March 31 Sunday – The New York Times, p. SM3 ran a feature article, “Mark Twain’s Wanderings At An End.” Here is the first part of a narration that reviewed Mark Twain’s life and residences:
MARK TWAIN’S WANDERINGS AT AN END
In His Seventy-third Year He Prepares to Build a Home of His Own and Settle Down—
Strange Record of Temporary Sojourn in Many Places and Countries.
Mark Twain is at last to have a home of his own building. He has wandered around the world for fifty years. Some of the time he had no home at all. In other years Missouri, Nevada, London, Paris, Berlin, Florence, and Vienna claimed him as their own. For a long time he had houses in Buffalo, New Haven, and New York, where his family lived. Still he wandered around the world, writing and lecturing. So numerous were these abiding places that a reporter sought him at his residence in lower Fifth Avenue one evening last week to straighten the matter out. The famous author explained the doubtful points. He chatted of art for a while. He exploded some of the stories told about himself—or rather put them in a way that robbed them of their traditional point.
Mark Twain, or Mr. Samuel L. Clemens in private life, made a distinction between a dwelling place and a home.
“If a man spends a month or two in a place,” he said, “the surroundings grow too familiar. Yet he may not feel at home. If he spends a couple of years there he may come to look on the place as his home.” [Note: even back then the Times was getting it wrong—Sam never owned a house in New Haven. Of course they meant Hartford].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The King is away and it is very, very lonely. Easter Sunday too. Spending Sunday with Mrs. Ladenburg, he is” [MTP TS 47]. Note: Note: see Mar. 27, 28 from Emily Ladenburg widow of Adolf Ladenburg, influential NY banker. TS error shows her as “Ladenbury.”
Albert I. Frye wrote from Brooklyn to Sam. Only the first page survives.
About two or three years ago I submitted a manuscript to a publisher who copyrighted the book without my knowledge, not even submitting to me a proof of the title page. I should like, in my forthcoming book, to have copyright protection if it can be secured without engaging a special train, grabbing the first two copies that leave the press, and hurrying to the Capitol [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Answrd. Apr. 5 ‘07”
Jervis Langdon II wrote on Hope-Jones Organ Co., Elmira letterhead to Sam, “looking forward to your arrival here Tuesday with more pleasure than I can express.” He gave train times and thought Sam would “enjoy an hour or two” with the organists [MTP].
Albert B. Paine wrote on City Hotel stationery, Sonora, Calif. to Sam. Goodman and I have just returned from Jackass Hill and Gulch and if we had picked all the year over we could not have had a more beautiful time for a trip. The weather is perfect….We found Billy Gillis at Tuttletown and Steve Gillis at Jackass Hill where mining still pays…Steve Gillis is wonderfully clear-eyed & smart and brimming over with fun. He talked over the old times and laughed until the tears came. But he is in a bad way. Repeated surgical operations have put him to bed, permanently, and he says that his time is short [MTP]. Note: Editorial emphasis on names.