21 Fifth Ave - Day By Day
August 25, 1906 Saturday
August 25 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to William Dean Howells.
Dear ’Owells: / If it were my own case I should probably stand upon my innocence, & go on & publish my story “regardless”; but you are not me, & so it is different. You are better, & finer than I am, & it costs you many a pang that I escape.
August 25, 1907 Sunday
August 25 Sunday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam went to a luncheon and talked for two hours, as related by the following letter to daughter Jean in Katonah, N.Y.
August 26, 1906 Sunday
August 26 Sunday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam added to his Aug. 25 to Mary B. Rogers
Sunday, noon.
August 26, 1907 Monday
August 26 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam began a letter to Dorothy Quick he finished Aug. 27.
At last, you dear little tardy rascal! This morning I was going to stick up a notice on the back porch:
LOST CHILD!
Answers to the name of Dorothy.
Strayed, Stolen or Mislaid.
DISAPPEARED
On or about the 9th of August.
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August 27, 1906 Monday
August 27 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam finished his Aug. 25 and 26 to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.)
August 27, 1907 Tuesday
August 27 Tuesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam finished his Aug. 26 to Dorothy Quick.
Yes, Wednesday will be perfectly convenient—and we’ll have you a whole week, which is grand! Provided you don’t get homesick—& we do hope you won’t. We’ll do our very best to keep you happy & content. Miss Lyon will arrange about the trains with your mother by telephone, if she can; otherwise by letter.
August 28, 1905 Monday
August 28 Monday – At Boston, Mass. Sam wrote to daughter Clara still recovering in Norfolk, Conn.
I arrived unfatigued, and with my lameness almost gone. I have had my hair cut, have sent a telegram to Jean; shall take a bath, now, and be in bed in a few minutes or more. In spite of the gout I had a most delightful visit with you—entirely delightful. You look extravagantly pretty and sweet to-day—you were the decoration of that lunch table.
With lots of love, … [MTP]. Note: telegram not extant.
Isabel Lyon’s Journal:
August 28, 1906 Tuesday
August 28 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara in Norfolk, Conn.
Dear Ashcat, I am glad you got things arranged to your mind with Mr. Charlton, & that your outlook is so full of promise, & your heart so full of courage. This is the spirit that succeeds.
I have been away skylarking, & by consequence have been scandalously neglectful in the matter of letters to you & Jean. I’ve depended on Miss Lyon. Yes, turn my bedroom into a billiard room—I shall be entirely satisfied.
August 28, 1907 Wednesday
August 28 Wednesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick: “Dorothy dear,
I am writing you a real letter, and it will go to you in a day or two. But this is only just a line, to send you my love & say how glad we are that you are coming, and that we can have you one day earlier—which is delightful” [MTP; MTAq 47]. Note: MTAq erroneously puts this to “early August 1907,” but there was no change of plans on the earlier visit to come one day earlier. MTP puts it at Aug. 28, which is judged to be correct.
August 29, 1905 Tuesday
August 29 Tuesday – Sam left Boston on an early train to Dublin, N.H., about a three-hour trip.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Mr. Clemens arrived today, from Norfolk, quite white and showing the traces of his suffering. After his lunch he went wearily, wearily to his bed, and he slept. He is so good. This evening a telegram [not extant] came from Mr. Tayler of the Boston Globe officially announcing “Peace” and asking for a word from Mr. Clemens. He sat up in bed and wrote the word, such a strong word—and at 10 o’clock I telephoned it to Boston [see below] …
August 29, 1906 Wednesday
August 29 Wednesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam finished his Aug. 28 to Mary B. Rogers.
Tuesday, 12.50 noon. [Sam likely lost track of the day; this was Wednesday, following the sequence of the prior passages].
August 29, 1907 Thursday
August 29 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Today I went to spend the day with Santa who appeared suddenly from Norfolk. She is beautifuller than she has ever been, for Boston agrees with her and her intense happiness in her life and in her art are making for her an existence that is ideal. It was a scurry to get off—a scurry to get my home train and to bed I am—exhausted. Mr. Baker went in on my train and he has a proper appreciation of the King. So we talked forever [MTP TS 96]. Note: George Barr Baker.
August 3, 1905 Thursday
August 3 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Hock! Hock! dear Abott H. Thayer! Jean asked him to dine here tomorrow night with Mr. and Mrs. Pumpelly, but he said he couldn’t! He said it was so lovely to see Mr. Clemens all alone, and to hear him talk when there weren’t others around, that—Oh, he couldn’t—And that is only the borderland of it all, for if it is better to hear Mr. Clemens without an audience, then how best it is to just be near him in his beautiful silences [MTP TS 84].
August 3, 1907 Saturday
August 3 Saturday – John and Clara (nee Spaulding) Stanchfield visited Sam in Tuxedo Park, and stayed over through Sunday [New York Times, Aug. 4, p.7, “Tuxedo Park News”].
In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Joseph Hodges Chaote, ambassador to Great Britain, about speaking at the Sept. 23 Jamestown celebration of Robert Fulton inventing the steam boat.
August 30, 1905 Wednesday
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].
August 30, 1906 Thursday
August 30 Thursday – Sam wrote “My Literary Shipyard.” It was published posthumously in Harper’s Monthly Aug. 1922 [Camfield’s bibliog.]. Note: Sam added to the piece and titled it “When a Book Gets Tired.”
August 31, 1905 Thursday
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.
August 31, 1906 Friday
August 31 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to the Aug. 29 of Samuel Hopkins Adams of Collier’s.
August 4, 1906 Saturday
August 4 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Elizabeth Jordan, editor of Harper’s Bazaar, unable to be inspired to add to her collaborated story, his contribution being the boy character:
August 4, 1907 Sunday
August 4 Sunday – John and Clara (nee Spaulding) Stanchfield ended their two-day visit with Sam in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. [New York Times, Aug. 4, p.7, “Tuxedo Park News”].
Robert P. Elmer wrote from Wayne, Pa. to Sam, asking if the “Moult” in Chapter IV of IA was his grandfather Moulton, “Moult” being his nickname [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Answd. Aug 14, ‘07” and “Moult was a young fellow from Mo. quiet & rather diffident; he had not been away from home before. I have never heard of him since.”
August 5, 1905 Saturday
August 5 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam responded to Roi Cooper Megrue’s request of Aug. 3.
I have your favor of Aug. the 3rd in which I understand Miss Marbury to suggest that I give Mr. Timmory an extension of one year on his contracts with me; also that I grant Mr. Timmory free choice of theatre. I beg you to say to Miss Marbury I am quite willing that she shall make these concessions for me [MTP]. Note: Gabriel Timmory, French playwright.
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