May 31 Friday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Robert Underwood Johnson. “M . Clemens asks me to say that he cannot serve an active part in the Academy, & so regrets that he is not able to send in any nominations. He believed that his Silence would be an answer” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Mrs. William Wooster in Crisfeld, Md. “I do not read my letters, they are all read to me by my Secretary. The replies that shall be sent are determined by me. I think they are never vague, but deal in straight & definite statements easily understandable” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Santa arrived and we had a dinner tonight. Oh, such a dinner. Father Fitzsimmons, Rev. Percy Grant and a tired bored King. So tired and so bored that he nearly exploded, but he made a fine fight, and talked about Jews, and filled us with admiration over his statistics. Percy Grant had decided to return home that night, which meant we had to sit up until 11:40 and we sweated, forcing talk. The King sat under the electric light, his face luminously tired, and his eyes black as coal under his great brows—the eyebrows every fool of a barber wants to trim, and the King quietly declines to have it done [MTP TS 61-62].
Harper & Brothers wrote to Sam. “Your letter of yesterday is at hand. / In reply, we beg leave to say that we are writing to our London house, in the line of your letter, in regard to Baron Tauchnitz’s application for permission to publish” CS “in his Continental Library” [MTP].
Katharine I. Harrison wrote to Sam. “I think the enclosed check from the United States Steel Corporation for $350., Preferred stock dividend, belongs to you. Will you kindly have your Certificate made in your own name, so that your check will be sent direct to you” [MTP].
Charles J. Langdon wrote on Hotel Manhattan, NYC letterhead to Sam, enclosing check for $25 to “cover one Atlanta Gas coupon, due Juen 1 , to the estate of Susie Clemens…Don’t let those English boys over there get any the best of you. Remember that you are not Oliver Wendell Holmes” [MTP].