August 30 Wednesday – Sam was back in Dublin, N.H.
Isabel Lyon’s journal:There’s a copy of the Boston Globe here—and each man’s opinion of peace hops gleefully along on the heels of the last speaker. Same thought, same Hurrah! Mr. Clemens’s words alone stand as the words of a man thinking out the problem for himself and daring to speak his thought. In fact he couldn’t not speak his thought, for his thoughts are like great blazing torches, bursting into flame by force of the life within them and unextinguishable [MTP TS 92].
21 Fifth Ave - Day By Day
August 31 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Katharine B. Clemens (Mrs. James Ross Clemens) now in Cobourg, Canada.
I am just back from a gout-smitten 3-weeks’ visit to Clara in her rest-cure in Norfolk, Conn; & short as the distance is, I find the travel worse than the gout. I shan’t take any more journeys.
St. Louisians do not seem to mind railroading at all—they come here every summer, & they have houses of their own here. I suppose Miss Tracy saw Jean, not Clara, but Jean is absent & I can’t find out.
September – Miss Carrie Rosenheim of Baltimore, Md. wrote to Sam, calling him a “dear” and asking for an autograph [eBay item 230470822748, May 5, 2010]. Note: not extant but referred to in sale of Sam’s Oct. 9 reply.
Joseph Gilder’s article, “Glimpses of John Hay,” ran in Critic p, 248-52. Tenney: “Briefly tells of an evening with MT, Hay, James Russell Lowell, and Henry Adams, in Washington, January 1886” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide First Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1977 p. 331].
September 1 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to the Aug. 19 of William Hill. Sam was not well enough to write letters, she wrote, and he was seldom moved to write anything, and what he did write belonged to Harper & Brothers as he had a “very rigid contract” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s Journal: “I have written to Miss Bright that I cannot, cannot, cannot write that article. Evey bit of me rebels, every bit of my mind and body” [MTP TS 92]. Note: see Aug. 26 entry.
September 2 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote per Lyon to Ralph W. Ashcroft, again warming him not to put Clemens’ name in any letters; he advised him again not to send any letters without submitting them to William Woodward Baldwin, the American Plasmon Co.’s attorney. “They are awful letters & will do you great harm” [MTP]. Note: Ashcroft had wanted to send a letter out to interested parties including Sam’s name and pasting a picture of a crowing rooster after announcing initial victories in court over John Hays Hammond and his allies in the company.
September 3 Sunday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara in Norfolk, Conn. mentioning the $2,600 Orchestrelle, which had been disassembled in New York and shipped to Dublin some time before.
P.S. / Sept. 3.
P.S. / Sept. 3.
September 4 Monday – Len G. Westland wrote from London, Ontario Canada to offer Sam his “sincere admiration” and “best wishes for a long life…I raise my hat to you sir” [MTP]. Note: a day or two later ? Sam replied: “And, I, also, take off my hat to you; and with many thanks to you for what you have said”
Isabel Lyon’s journal:This morning Mr. Clemens sent for me to talk over the arrangements for a talk before some Boston Club—a woman’s club, and he spoke of all that femaleness as a “Bull fight!”
Isabel Lyon’s journal:This morning Mr. Clemens sent for me to talk over the arrangements for a talk before some Boston Club—a woman’s club, and he spoke of all that femaleness as a “Bull fight!”
September 5 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied by telegram to one from George B. Harvey that he was unable to come the Metropolitan Club dinner on Sept. 7 for the Russian envoys who negotiated a favorable treaty for Russia in the Russo-Japanese war. Sam would follow an explanation by letter [MTP]. Note: see Harvey’s original telegram and Lyon’s entry below.
George B. Harvey sent a telegram to Sam:
George B. Harvey sent a telegram to Sam:
September 6 Wednesday – Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote Koy-Lo Co. letterhead to Sam, enclosing a letter from attorney Edward Lauterbach, who did not think Ashcroft had jeopardized himself in writing to Hammond. Ashcroft also enclosed a cartoon and a “want ad” from the NY Herald which he swore he had not placed [MTP].
September 7 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
I want to send you Twichell’s letter, but it is lost—not permanently, I merely can’t find it. I was going to carry it to you when I thought I was going to Fairhaven from Norfolk, & so I must have put it away too carefully. I will find it between now & next time I see you.
I do not get entirely over my lameness, & the gout has never kept up its threatenings so long before. Certainly the righteous do have a rough time of it in this world, I wish I was like Rice.
September 8 Friday – E. Hampden-Cook, Congregational Minister in Sandbach, Cheshire, England wrote to Sam, upset that many in England were turning away from traditional churches to Christian Science. He’d contacted Chatto & Windus hoping to print Sam’s Christian Science article from the Oct. 1899 Cosmopolitan in a cheap brochure, which he could distribute to the masses. Sam’s English publishers had replied to him that their arrangements would not allow them to give their permission [MTP]. Note: Sam’s response is estimated to be ca. Sept.
September 9 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
September 10 Sunday – Sam’s Sept. 5 note to George B. Harvey, explaining why he could not meet the Russian envoys (who had negotiated the Portsmouth Treaty) at a dinner at the Metropolitan Club last Thursday, Sept. 7 was published in the New York Times, p. 2, “Twain’s Tribute to Envoys.” See Sept. 5.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: His morning Mr. Clemens read aloud to me some more of the [his] Gospel.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: His morning Mr. Clemens read aloud to me some more of the [his] Gospel.
September 11 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Mr. and Mrs. Sumner, Mrs. Greene and Miss Greene dined here. Mr. Clemens wasn’t well. He is suffering from indigestion and he wasn’t himself and everything went wrong.
Jean went to look at the Upton house for another year.
I went with Miss Greene for a little drive up to Mr. Pumpelly’s wonderful height [MTP TS 96]. Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Jean went to look at the Upton house with a view to taking it for next summer & she likes it” [MTP TS 27].
Jean went to look at the Upton house for another year.
I went with Miss Greene for a little drive up to Mr. Pumpelly’s wonderful height [MTP TS 96]. Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Jean went to look at the Upton house with a view to taking it for next summer & she likes it” [MTP TS 27].
September 12 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Jean—Bathroom, 10 AM. Mr. Clemens has been in bed all day living on toasts and gruels and he is nervous. The indigestion seems better but its traces remain. A letter came today from Col. Harvey in which he said that he showed the letter Mr. Clemens wrote, in response to the invitation to the banquet to the Russians, to Mr. Witte. He couldn’t read it—so it was translated for him and he asked for it to take it back to Russia to his Czar [MTP TS 96].
Jean—Bathroom, 10 AM. Mr. Clemens has been in bed all day living on toasts and gruels and he is nervous. The indigestion seems better but its traces remain. A letter came today from Col. Harvey in which he said that he showed the letter Mr. Clemens wrote, in response to the invitation to the banquet to the Russians, to Mr. Witte. He couldn’t read it—so it was translated for him and he asked for it to take it back to Russia to his Czar [MTP TS 96].
September 13 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “A wooly game! Today Mrs. Henderson came with two of her delightful children. Mr. Clemens isn’t very well—he is on a strict diet of plasmon and broths and he looks white and badly” [MTP TS 96, 98].
Albert Lee for Collier’s Weekly wrote to Sam, enclosing a check for $150 for payment of his article on Christian Citizenship. “We have received a number of letters concerning it, among others one from a gentleman who sends you a ticket to Heaven, which I submit herewith” [MTP].
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September 14 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
September 15 Friday – Dublin, N.H.: Sam wrote to Clara Clemens. Clärchen dear, I have just written the [Hotel] Touraine that you & Miss Alling may possibly arrive Tuesday the 19th ; & to take care of you. I have told Katy you are going to New York the 20th; you will see her there.
September 16 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to Lilian W. Aldrich’s Sept. 15:
Dear Mrs. T.B.: / You don’t need the secretary. Mr. Rogers does not see very many of the business letters that go to 26 Broadway, but he sees & reads all the personal letters that go there addressed to him.
I am going to hope with all my might that I can go from another friend’s house in Boston about the 27th or the 28th of October & have a day with you; but I’ll have to excuse Jean—she would be too much responsibility for me.
September 17 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: This afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Learned came in for a dish of tea, and then Mr. Pearmain and Mr. Montague came in too later—and the 3 of them sat and talked in front of the open fire, and they smoked. Jean went off to the Henderson’s and Mr. Clemens read an article to me that he has been working on lately. Oh its about the Interpretation of the Deity, so wonderful and strong, and true like every bit of that wonderful brain of his [MTP TS 98, 100].
September 18 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote a sketch unpublished until 2009: “The Privilege of the Grave” [Who Is Mark Twain? xxvi, 55-60].
In Dublin, N.H. Sam also replied to the ca. Sept. 15 from Mrs. Minnie Maddern Fiske (1865-1932), born Marie Augusta Davey in New Orleans, leading actress from childhood on, and also a playwright and activist for artistic freedom.
September 19 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Lyon sent Sam’s biographical sketch by Moffett to the Knickerbocker Publishing Co. Sam’s letter with enclosure is not extant but referred to in the Publisher’s Sept. 20 letter [MTP].
September 20 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
September 21 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to George B. Harvey
“Dear Colonel— / All right, bang away, go ahead. Yes it will be a ‘red-letter day,’ & a red-headed day, too, for Old Age will take the scalp of Belated Youth that day—mine, to-wit” [MTP]. Note: likely a go-ahead for Harvey’s plans to honor Mark Twain’s 70th birthday.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: All the days are sprinkled with pin cushions. They’re pretty little creatures, and best of all they sell. Teresa calls them my boys. George MacDonald is dead at 83
September 22 Friday – At 9 a.m. in Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Thomas S. Barbour of the Congo Reform Assoc., Boston, that he was “sending something which you should stop the press & add if humanly possible.” Mounted on another page was the following:
KING LEOPOLD’S SOLILOQUY
THE PUBLISHERS DESIRE TO STATE THAT MR. CLEMENS DECLINES TO ACCEPT
ANY PECUNIARY RETURN FROM THIS BOOKLET, AS IT IS HIS WISH THAT ALL
PROCEEDS OF SALES ABOVE THE COST OF PUBLICATION SHALL BE USED IN