November 9 Friday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich arrived at 21 Fifth Ave. for a weekend stay with Twain. He left on Sunday, Nov. 11 [Lyon to H. Whitmore Nov. 12].
William Dean Howells, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Andrew Carnegie, and George B. Harvey attended Sam’s “Stag dinner party” to meet the English dramatist Henry Arthur Jones. Sam described the time after the dinner: …I had to sit still until eleven o’clock—which nearly killed me with fatigue; then I heard Clara in the hall, & rushed out & dragged her in. Everybody had to get up, then, & this gave me a chance to stretch my legs. The others left, & the Colonel [Harvey] and I went up stairs & played billiards till 1.15, & Aldrich umpired the games [Nov. 13 to Jean].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: The King had a buck dinner here tonight for Mr. Thomas Bailey Aldrich arrived to stay 2 nights in the house. Aldrich, the poet, & the author of beautiful Marjorie Daw. Those who came were Mr. Howells, Mr. Carnegie, Mr. Henry Arthur Jones, & Colonel Harvey, who with the King & Mr. Aldrich made a batch of immortals. (I don’t include Col. Harvey in that & perhaps not Mr. Jones.) However, the King nearly died of the fatigue such a dinner gives him. He flies that sort of thing in misery, & henceforth he says he will give only luncheons, for after the long strain he cannot sleep, & he nearly asks them to go, much as he enjoys the having of them. I peeped through the opening over the portiere, on my way up the stairs at 9:45 and they made a fine picture as they sat around the dining table. But I could see that the King was restless & was perched on the front edge of his chair, leaning forward with his hands on his knees. What an exquisite creature he is.
Mother & AB & I had such a nice dinner at the St. Denis. AB was very handsome & I let my cone blow off in a hot nervous misery & I talked of pent-up things [MTP TS 144-145].
Garth W. Cate wrote to Sam, sending him his copy of HF that needed to be rebound. But before it was, Cate requested Sam to “slap in your ‘John Hancock’ somewhere, or else send a letter back with it that can be bound in” [MTP].
David M. Jones wrote from the Rectory, Brisbane Valley, Australia to appreciate “Eve’s Diary” in the London Spectator, and thanked Sam for making his weary hours easier. Jones was Welsh, and if they were to meet “on the other side” he would do his best to teach him Welsh, so asked Sam, “Please do not go where no Welshman hopes to go” [MTP]. Note: See sam’s reply Dec. 27.