December 11 Friday – Sam took a quick trip into NYC, using taxis to visit H.H. Rogers, Julia Langdon Loomis, daughter Clara, and Mary B. Rogers [Dec. 12 to Langdon].
In his Dec. 6 to Margaret Blackmer Sam had expressed hope that she might visit this day. The guestbook shows that she arrived this day with her mother and stayed until Sunday, Dec. 13. See entry.
In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Champ Clark (John Beauchamp Clark), at this time Congressman from Missouri:
Now that is the very thing! If you & Mrs. Clark will come up here & give us a visit of a few days between now & the extra session we can thresh the matter out serenely without intrusions & interruptions. I will calm myself down, now, & fold my wings under my shoulders & my ears over my head & wait in tranquillity till you come.
My proposition is not a new law, but a brief & undisturbing amendment to be hitched onto the existing law.
It gives to an expiring 42-year copyright an extension of say 40 years, upon this condition: that the owner of the copyright shall at once issue an edition at one-tenth the price of the cheapest existing edition, & keep it on sale to all applicants during said extension. Failure during a period of 3 months to furnish said cheap edition to an applicant during said extension annuls the extension. The extension is to be granted upon these terms to all interests, including books, now protected by the existing law & competent to furnish the required sweeping reduction.
High-priced editions can be continued without hindrance, but there must be a ten-percent edition.
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At present the straitened-purse millions have to get along without cheap editions, almost as a rule, since the book-pirate may furnish them or not, as he chooses—& in lots of cases he doesn’t choose.
But I am proposing to make it worth the legitimate publisher’s while to furnish them, by offering to him & the author this extension reward, & this opportunity to continue their high-priced editions advantageously, & to nobody’s hurt.
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There are booksellers in every town & village in the country. They will all like the scheme.
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The pirate has no right to complain. He will still have the innumerable dead copyrights of 2500 years & of all countries to live upon—let him be satisfied with that rich gratis gold-mine.
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Let the 4 copyright bills now before Congress fuss along—they are not in my way. No man can understand them, & no Congress can pass them.
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Lord Northcliffe came up here to call, the other day, & he liked the project, & said bring it to England & he would urge it with all his battery of 52 periodicals & newspapers, including The London Times. I said I would if I failed here, but I wanted to try here first, & for once originate a copyright law, instead of always following England’s lead. / Sincerely Yours / SL Clemens
You see there isn’t a single valuable thing in any copyright law of ours that we didn’t take at second hand from England. You must make this measure your monument [MTP].
Sam also wrote to daughter Clara at 17 Livingston Place, N.Y.C.
Clärchen dear, you & G’ossip will be very welcome, even though your stay with us is to be so brief.
I am glad you went to the shore—I expect it to help your cold. I suspect that the vibrator, applied promptly & early, would keep a cold from getting a start. I’ll give you one for your Xmas if you like. It easily & quickly knocks out my two ailments—indigestion & rheumatism.
No—I am privileged to contribute to Harper publications only. This is absolute.
Mr. ’Owells the elder is coming tomorrow; also my Margaret & her mother.
Miss Lyon was to arrange the banquet details, date etc., with Quintard several days ago, so I suppose it is all arranged by this time. / With lots of love & hugs / Mark [MTP]. Note: Margaret Blackmer and mother are shown in the guestbook as arriving this day, perhaps earlier than Sam planned, but after this letter was written.
Sam’s new guestbook:
Name Address Date Remarks
Mrs. Helen Kerr Blackmer New York December 11-15
& her daughter, Margaret, M.A. From school, Irvington “ “ Of-the-shell.
Note: Sam wrote over the first date, but it looks more like a “1” than a “2”.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: To New York on the 7:37, which means breakfast at 6:30 & a sunrise drive out through the field to the darling wood road to the station. These early winter mornings, with a lifting frost mist over the valleys are too exquisite for mere words to paint. I lunched with Benar, after doing the beginning of the shopping for Christmas out here in the country. Then Benar met me at the train & together we came up to the darling paradise to find the King playing billiards with Paine [MTP: IVL TS 82-83].
In Berlin, Germany, Jean Clemens wrote a long letter to Isabel Lyon. Here is part of it, beginning with her choice of Christmas gifts:
Dear Lioness; / I am sending you two small boxes, containing, one a spider and one three wee cats & a frog. I don’t imagine that I need to state for you whom the contents of the respective boxes are intended. But I wish you would do me the kindness of putting the spider on Clara’s napkin (or in front of her plate) before breakfast or lunch (whichever is the most convenient for you) on Christmas day. The little cats & the frog I wish you would place in front of Father’s plate….Don’t show any of them to the spider [Clara] because I think she’ll enjoy their absolute idiocy more if she sees them placed, for the first time. …
I wrote Clara yesterday and in today’s letter I read that she is quite disturbed at my loss of weight, so please tell her that in the past two weeks I have gained 3 lbs in each and now weigh nearly 121 lbs. I was weighed this morning when I went to get my butter. It’s rather embarrassing but in order to get weighed, I have to ask the grocer to do it as the doctor has no machine….Sunday I was paralysed with fear for about 2 hours before my rehearsal & couldn’t sleep that night, for thinking of the part. Monday, I went to a tea and then sat around watching the rehearsal of the comedy and expecting to rehearse, so that I had all the nervousness for nothing, again didn’t sleep very well; Tuesday I rested some & rehearsed…; Wednesday afternoon I went to tea where Daisy Suart (an English Vienna friend whom I suddenly discovered on Monday, was here) was staying—to her utter amazement when I entered with a Miss Clark…; in the evening we had the charity performance & I told the story of the Golden Arm—successfully, Lioness, what do you think of that?—and danced until 2.15; Thursday afternoon I went to a concert given for the American Church and from there went home with Fr. v. Versen & had dinner with her. I had given up all tho’t of going to the concert but an English lady, who is particularly nice and cordial, brought me her ticket after lunch. I hated to decline when she had taken the trouble to bring it, so I went, & enjoyed it very much. I sat next to Mrs. Lie the wife of the Norwegian military attaché, also English. I meant to call on a lady who lives opposite & on whom I haven’t as yet made my first call, this afternoon, but as I am somewhat tired & am going to a dance tonight I shall wait until tomorrow.
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How are Scott and Prosper? Poor old dog! It made me feel like weeping when I went to the dog-show and saw similarly marked, but not nearly as fine specimens of St. Bernards. They are much smaller over here. … [MTP]. Note: Clara’s handwriting earned her the nickname “Spider” years before. Alice Von Versen (nee Clemens), Sam’s cousin. Evelyn “Daisy” Suart. Miss Mary Clark.
Alice Hooker Day wrote from NYC to Sam. “The Consumer’s League is exceedingly anxious to induce you to speak at the annual meeting in January…” [MTP].
Cass Gilbert for American Institute of Architects, Wash. D.C. wrote to Sam referring to a telegram just sent for their Dec. 17 Annual Dinner at the New Willard Hotel; speakers were listed and discussed along with various ceremonies, including one for Augustus Saint Gaudens [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 14 MLH”
B.A. Myers for Myers & Levitt, Inc. Amusement Enterprises, NYC wrote to ask if Sam was “open for a short lecture tour” [MTP].
Helen A. Ranlett for Collegiate Equal Suffrage League of NY State wrote to ask Sam to “write an article of perhaps one hundred words on the subject of suffrage” [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 11 MLH”
John Wanamaker sent a form letter from NYC to Sam. The Educational Theatre for Children had given Clemens as a reference for credit [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 14 MLH”