June 15 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Last night Mr. Clemens did not sleep very well. In fact it was one o’clock before he had even a touch of drowsiness; so this morning he did not feel like dictating. I telephoned to Mr. Paine & Miss Hobby & then after our “Business Hour” and I had written a letter or two, I went back to Mr. Clemens’s room at eleven o’clock & he began to read Mrs. Johnson’s play “Mirabeau” which arrived last Monday. I cannot find fitting words tonight with which to praise it. It is a prodigious piece of work & a remarkable one; full of interest & talent right straight through.

Mr. Clemens read 2 acts before luncheon & after resting until 3 o’clock, he read to the finish— five acts. His reading it today was inspirational, for by the evening post came a note from Mrs. Johnson asking for it, & it lies ready & stamped to go off by the morning post. Mr. Clemens read it beautifully. He has to read anything like a play aloud to get at its values, & so the day was a good one for me, & for him too, I think. C.C. cannot understand how his presence is always restful for me. And it is. If I’m tired or nervous & he comes in to talk over things, or I go to him in his tobaccoed room, I’m rested before I’ve been with him very long, & then I’m more than rested, I’m refreshed and stimulated [MTP TS 84]. Note: see also Gribben 690. See Sam’s evaluation of Johnson’s play in his June 16 letter to her.

Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Koy-lo Co. letterhead to Sam.

I returned from England this week. MacAlister sends his love to you. The English Plasmon business is apparently in very good shape….Hammond has kept his word about withdrawing the bankruptcy petition, and has paid the fees of the receiver and trustee amounting to about $2,000. All suits have been stopped, except my libel and slander suits [He also gave some details about the pin co.; MTP].

June 15 ca. – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Harper & Brothers: “If that person was authorized he naturally got his authority from C&W [Chatto & Windus], but Mr. Clemens knows nothing about it” [MTP].

Lyon also wrote for Sam to Samuel S. McClure. “M . Clemens suggests that what you do look r at he would like you to examine instead of glancing at. There are more than 200[,]000 words— Good little hotel a short half hour away” [MTP]. Note: the MS was his autobiography.