January 1 Wednesday – In N.Y.C. Sam attended a farewell dinner for William Dean Howells at the Metropolitan Club, thrown by Col. Harvey. According to Lyon’s datebook for Jan. 2, Sam spoke last after six speeches [MTP: IVL TS 1]. See entry.
Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Robert Underwood Johnson. “Dear Mr. Johnson: / Mr. Clemens asks me to write for him to say that he is not sufficiently interested to vote on coming membership” [MTP]. Note: Lyon dictated this to Josephine Hobby.
Sam also wrote to Eden Phillpotts.
New Years Day, 1908
My dear Friend;
There above I have tried the new date for the first time—& most strange & impertinent & intrusive it does look! However, this is not a novelty: 65 of its ancestors have affected me in the same way. In offering to dedicate the book to me you do me high honor, & I accept your “select party of rascals” gratefully. This is the best New Year’s Gift I have received.
What an unforgetably lovely time I had in England! It can never be duplicated in this world, & there are some who think it wont be in the next. Your sincere friend & persistent admirer these many years [MTP]. Note: Gribben p. 544 identifies the forthcoming book dedicated to Mark Twain as The Human Boy Again (1908); see Sam’s 26 Apr 1908 to Phillpotts, when the book arrived.
Sam also wrote a “Happy New Year to my dear Whitmore from the ‘great White Brer’” postcard to Franklin G. Whitmore and Harriet E. Whitmore. The other side showed Mark Twain reclining in bed, and a poem by L.J. Bridgman to Mark Twain [MTP].
* John W. Postgate wrote to inquire about dramatizing JA [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Refer him to Miss Marbury / 1430 Bway”
Dorothy Quick signed a Happy New Year card “With love from Dorothy” [MTP].
John M. Warbeke wrote from Williamstown, Mass. “We are in need of some of your spirit in Williams College”—would he visit “on some auspicious occasion”? [MTP]. Note: “H” (Hobby) wrote on the letter, “ans Jan 4”