June 9 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara.
Clärchen dear, many happy returns! it was a joy to hear your dear voice in the telephone yesterday.
This is a special letter. I have a note from Mrs. [Charlotte Teller] Johnson (whom you do not like), saying she has finished the 4-act play which was only in the form of skeleton-notes when I saw it the first of May. Good or bad, this is an astonishing achievement for so brief a time. I am forgetting: I did see more than a skeleton, I saw half of an act in completed form. Mansfield has sent for the MS, & Lorraine wants to read it next. This play may not be a good one, but she will write a good one yet. She has talent & industry.
She is going to ask you over to dinner; also Percy Grant, who called, the other evening, & asked to become an ex-resident member of the “A Club”—that group of 13 pen-laborers at No. 3. Perhaps you will decline, but I hope not.
There’s been no way to kill time, after my 2 hours of dictation, mornings, & I was likely to die of the boredom of it. But now I am saved. I have come across a story whose two heroes are Bambino and an old Admiral, & am enthused by it, & am going straight to work and finish it. It will take a couple of months; & so, my afternoons will not be dreary hereafter.
With ’bunnance of hugs & kisses & birthday congratulations, / Father [MTP]. Note: no recent note from Charlotte Teller Johnson is extant. See June 18 to Clara. The “A Club” at 3 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. was a group of writers living together, including Mrs. Johnson. See Apr. 11 entry for McFarland’s description of the “A Club,” strictly speaking not a club but a commune.
Sam also wrote to Charlotte Teller Johnson at 3 Fifth Ave. N.Y. “It is fine news. I wish I could be present, but shall be delayed until Monday or Tuesday” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
These are days of struggle & I can’t write very much. Mr. Clemens is not altogether satisfied with the dictating. It comes too regularly & he can never stand routine of any kind.
Oh, but it has been a damned enough day. Jean was insolent to her father. He stayed in his bad all the afternoon. Climaxes are coming—the [illegible word]’s letter came & my great spirit sat & wrote Oh C.C. [several illegible words], & here I sit waiting for the electric lights to go out at [illegible word] & I’m smoking cigarettes [illegible words].
June 9, 1906—From Dublin I am writing Miss Hyde for she predicted calamity for me a year hence & the ghost—the demon of that calamity is ever beside me [MTP TS 80].
Samuel S. McClure wrote to Sam, thinking it might be profitable to syndicate some of Sam’s books, like RI and TS. He suggested Sam ask H.H. Rogers about the idea. Also, he wrote, “Mr. Will Irwin of San Francisco, who rewrote the copy of the New York Sun describing the earthquake will call upon you within a few days. I think that we ought to get together and squeeze all the money there is to be had for you out of your work serially. I wish to heaven I were the publisher of your book[s]” [MTP].
D. Willers wrote from Fayette, NY to invite Sam to “Old Home Week” commencing Aug. 19 [MTP].
Clärchen dear, many happy returns! it was a joy to hear your dear voice in the telephone yesterday.
This is a special letter. I have a note from Mrs. [Charlotte Teller] Johnson (whom you do not like), saying she has finished the 4-act play which was only in the form of skeleton-notes when I saw it the first of May. Good or bad, this is an astonishing achievement for so brief a time. I am forgetting: I did see more than a skeleton, I saw half of an act in completed form. Mansfield has sent for the MS, & Lorraine wants to read it next. This play may not be a good one, but she will write a good one yet. She has talent & industry.
She is going to ask you over to dinner; also Percy Grant, who called, the other evening, & asked to become an ex-resident member of the “A Club”—that group of 13 pen-laborers at No. 3. Perhaps you will decline, but I hope not.
There’s been no way to kill time, after my 2 hours of dictation, mornings, & I was likely to die of the boredom of it. But now I am saved. I have come across a story whose two heroes are Bambino and an old Admiral, & am enthused by it, & am going straight to work and finish it. It will take a couple of months; & so, my afternoons will not be dreary hereafter.
With ’bunnance of hugs & kisses & birthday congratulations, / Father [MTP]. Note: no recent note from Charlotte Teller Johnson is extant. See June 18 to Clara. The “A Club” at 3 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. was a group of writers living together, including Mrs. Johnson. See Apr. 11 entry for McFarland’s description of the “A Club,” strictly speaking not a club but a commune.
Sam also wrote to Charlotte Teller Johnson at 3 Fifth Ave. N.Y. “It is fine news. I wish I could be present, but shall be delayed until Monday or Tuesday” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
These are days of struggle & I can’t write very much. Mr. Clemens is not altogether satisfied with the dictating. It comes too regularly & he can never stand routine of any kind.
Oh, but it has been a damned enough day. Jean was insolent to her father. He stayed in his bad all the afternoon. Climaxes are coming—the [illegible word]’s letter came & my great spirit sat & wrote Oh C.C. [several illegible words], & here I sit waiting for the electric lights to go out at [illegible word] & I’m smoking cigarettes [illegible words].
June 9, 1906—From Dublin I am writing Miss Hyde for she predicted calamity for me a year hence & the ghost—the demon of that calamity is ever beside me [MTP TS 80].
Samuel S. McClure wrote to Sam, thinking it might be profitable to syndicate some of Sam’s books, like RI and TS. He suggested Sam ask H.H. Rogers about the idea. Also, he wrote, “Mr. Will Irwin of San Francisco, who rewrote the copy of the New York Sun describing the earthquake will call upon you within a few days. I think that we ought to get together and squeeze all the money there is to be had for you out of your work serially. I wish to heaven I were the publisher of your book[s]” [MTP].
D. Willers wrote from Fayette, NY to invite Sam to “Old Home Week” commencing Aug. 19 [MTP].
Entry Date
Links to Twain's Geography Entries