December 19 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Opera with Col Harvey / Owen Wister coming, 10.30.” [Note: source gives Livy as writer of the opera engagement. Also:] “dinner with Harvey. See Monday. His carriage will arrive for me at 6.30” [NB 43 TS 31-32].
December 18 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Dinner at Mr. Mott’s 8 pm 17 E 47th / HOWELLS Lunch at 1 Century Club 7 W. 43d” [NB 43 TS 31]. Note: Jordan Lawrence Mott, Jr.; Sam gives the same address for Mott as he did in his Dec. 9 entry, connecting Mott to Winston Churchill’s visit.
Sam lunched with William Dean Howells at the Century Club [MTHL 2: 725: NB 43 TS 31].
At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Mrs. Elizabeth Evans.
December 17 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Possible dinner with Harvey. See Thursday / The whole family dinner Rogers—telephone or Thursday” [NB 43 TS 31].
Sam wrote a reply to Richard Watson Gilder (incoming not extant), about the price of an article:
Dear Gilder: / But won’t you offer a price yourself? And make it a final one, so’s we shan’t lose time dickering.
December 16 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Two tickets in card-case for Xn Science lecture by ex-Judge Clarkson (Omaha) Carnegie Hall 3 p.m.” [NB 43 TS 31]. Note: Joseph Clarkson gave a lecture to a packed hall in support of Mrs. Eddy and Christian Science, which he claimed had performed two million cases of healing [NY Times, Dec. 17, p. 7].
December 15 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “N.E. Dinner?” [NB 43 TS 31].
Harper’s Weekly featured a cover portrait of Mark Twain by the renowned English artist William Nicholson. No text was given. See insert.
December 14 Friday – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Irving Bacheller.
December 13 Thursday – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote one line on a postcard to Augustus T. Gurlitz, a N.Y. attorney he considered hiring: “What would it cost?—definitely” [MTP]. Note: Sam wanted to bring suit against Chicago publisher Butler Brothers for issuing an unauthorized edition of the “Library of Wit and Humor by Mark Twain.”
Sam’s notebook: “Aldrich, Boston?” [NB 43 TS 31].
December 12 Wednesday – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Edmund Clarence Stedman.
“It is most kind of President Dodge, but I am most likely to stay at home, for I am dead, dead, dead tired of talking & feeding. I have crept out of all my engagements except one tonight & one in the middle of January…” [MTP].
December 11 Tuesday – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Augustus T. Gurlitz, N.Y. Attorney for Kipling at this time.