21 Fifth Ave - Day By Day

August 18 Friday – Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Koy-Lo Co. letterhead to Sam, giving him an update on the lawsuit involving the Plasmon Co. of America, and asking for an additional $150 to pay attorney Baldwin for increased legal fees to contest an appeal by their opponents [MTP]. Note: Ashcroft was Secretary and Treasurer of the Co. at this time, which is how he met Sam. He would later become Sam’s secretary and accompany him to London in 1907. Sam was still in Norfolk, Conn. On or about Aug. 31 he would direct Isabel Lyon to send the $150. See entries: Dec. 1901, Mar.

August 18 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

August 18 Sunday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam added to his Aug. 17 to Dorothy Quick.

We talk about you all the time. You are not a large subject, but a very entertaining one.

“Would I like to have you read to me?” Indeed I should. I couldn’t like anything better.

Don’t you be troubled about your hand, Dorothy. It is a good hand, & has the chiefest of all merits: that it is as easy to read as print.

August 19 Sunday – Frederic Chapin wrote from Oak Park, Ill. to Sam concerning existing rights of dramatization for P&P, possible claims by Daniel Frohman, and of Elisabeth Marbury’s position as Sam’s agent. Frank Pixley, a good friend of Chapin’s who wrote The Burgomaster (1901), King Dodo (1902), The Prince of Pilsen (1903), etc. was to write the play and lyrics, but objected to having to share royalties with Marbury [MTP]. Note: Frank Pixley (1867-1919), librettist, collaborated with Gustav Luders on popular musicals; he is not Frank M. Pixley, Am.

August 19 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. in the morning, Sam added to his Aug. 17, 18 to Dorothy Quick.

“Just a WEEK” since I saw you! Why, you little, humbug, it is over 3 months; even Miss Lyon, who never gets anything straight but corkscrews & potato peelings & things like that, concedes that its’s upwards of two months. What is the matter with your veracity-mill?

===

Night.

Late July and August – Sam’s A.D. sessions continued weekdays, for two or more hours each day. During this time, after his return from England, his dictations dealt almost exclusively with his time in England and Oxford [MTE 320-46].  

August – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote his aphorism about honors deserved to E.M. Bowney [MTP: Philip C. Duschnes catalogs, No. 183, Item 98].

August 2 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “I walked with Miss Greene up to the top of Oak Hill” [MTP TS 83].

Helena Gilder wrote from “Four Brooks Farm,” Tyringham, Mass. to Sam, expressing it “a great pleasure to have Clara and find her like her old sweet self.” She was glad Sam and Jean liked Dublin. Her handwriting is somewhat inscrutable [MTP].

August 2 Thursday – Frederick W. Wile wrote from the Berlin Bureau of the Chicago Daily News:

August 2 Friday – Chatto & Windus wrote to Sam enclosing a check for £160:7:2 in royalties [MTP].

Frederick A. Duneka wrote to Sam after hearing from Harvey that Sam would give them a story for the Christmas Magazine [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Sent him Wapping Alice”

August 20 Sunday – In Norfolk, Conn. Sam began a letter to Isabel V. Lyon that he added a PS to on Aug. 21, this about the rent payment needed by Renwick on 21 Fifth Ave., since a new heating system had been installed. “If you need money, get it of Miss Harrison. Send Renwick the money, & a word hoping he is well” [MTP].

August 20 Monday – Sam referred to his What Is Man? As his “Gospel.” 250 copies of What is Man? was privately, and anonymously published by DeVinne Press, NYC.

August 20 Tuesday – The New York Times, p.3, announced “on good authority” that Rudyard Kipling was chosen for the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1907, and that Mark Twain had been suggested for same.

Joseph T. Brown for Knickerbocker Trust wrote to acknowledge Sam’s “note of the 18th,” placing an order for 1,000 shares of Utah Consolidated [MTP].

August 21 Monday – In Norfolk, Conn. Sam added a PS to his Aug. 20 to Isabel V. Lyon. They must have mailed it back and forth between Norfolk and Dublin: 

August 21 Tuesday – “Tuesday night [Aug. 21] there was a very bright play by a lad of 18, & it was done in exceedingly good style by a dozen lads & lassies, none them older than the author” [Aug. 28 to Mary Rogers].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Here is a day I wonder about. / Jean, 10:00 in my study” [MTP TS 109].

August 21 Wednesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam added to his Aug. 17, 18, 19 to Dorothy Quick.

The Busy Bee

August 22 Thursday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam finished his Aug. 17 to 21 to Dorothy Quick. “Thursday, 22. I’m collecting red cigar-belts for you against your coming—but I love you notwithstanding”  [MTAq 54].

Sam also wrote to Charlotte Teller Johnson in Staten Island, N.Y.: “I am very glad, my dear Miss T. to learn that the option has been paid at last; & since you as desire, you can send your check for the small advance I made you, but do not do it if it can inconvenience you, for there is no hurry” [MTP].

August 23 ca. – In Dublin, N.H., Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to Frederic Chapin’s Aug. 19 inquiries concerning P&P dramatic rights. At the top of Chapin’s letter, she wrote: “If there is any legal complication it arises out of an affair of ten years ago & Dan. Frohman knows all about it. Please apply to him, for Mr. Clemens is unable to do so.” On the back side page one of Chapin’s letter, she wrote: “Miss Marbury will be Mr.

August 23 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: We went over to the Deacon’s for tea this afternoon. This is the 2nd Friday that she has had a “bridge party” and we have been bidden for tea.

August 24 Thursday – Richard McCloud, attorney in Durango, Colo. wrote to Sam about a pamphlet never published which was to have contained a letter by Sam published in the Mar. 18, 1876 Hartford Courant and later in one of Sam’s books—could he say where he might find it? [MTP]. Note: written by ? in pencil at the top “Vol. 20 of Hillcrest Edition p.438”

August 24 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Dentist—a new gentile tooth. / The King returned this evening. He came in gay & jolly & darling, & full of his yachting trip to Bar Harbor & Mrs. Harry, & the joy of living. Sly, he was, & like a boy fresh from his wild oats” [MTP TS 109].

Frank N. Doubleday wrote to Sam announcing “Two copies of #11 &12 of THE BOOK go to you by express today.” He hadn’t heard back about the “fine bindings on the first 10 copies” of “What is Man?”

August 24 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Lucia Hull came this morning to have a chat with the King and he kept her until luncheon time, talking his gospel to her. She held to her own philosophy like the staunch little maid that she is and she stayed to luncheon at my invitation and then we jiggered over to her house to see her mother… [MTP 92].

August 25 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Dear Col. Higginson walked up this afternoon and had a cup of tea with me. He really came to inquire about Jean’s accident. So that is how I’ve learned about it. He talked of Mr. Clemens of course, and said that the description of the feud in Huckleberry Finn is one of the finest things in literature. He always feels that he has known those people. …I sat in my own room over my tea when I saw him coming slowly up the road. I was reading his essay on Bronson Alcott, as he came into view. … [MTP TS 90].