July 11 Saturday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to Hélène Elisabeth Picard.
“I thank you, with enthusiasm, for the moving & beautiful Joan pictures. They are a delight to the eye & an exaltation to the spirit. Thank you again!”
Sam then related the trip from Riverdale to Elmira and gave Livy’s status since arriving:
July 11 Monday – The Clemens party was en route in the Prince Oscar from Naples to New York.
William Milligan Sloane in Princeton, N.J. wrote Sam a letter of condolence [MTP].
July 12 Saturday – Sam’s notebook contains more ideas/memories for the 50 years after story: “Boy hatched bird’s eggs in his mouth. Put it on Tom. Clock-machine to blow up something. / Nicodemus. / doughface, but scare no one mad. / Ghost on the stairs—mine. Walking in sleep—in sheet. / Shroud was used, then” [NB 45 TS 21].
July 12 Sunday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to Samuel M. Bergheim, director of the Plasmon Syndicate, London. The letter is not extant but referred to in Bergheim’s July 29 reply.
July 12 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Due to finish this melancholy voyage at 7 or 8 this evening. / Small-pox discovered this morning; 5 cases in steerage: every soul on board being vaccinated” [NB 47 TS 16].
July 13 Saturday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frank Bliss about the flap caused by Harpers calling their issues of Sam’s Uniform Edition as his “lastest & best.” He pointed out that this was Harpers’ claim, not his, and that R.G. Newbegin would say that very same thing about the American Publishing Co.’s versions.
July 13 Sunday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Charles Bancroft Dillingham, who represented theatrical managers Klaw and Erlanger. On July 27 Sam would approve Lee Arthur’s play of HF, a musical comedy [NB 45 TS 22].
A thousand thanks for remembering!
I’m going to send your cane the minute Mrs. Clemens (who is not very well this last day or two) prepares it & labels it for the express.
July 13 Wednesday – The Clemens family and Livy’s body were transported to Elmira on the Delaware and Lackawanna Railroad, in Edward E. Loomis’ private car “The Lake Forest” [NY Times July 13, “Clemens Brings Wife’s Body,” p.7].
Odoardo Luchini wrote another letter, mostly in Italian to Sam, with best wishes [MTP].
July 14 Monday – In York Harbor, Maine, Sam’s notebook contains more ideas/memory snippets for the 50 years after story : “The Hyde ruffians with their uncle down. / Mrs. Mann murderess / Haunted house—same as in Va. City. We are all assembled as ghosts when a new one arrives whom we had not counted on, for some reason. He frightens us to death & himself. ‘You to play ghost—you ain’t got judgment enough to play a live person” [NB 45 TS 22].
July 14 Tuesday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to Daniel Willard Fiske, who had replied to Sam’s request for a villa near Florence. Fiske’s reply is not extant. Sam thanked Fiske and Mr. George Gregory Smith for their efforts, but was in a quandary over a choice between Villa Papiniano, and the one recommended by Mrs.
July 15 Tuesday – In York Harbor, Maine, Sam’s notebook contains ideas/memory snippets for the 50 years after story: “The long ash on the cigar proves that there had been no struggle. / Aunt Betsy Smith, a dear old thing. Nigger show. / Our masterless ‘boy’s dog’” [NB 45 TS 22].
July 15 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Wrote Sears I couldn’t do a Xmas story for Harper’s Weekly—no literary impulses in stock. / [Horiz. Line separator] / Collier has secured a purchase-option from Am. Pub. Co.” [NB 46 TS 21]. Note: Hamblen Sears was on the staff of Harper’s Weekly; see June 16, 1902 article on the Booksellers’ luncheon.
July 16 Wednesday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Isaac Kaufmann Funk (1839-1912), Lutheran minister, editor, lexicographer, publisher and founder of Funk & Wagnalls, Co. in 1890. “Maybe you let a body have a cloth copy for less than $10 when the applicant demands canvasser’s-commission-off. / But I want the book, anyway, if you recommend it” [MTP]. Note: The Standard Dictionary of the English Language published in 1893 was perhaps Funk’s most important work.
July 16 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Bok’s photograph[er] is to come to-day or to-morrow. By appointment” [NB 46 TS 21]. Note: see Sept. 1 to Bok.
July 17 Wednesday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote a paragraph reply to Elizabeth (Ann Chase) Akers Allen (Elizabeth C. Akers).
July 17 Thursday — Harper & Brothers, sent a royalty statement to Mrs. Clemens totaling $5,358.24 due on Nov. 1, 1902 [MTP]. Sam wrote on the env. “Statement to July ’02. (not including sets) $5,400. Preserve”; this was mailed July 17 but dated June 30.
July 17 Friday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edward W. Bok.
The pictures of this place, which has been our summer home for more than a generation, are finished, & Mr. Marr has just gone. Here we shall remain until we sail for Italy toward the end of October.
July 18 Thursday – Arthur Sherburne Hardy (1847- 1930) wrote on United States Legation, Berne Switzerland notepaper to Sam.
July 18 Friday – In York Harbor, Sam wrote to an unidentified person. The Camperdown Chronicle of Victoria, Australia, p.5, carried this article, which contains Sam’s reply to a gentleman who had discovered a library in Venice, Italy containing thousands of books yet only one in English, LM.
July 18 Saturday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y.: Sam’s notebook: “Sent cable / ROZIER, Florence, Italy. Please take Papiniano a year—put business in lawyers hands. / Clemens” [NB 46 TS 21]. Note: cable not extant.
Sam wrote to Edward W. Bok.
Please strike out the words about John T. Lewis which state that before the war he was a slave. Merely strike OUT—nothing need be inserted. I always supposed he had been a slave, but it turns out that this was a mistake.
… [over]
July 19 Friday – In Ampersand, Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam replied to Edward L. Dimmitt, who had sent Sam an invitation (not extant) to Missouri’s 80th anniversary celebration.
July 19 Saturday – Speaker Magazine, p. 441-2 , ran a review of “A Double Barrelled Detective Story.” Tenney: “Chiefly descriptive: ‘…shows Mark Twain’s weaknesses as well as his strengths, but at its worst is a story that ought not to be missed’” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Third Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1979 p. 187].
July 19 Sunday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to Daniel Willard Fiske with the results of his “Long-distance house-hunting ”and sailing plans.
Dear Professor Fiske: / You did us a great kindness when you furnished us Mr. Gregory Smith to lean on. He has stood the strain handsomely, & we look forward to thanking both of you in person in November.
July – Success magazine for this month ran an article by William S. Ament, “Mary Twain’s Criticism is not Justified.” See Feb. 7 from Judson Smith, Feb. 18 to Tribune ed.
July – Cassell’s Magazine p.115-21 ran “A Day with Mark Twain.” Tenney: “On a visit to MT at Saranac Lake, New York; consists largely of familiar biographical data, with five photographs” [37].
Review of Reviews (London), p.54 included “Mark Twain and His Career.” Tenney: “Summarizes and quotes W.B. Northrop’s ‘A Day with Mark Twain’ in the July Cassell’s” [36].
July-August – William Dean Howells writes of the summer near the Clemens family: