton published in 1907; Sam would also read her play MS of Mirabeau in Dublin, N.H. on June 15. Gribben writes of the gossip regarding their relationship which led to a permanent split (see Oct. 21, 1906) [690].
Trombley speculates: “Undoubtedly, what drew Twain to Charlotte Teller Johnson was the combination of her youth and her talent. She probably reminded him a great deal of his lost daughter Susy, an aspiring writer” [MT Other Woman 104].
Hill, who likely did not have access to the Teller document Hirst quotes from (above), puts Sam’s meeting of Charlotte Teller Johnson to “early in 1906 at a meeting to support Russian revolutionaries” [156]. Hill likely confused the gathering on Apr. 11 as their first meeting. This is somewhat confusing because Hill quotes frequently from IVL’s journal, and clearly he missed the Mar. 28, 1906 entry where she put Johnson’s first meeting to the previous day, Mar. 27. Lystra continues the error citing Hill, but adds the claim that Isabel Lyon mounted a “defensive operation against an attractive young woman, Charlotte Teller Johnson…she had caught Twain’s eye at a meeting they both attended early in 1906 in support of Russian revolutionaries” [100]. Lystra also cites Isabel Lyon’s journal of Mar. 28, Apr. 6, 11, June 15, 1906. See also Oct. 21, 1906.
Note: when biographers cite secondary sources, which sometimes cite other secondary sources —the initial study done without access or with improper interpretation of primary sources—or, when errors are contained in primary sources, such as newspaper accounts or reminiscences— accuracy is sacrificed. This study does not pretend to be wholly accurate, but in comparing various sources it becomes evident that at times scholars have been misled.
The N.Y Times ran the following on page 9:
NEVER TOO ILL FOR A STORY.
———
“Mark Twain’s” Only Comment on Brooklyn’s Edict Against His Works.
There is a letter over in Brooklyn signed by Samuel L. Clemens, a sad man living at 21 Fifth Avenue. Mr. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, has been ill for a week with a cold which threatened him with pneumonia. Yesterday he was said to be better, but he did not feel well enough to receive interviewers and explain to them how it had happened that the Brooklyn Public Libraries, through Librarian Frank P. Hill, had put on the “restricted list” both “Huckleberry Finn” and “Tom Sawyer,” and what he had said to them in the letter he wrote on the subject.
Mr. Clemens’s secretary told the reporters that the humorist had thrown away Dante’s “Inferno,” which he had been reading, when he learned of the ban on his books in Brooklyn.
Then he proceeded to tell a story he knew of an Englishman who “bettered a story.” Here is the story as the secretary told it:
“There was once a wicked man who stayed late at his club. His wife had a cuckoo clock. As he entered the door he heard it sound twice, and on his own account added more ‘cuckoos.’ When he awoke in the morning he was happy in the belief that his wife had been deceived into thinking he had got home by 12 o’clock.
“Now this story was told by an American to an Englishman, who, lacking a sense of humor, insisted on telling the sequel. It was to the effect that the too lively gentleman learned from his spouse when he complained about not being wakened in time that she had been out on an errand. During the night she had heard the clock ‘co-co’ and decided that it had the hiccoughs, so she had taken it to the clockmaker.”
The doctor who was summoned after this story said that his patient was doing very well, indeed. The fact that Mr. Hill had refused to give out the letter in regard to the edict against “Huckleberry Finn” and “Tom Sawyer” made it impossible for Mr. Clemmens’s [sic] secretary to make it public, the communication being personal.
Jean Clemens returned from what was likely a trial stay at Lakewood Sanitarium. She would remain with the family and Miss Lyon until fall [Hill 121].
George Cary Eggleston wrote from NYC to congratulate Sam on the Brooklyn Library’s recent reflections, meaning perhaps a reconsideration on the banning of HF [MTP].
Edward M. Foote, chair of the entertainment committee for the Young Men’s Bible Class, 11 W. 45 St., N.Y. wrote his disappointment that Sam could not attend their Class Reunion, and invited him to “choose an evening in the latter part of April…when you can with comfort meet…and talk the art of lying, or whatever else is in your mind at the time” [MTP]. Note: Sam’s reply was ca. Mar. 29.
John Greenhall wrote from Leeds, England to ask Sam if it was correct that one of his daughters had converted to Christian Science [MTP]. Note: Sam replied on Apr. 6.
E.W. Halifax, secretary of the English Branch of the League for the Preservation of Swiss Scenery, wrote from London fearing a prior letter had gone astray: “Sir Maitin wished me to write & say he is disappointed we have not heard from you—If you could send us a word of encouragement it would be so valuable.” Halifax enclosed a circular [MTP]. Note: Sam’s reply from Isabel Lyon is catalogued as ca. Mar. 29, but this does not allow adequate time for the cross-Atlantic mail. Estimated time for reply here is ca.Apr. 6.
Helen Keller wrote to Sam, a letter that he inserted into his A.D. of Mar. 30.
It is a great disappointment to me not to be with you and the other friends who have joined their strength to uplift the blind. The meeting in New York will be the greatest occasion in the movement which has so long engaged my heart: and I regret keenly not to be present and feel the inspiration of living contact with such an assembly of wit, wisdom and philanthropy.
…You once told me you were a pessimist, Mr. Clemens; but great men are usually mistaken about themselves. You are an optimist. If you were not, you would not preside at the meeting.
For it is an answer to pessimism. It proclaims that the heart and the wisdom of a great city are devoted to the good of mankind, that in this the busiest city in the world no cry of distress goes up, but receives a compassionate and generous answer. Rejoice that the cause of the blind has been heard in NewYork; for the day after it shall be heard round the world. Yours…[MTP].
Arthur B. Krock wrote from the Lewis Institute, Chicago to Sam responding the the Brooklyn Library tabooing Sam’s books. His mother had argued that Matthew Arnold was a greater humorist than Mark Twain, but his father said that remark was an insult to “the Grandfather of American Literarure” [MTP].
Jean arrived suddenly this morning & quite white, & all day reporters have been flitting in & out trying to get Mr. Clemens to say something because Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer are reported as under ban in a Brooklyn library. Mr. Clemens hasn’t anything to say, he never does have, except from the depths of that glory of a bed & for private ears. Those reporters wanted to get hold of the letter he wrote to Mr. Asa Don Dickinson, “a most characteristic & most damndest letter” — but it would be a damaging letter if they could get hold of it.
Gerald Thayer came in at tea time & he & Mr. Paine closed in on a friendship—quickly as that [MTP TS 59]. Note: Sam replied to Dickinson on Nov. 21, 1905 and Mar. 26, 1906.
Clemens’ A.D. for the day: Calvin Higbie’s spelling—Clemens scheme for getting Higbie a job at the Pioneer—in 1863 Clemens goes to Virginia City to be sole reporter on Territorial Enterprise—Clemens tries his scheme for finding employment for the unemployed on a young St. Louis reporter with great success—Also worked the scheme for his nephew, Samuel E. Moffett [AMT 1: 446-451].
Sam met Charlotte Teller Johnson (b. 1876), when she knocked on his door and asked Isabel Lyon to speak with him. Teller was active in the movement to support the Russian revolutionaries, and lived a few doors down from Clemens at 3 Fifth Ave.
Robert Hirst of the MTP in a Nov. 2000 Mark Twain Forum post quoted from Teller’s (1925) privately printed S.L.C. to C.T. of how she met Mark Twain:
It was during the Russian Revolution of 1905 [sic] that word came to a group of us who were living at 3 Fifth Ave, all of us writers, that Tschaikowsky was coming with Gorki to raise money in the U.S. When he arrived I saw him, and found him much depressed because he did not know how to reach Mark Twain, whom he wanted as chairman for a big mass meeting. Although I did not know Mark Twain myself, I offered to see what could be done. I went to 21 Fifth Ave. and asked for Mr. Clemens’s secretary. She said to bring Tschaikowsky back at 2 o’clock in the afternoon. I did, and introduced the two men, both of them white haired and most distinguished in appearance. As I started to leave, Mark Twain asked me my name and when he found that I had written a “Joan d’Arc” play which was considered the previous year by Maude Adams, he asked me to come back the next morning [Mar. 28] and read him the play. I did, and when I finished he was much moved . . . . From that day I saw him almost every day for nearly three months [Note: the next day, Mar. 28, Isabel Lyon made a journal recording, touching on this day and Charlotte Teller’s return with Tschaykoffski.]
Note: Charlotte had married a Washington engineer, Frank Minitree Johnson in 1902, but at this time was either separated or divorced. After 1915 she was Mrs. Hirsch. At this time she wrote under the name Charlotte Teller and lived with her grandmother. After 1900 several of her short stories and articles were published in newspapers and journals, including Everybody’s Magazine, Harper’s Weekly, and Metropolitan Magazine. Gribben identifies the 30 year old Teller and the reading of her MS of The Cage, a play about the Haymarket Riot, which Appleton published in 1907; Sam would also read her play MS of Mirabeau in Dublin, N.H. on June 15. Gribben writes of the gossip regarding their relationship which led to a permanent split (see Oct. 21, 1906) [690].
Trombley speculates: “Undoubtedly, what drew Twain to Charlotte Teller Johnson was the combination of her youth and her talent. She probably reminded him a great deal of his lost daughter Susy, an aspiring writer” [MT Other Woman 104].
Hill, who likely did not have access to the Teller document Hirst quotes from (above), puts Sam’s meeting of Charlotte Teller Johnson to “early in 1906 at a meeting to support Russian revolutionaries” [156]. Hill likely confused the gathering on Apr. 11 as their first meeting. This is somewhat confusing because Hill quotes frequently from IVL’s journal, and clearly he missed the Mar. 28, 1906 entry where she put Johnson’s first meeting to the previous day, Mar. 27. Lystra continues the error citing Hill, but adds the claim that Isabel Lyon mounted a “defensive operation against an attractive young woman, Charlotte Teller Johnson…she had caught Twain’s eye at a meeting they both attended early in 1906 in support of Russian revolutionaries” [100]. Lystra also cites Isabel Lyon’s journal of Mar. 28, Apr. 6, 11, June 15, 1906. See also Oct. 21, 1906.
Note: when biographers cite secondary sources, which sometimes cite other secondary sources —the initial study done without access or with improper interpretation of primary sources—or, when errors are contained in primary sources, such as newspaper accounts or reminiscences— accuracy is sacrificed. This study does not pretend to be wholly accurate, but in comparing various sources it becomes evident that at times scholars have been misled.
The N.Y Times ran the following on page 9:
NEVER TOO ILL FOR A STORY.
———
“Mark Twain’s” Only Comment on Brooklyn’s Edict Against His Works.
There is a letter over in Brooklyn signed by Samuel L. Clemens, a sad man living at 21 Fifth Avenue. Mr. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, has been ill for a week with a cold which threatened him with pneumonia. Yesterday he was said to be better, but he did not feel well enough to receive interviewers and explain to them how it had happened that the Brooklyn Public Libraries, through Librarian Frank P. Hill, had put on the “restricted list” both “Huckleberry Finn” and “Tom Sawyer,” and what he had said to them in the letter he wrote on the subject.
Mr. Clemens’s secretary told the reporters that the humorist had thrown away Dante’s “Inferno,” which he had been reading, when he learned of the ban on his books in Brooklyn.
Then he proceeded to tell a story he knew of an Englishman who “bettered a story.” Here is the story as the secretary told it:
“There was once a wicked man who stayed late at his club. His wife had a cuckoo clock. As he entered the door he heard it sound twice, and on his own account added more ‘cuckoos.’ When he awoke in the morning he was happy in the belief that his wife had been deceived into thinking he had got home by 12 o’clock.
“Now this story was told by an American to an Englishman, who, lacking a sense of humor, insisted on telling the sequel. It was to the effect that the too lively gentleman learned from his spouse when he complained about not being wakened in time that she had been out on an errand. During the night she had heard the clock ‘co-co’ and decided that it had the hiccoughs, so she had taken it to the clockmaker.”
The doctor who was summoned after this story said that his patient was doing very well, indeed. The fact that Mr. Hill had refused to give out the letter in regard to the edict against “Huckleberry Finn” and “Tom Sawyer” made it impossible for Mr. Clemmens’s [sic] secretary to make it public, the communication being personal.
Jean Clemens returned from what was likely a trial stay at Lakewood Sanitarium. She would remain with the family and Miss Lyon until fall [Hill 121].
George Cary Eggleston wrote from NYC to congratulate Sam on the Brooklyn Library’s recent reflections, meaning perhaps a reconsideration on the banning of HF [MTP].
Edward M. Foote, chair of the entertainment committee for the Young Men’s Bible Class, 11 W. 45 St., N.Y. wrote his disappointment that Sam could not attend their Class Reunion, and invited him to “choose an evening in the latter part of April…when you can with comfort meet…and talk the art of lying, or whatever else is in your mind at the time” [MTP]. Note: Sam’s reply was ca. Mar. 29.
John Greenhall wrote from Leeds, England to ask Sam if it was correct that one of his daughters had converted to Christian Science [MTP]. Note: Sam replied on Apr. 6.
E.W. Halifax, secretary of the English Branch of the League for the Preservation of Swiss Scenery, wrote from London fearing a prior letter had gone astray: “Sir Maitin wished me to write & say he is disappointed we have not heard from you—If you could send us a word of encouragement it would be so valuable.” Halifax enclosed a circular [MTP]. Note: Sam’s reply from Isabel Lyon is catalogued as ca. Mar. 29, but this does not allow adequate time for the cross-Atlantic mail. Estimated time for reply here is ca.Apr. 6.
Helen Keller wrote to Sam, a letter that he inserted into his A.D. of Mar. 30.
It is a great disappointment to me not to be with you and the other friends who have joined their strength to uplift the blind. The meeting in New York will be the greatest occasion in the movement which has so long engaged my heart: and I regret keenly not to be present and feel the inspiration of living contact with such an assembly of wit, wisdom and philanthropy.
…You once told me you were a pessimist, Mr. Clemens; but great men are usually mistaken about themselves. You are an optimist. If you were not, you would not preside at the meeting.
For it is an answer to pessimism. It proclaims that the heart and the wisdom of a great city are devoted to the good of mankind, that in this the busiest city in the world no cry of distress goes up, but receives a compassionate and generous answer. Rejoice that the cause of the blind has been heard in NewYork; for the day after it shall be heard round the world. Yours…[MTP].
Arthur B. Krock wrote from the Lewis Institute, Chicago to Sam responding the the Brooklyn Library tabooing Sam’s books. His mother had argued that Matthew Arnold was a greater humorist than Mark Twain, but his father said that remark was an insult to “the Grandfather of American Literarure” [MTP].
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