Tyringham Day By Day

August 1 Monday – Sam arrived in New York and visited daughter Clara to disclose Jean’s accident. Clara then left Dr. Parry’s sanatorium and traveled to Lee, Mass. to visit injured sister Jean. She would stay three days and leave just after Sam arrived on Aug. 4 [Hill 97].

August 10 Wednesday – Sam went to N.Y.C. Sam’s notebook: “New York. Clara here, sick— never well since June 5. Jean is at the summer-home in the Berkshire Hills, crippled” [MTB 1224: NB 47 TS 17]. Note: Clara was recovering from a nervous breakdown suffered after Livy’s death. Sam stayed in the City until Aug. 16 when he left for Great Neck, N.Y. on Long Island to stay with the Broughton family.

August 11 Thursday –

Mary Dunham in Lenox, Mass. wrote a short note of condolence to Sam [MTP]. Note: She signed it York Harbor; the postmark is Lenox.

Candace Wheeler wrote a short note of condolence to Sam, “to break the silence.” She felt Livy was a “freed soul” [MTP].

Sam’s notebook: “2 years ago Livy was stricken, at York Harbor, 7 in the morning. From that time until the fatal 5th of June, 1904, she never saw a well day” [NB 47 TS 17].

August 12 Friday – Jervis Langdon II wrote to Sam.

August 14 Sunday – Rev. Minot Judson Savage wrote from Billrica, Mass. to Sam, enclosing a small, fold-out schedule of his sermons and books.

Dear Mr. Clemens: / I have followed you & your work ever since I heard you lecture in Grass Valley, Cal. In 1866. You have given me more hours of pleasure than any other living writer.

Now, in your sorrow, I wish I could help you. I do not expect to. I am not so stupid as to offer you “consolation.” ….I only want to say to you that I wish I could make your burden lighter [MTP].

August 15 Monday – Sam was in N.Y.C. and had planned to go to Great Neck, Long Island to stay with the Broughtons, but was fatigued with taking care of business so went to bed at 8 p.m. and delayed the trip for a day [Aug. 18 to Loomis].

Livy’s last will and testament was filed in N.Y.C. The New York Times, Aug. 16, p.7 noted:

MRS. CLEMENS LEFT $35,000. ——

Author’s Wife Willed Property to Him and Two Children.

August 16 Tuesday – Sam stayed the night in with the Broughtons in their country place in Great Neck, Long Island, N.Y. [17 Aug. to Lyon, Aug. 18 to Loomis].

August 17 Wednesday – Sam returned to N.Y.C.. and signed a three-year lease with James A. Renwick for the house at 21 Fifth Avenue in N.Y.C. at $3,500 per year [Hill 97]. He checked in on Clara again at Dr. Parry’s, and learned that Jean was on crutches in Lee, Mass. He then returned to Great Neck [Aug. 18 to HHR; Aug. 18 to Loomis]. Note: the house would undergo repairs and be ready for the remaining Clemens family in November. Insert of 21 Fifth Ave.(corner; next to Brevoort House).

August 18 Thursday – In Great Neck, N.Y. Sam wrote to his niece, Julia Langdon Loomis (Mrs.Edward Eugene Loomis).

Julie dear, I was not able to leave town Monday afternoon in compliance with my engagement —I was worn out & broken down, so I gave up & went to bed at 8 in the evening. Next morning I reached your house by 9 or half-past, but you were gone: you, & Edward & all the dear Idas. I should have been very very glad of a glimpse.

August 19 Friday – Albert Bigelow Paine wrote to Sam. “Proofs with two extracts from your letters to Nast just came in. I enclose slip— / I think there are one or two more, later” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “These are unobjectionable”; the enclosed sheets with MT’s letter excerpts to Nast, are not dated in the text, but from the cues are: “Nast, you more than any other man have won a prodigous victory for Grant,” which is letter of Dec. 10, 1872; and “The Almanac has come,” letter of Dec. 17, 1872.

August – Sam’s notebook: contains the title of Joseph C. Lincoln’s book, Cape Cod Ballads and Other Verse, by Joe Lincoln (1902), and a stanza from the poem [Gribben: 410: NB 46 TS 33]

“Italian With Grammar” ran in the Aug. issue of Harper’s Monthly [Camfield’s bibliog.].

The Plasmon Co. of America was nearly insolvent. John Hays Hammond was now the general manager of the company and took steps to revive things. From a 1910 decision on ensuing lawsuits:

August 2 Tuesday – Sam was in New York City, likely staying at the Grosvenor Hotel.

Otto Spengler for Argus Pressclipping Bureau sent a form letter to Sam, enclosing an article (not in the file) “certainly of interest to you,” and solicting they might serve him with others [MTP].

Amy S. Hutton wrote from Tyringham, Mass to Sam. She had heard of Jean’s accident. A trained nurse, she offered her services and a wish for a “speedy recovery” [MTP].

August 20 Saturday – In a letter of July 14 Cecilia Beaux, the famous portrait artist, wrote to her friend Dorothea Gilder (dau. Richard Watson Gilder) asking to arrive this evening “for a few days.” Beaux had met Sam in London on June 1, 1900 when traveling with the Gilders (see entry). No mention of Twain appears in correspondence between the two friends, but if Beaux did in fact visit, it’s likely Sam and Cecilia saw each other sometime during the next few days [Cecilia Beaux to Dorothea Gilder Aug.

August 21 Sunday – Miss Ella McMahon in NYC wrote a short letter of condolence to Sam, enclosing a typed verse, “Not Thou But I,” by blind English poet Philip Bourke Marston (1850-1887) [MTP]. File says Margaret McMahon; Ella may have been a nickname.

August 22 Monday – By this day Sam had returned to Lee, Mass. where he wrote to Susan Crane.

Susy dear, you are right: put just the dates, as you suggest—or, add “Florence, Italy” to the “June 5, 1904”— for there is a deep pathos in that far-from-home-&-friends in the simple mention of that beyond-ocean name.

August 25 Thursday – Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Plasmon Co. letterhead to Sam, now in Great Neck, Long Island at the home of Urban H. Broughton.

August 3 Wednesday – Sam was in New York City, likely staying at the Grosvenor Hotel.

Otto Spengler for Argus Pressclipping Bureau re-sent again the form letter of Aug. 2 [MTP].

August 30 Tuesday – Barlow Brothers, book binders in Grand Rapids, Mich., wrote asking where they might find a book of his with the story of limburger cheese on a railroad car [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the back of the letter “Mr. Clemens knows the sketch, but doesn’t know the book its in—Harpers publish all & doubtless they can tell.”

August 31 Wednesday – Sam’s sister, Pamela Ann Moffett, died in Greenwich, Conn., age 76.

August 4 Thursday – Sam traveled from N.Y. to Lee, Mass: Isabel Lyon wrote in her journal on Aug.

“Last evening Mr. Clemens arrived and this afternoon Santissima [Clara] went back to N.Y.” [Hill 97]. Note: since Clara stayed with Jean for three days, she arrived Aug. 1.

Alice Hegan Rice wrote a short note from Hyannisport, Mass. to Sam, pasting a short verse on writing, “if this doesn’t warrant a house in your vest pocket, then I am no judge of literature” [MTP]. Note: the verse remains in the file, suggesting Sam did not feel the same.

August 6 Saturday – In Lee, Mass. Sam wrote to his nephew Samuel E. Moffett now in Mr. Vernon, N.Y.

Yes, Clara has been in New York, but we keep it private because her health is in a wrecked condition & it is a damage to her to see anyone. She could not escape, here. She came up last Tuesday—being uneasy about Jean who is doing plenty well enough & doesn’t need her; so she & Katy returned to New York to-day. The two railway trips will do her a damage, sure.

August 7 Sunday – In Lee, Mass. Sam wrote to Joseph Gaylord Gessford, photographer.

August 8 Monday – In Lee, Mass. Sam sent the “TO WHOM THIS SHALL COME” note to Mary Elizabeth Phillips and added, “Miss Mary E. Phillips / Lee, Aug. 8” [MTP].

Sam also sent the “TO WHOM THIS SHALL COME” note to Elizabeth S. Wood and added, “Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Wood. Aug. 8” [MTP].

Joseph Gaylord Gessford replied to Sam’s Aug. 7. “affrontery” that he had merely asked for prices of the photographs as “a formality”: “I could no more afford to give you these pictures than you can afford to write books for free” [MTP; Madsen 68-9].

July 18 Monday – N.Y.C.: Sam’s notebook: “At 9.15 I and Ugo (butler; he arrived from Italy with the horses on Friday) left for Lee & arrived at 1.07. / Jean & Katy left at 3.30 & arrived about 7” [NB 47 TS 16].

The regional paper, The Berkshire Gleaner, July 20, p. 1 reported a Monday, July 18 arrival for Sam and Saturday, July 16 for Clara and (mistakenly) for Jean.

Mark Twain Arrives.

July 19 Tuesday – In Tyringham, Mass. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to A. Chalkley Collins, that “it is impossible for him to appear in public—he is in very deep mourning” [MTP].

A. Chalkley Collins, attorney in Great Barrington, Mass. wrote to invite Sam to a celebration of “old Home Week the last day of July” [MTP]. Note: Lyon’s answer above.

Sometime between July 19 and 28, Sam posed for photographs by Joseph Gaylord Gessford in neighboring Lee, Mass. [MTP photo binders].