May 3 Friday – In  London Whitelaw Reid sent a momentous cable to Sam in care of Harper & Brothers, N.Y. It was received in New York at 2:40 p.m.

“OXFORD UNIVERSITY WOULD CONFER DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF LETTERS ON YOU ON JUNE 26 BUT PERSONAL PRESENCE NECESSARY CABLE ME WHETHER YOU CAN COME” [MTFWE 4]. Note: in his May 23 A.D. Sam reflected on the cablegram and his acceptance “without any waste of time.” See MTFWE p.4-5 for the full text. Insert Cable: [Baetzhold 243].

Sam then cabled Reid and also wrote a note. His cable:

June 8 Saturday – Clara Clemens’ 33rd birthday. She saw her father off for England [MTB 1381]

June 8-17 Monday – On board the S.S. Minneapolis en route to England, Sam wrote to Carlotta Welles (whom he dubbed “Charlie”) on a calling card:

“Charlie, dear, you don’t know what you are missing. There’s more than two thousand porpoises in sight, & eleven whales, & sixty icebergs, & both Dippers, & seven rainbows, & all the battleships of all the navies, & me. / SLC” [MTAq 40].

Sam’s A.D. of July wrote of the voyage and of Carlotta (Charlie):  

June 9 Sunday –  Isabel Lyon’s journal: Ah, it was fortunate that Santa and Will [Charles E. Wark] and I went off for a holiday up to the Bronx and to drive at—I cannot remember where. I believe my little remaining reason would have gone for I was growing lonelier with every hour, if we had not had real and new diversion. I shall stay on here until Thurs. or Friday, for now that C.C. has put all the house-keeping into my hands I shall begin tomorrow with these upper rooms [MTP TS 66].

June 10 Monday – Peter Richards drew a sketch of Mark Twain sometime during the voyage. See insert, captioned: “Sketched from life by P. Richards.” 

June 11 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: This morning a man name o’ Johnson came in to talk to me about the King’s first editions. He was sent by Cartoonist Opper to AB, but not finding either he “bumped the bumps himself” and came along. He wants to make a bibliography of the King’s books. He sees money in it and wants to take me into a kind of partnership—“graft”—the King will say for I have written him a scrap of a note about it. I am so grateful for work, hard work, for now the loneliness is greater as Santa is ill with tonsillitis, really wretchedly ill.

June 12 Wednesday – H.H. Rogers replied from Vichy, France to Sam, likely to his May 29 from Tuxedo Park. He’d rec’d Sam’s letter and thought they would meet in London as he was also invited by Lancaster of Liverpool to the Pilgrim’s Luncheon. Rogers family’s plans were to go to Paris on June 19 and to London on June 23, then on to Liverpool on June 27 and sail from Queenstown the next day. He announced if Sam wished to return with them they’d be delighted: “The only essentials this time will be drunkenness, profanity and sodomy” [MTP]. 

June 13 Thursday – After mailing his letter of the prior day to Liverpool and learning that Sam went to London, not Liverpool, H.H. Rogers wrote again from Vichy, France, essentially repeating his news and plans of the prior letter, signing “Admiral” [MTHHR 628].

Isabel Lyon’s journal summary: Lyon went to Redding but refused to allow a female to drive her from Branchville to the new house site, as she’d been in two accidents prior with female drivers. Finally a male was there to drive her:

June 14 Friday – On board the Minneapolis en route to England Sam wrote an aphorism for German cartoonist Peter Richards, who was returning to Berlin after working for various US newspapers for two decades: “Taking the pledge will not make bad liquor good, but it will improve it. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / For / Mr. Richards / June 14/07.” [MTP]. Note: see June 16 for more on Richards.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: All day I have been thinking about the little Redding house, and it is a good thing again to have something to take my mind away from loneliness.

June 15 Saturday – On board the Minneapolis en route to England Sam gave a reading from his Autobiography MS, though it is not known just what he read [Fatout, MT Speaking 676].     Written across the top of the second and third pages of a concert program held in the saloon in aid of the Seaman’s Orphanage at 8:30 p.m.: “Please tell the story of the twins, one got drunk and affected the other” [MTP]. Note: Source gives this as to Carlotta Welles.

June 16 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: It’s a hot Sunday night and I’m sitting in Santa’s music room. The sounds from the streets would make one think of a terrible carnival; for the automobiles whirl along with toots and siren calls and trumpettings and now there is a motorcycle zipping down toward Washington Square and small boys are making whistles of grass blades and as I glance out of the window couples—and couples—forever saunter past. It is I alone who sit companionless [MTP TS 70].

June 17 Monday – The last night on board the Minneapolis en route to England, Sam wrote a poem on the back of a menu to Carlotta Welles:

There’s many a maid that’s dear & sweet,

In Paris, Versailles, Marly

But not one maid in any of those before-mentioned towns

That can compare with Charley. / M.T.

Front seat—don’t forget [MTAq 41].

June 18 Tuesday – The S.S. Minneapolis docked at Tilbury, England at 4 a.m.

Just after 10 a.m., Sam came down the gangplank and was roused by the lusty cheers of the stevedores. In a few minutes he first met George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) on the dock. The Pall Mall Gazette, p. 7, reported:

“G.B.S.” AND MARK TWAIN.

FIRST MEETING OF TWO GREAT MEN

THE PALMIST’S PREDICTION.

——— ——— ———

A BIOGRAPHY AND AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

June 18-July 13 Saturday (the dates of the English visit) – Richard Barr wrote from Leeds: “I have some sympathy wth funeral festivities, my own are in course of preparation. I intend being present. I’m a bit ‘put out’ that I can’t sing at yours….The papers say you are to meet Paderewski. Please do not take any free lessons at the piano. I do not wish you to have a hasty funeral” [MTP].

June 19 Wednesday – Paine gives us Sam’s busy schedule the day after his arrival:

Sir Thomas Lipton and Bram Stoker, old friends, were among the first to present themselves, and there was no break in the line of callers.

June 20 Thursday – Sam pulled off a breach of etiquette at 8 a.m. that was widely reported, and one Livy would undoubtedly have scolded him for. New York Times, June 21, p.1, dateline June 20, London:  

TWAIN STARTLES LONDON.

Strolls in Bathrobe and Bare Legs from Hotel for a Plunge.

Special Cablegram.

Copyright, 1907, by THE NEW YORK TIMES CO.

June 20 or 27 — M.A. FitzGerald wrote from Hyde Park asking if Sam could “spare a little time?” as he “must speak with you” about an unspecified matter [MTP].

June 21 Friday – When newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic reported on Mark Twain venturing out on the street in his bathrobe (Paine calls it a “heavy brown bath robe,” the papers called it “sky-blue”) Clara Clemens cabled: “MUCH WORRIED. REMEMBER PROPRIETIES” [MTB 1384-5; IVL TS 75].  Sam replied by cable to Clara: “THEY ALL PATTERN AFTER ME. FATHER.” [MTP].

June 22 Saturday – Sam attended the Royal Garden Party at Windsor, which marked the end of Ascot week. Ten special trains were scheduled between Paddington and Windsor. The Lord Chamberlain issued the invitations. Mark Twain was accompanied by Ralph Ashcroft (left), and Mr. and Mrs. John Henniker Heaton. See insert photo [MTFWE 27].

June 23 Sunday – At Brown’s Hotel in London, Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Katonah, N.Y.  

I have been having a rather perfect good time since we reached England last Tuesday morning. The first greeting was a hail & a hurrah from the stevedores on the dock; & since then I have climbed all the rounds of the ladder & shaken hands with all the grades, from the stevedores on up to king & queen.

June 24 Monday – At Brown’s Hotel in London Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote for Sam to Marie Corelli.

“Mark Twain thanks you for having saved him from the crime of high treason to literature & he will accordingly visit the tomb & house of the Bard of Avon & take luncheon with you—if it will be convenient to you—a Saturday June 29th which is the only possible date” [MTP].

June 25 Tuesday – This day’s issue of Punch was dedicated to Mark Twain, and included a full-page cartoon, by Bernard Partridge (see insert); the original would be presented to Sam at the July 9 Punch dinner by little Joy Agnew. The New York Times, June 26, 1907, p. 5, ran a Special Cablegram article on the “certification” of Mark Twain as a humorist by the publication.

MARK TWAIN HUMOR APPROVED BY PUNCH

A Big Cartoon Dedicated to Him and the Staff Will Dine Him.

June 25-28 — C. Hempel, hairdresser, Oxford, asking for the honor of shaving him during his stay, adding him to the celebrities served [MTP].

June 26 Wednesday – The big day in Oxford, England: The Encoeonia (conferring of degrees) took place at the Sheldonian Theater in the morning.

Exactly one month later, Sam wrote of the affair: