November 19 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to John M. Dickey in Indianoplis, Ind.
Dickey had evidently asked for copies of letters to and from James Whitcomb Riley the “Hoosier Poet”.
To The Person Sitting in Darkness: Day By Day
November 20 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to David A. Munro of the North American Review who wrote on Nov. 19: “Mr. Franklin’s count may be right but it falls short of my estimate by about 4000 words. Did he count 35 pages of reprint? That much of the reprint has never been published” [MTP].
In N.Y.C. William Dean Howells wrote to Sam, having rec’d a letter from Charles W. Stoddard.
November 21 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Jean fainted to-day—the first time in 16 weeks & 1 day” [NB 45 TS 34].
M.C.B. Hart wrote from NY to ask Sam for his autograph on a clipping or a book of articles [MTP].
David A. Munro wrote to Sam, deeply regretting that a “blunder” had been made on word count (evidently pointed out by Sam); and enclosed an additional $105 check [MTP]. Note: see Nov. 19 from Munro.
November 22 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edward W. Bok, editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal. “It is a long look ahead but it is good wisdom any way. I haven’t broken with the Harpers yet, and I see no prospect of it, but if it should happen I should be quite willing to talk Christmas Story with you” [MTP].
November 23 Sunday – M.J. June wrote from Detroit, Mich. to Sam, heading it “Obituary.” This was for the “obituary contest,” which Mark Twain solicited in the Nov. 15 issue of Harper’s Weekly [MTP].
November 24 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote two notes to Franklin G. Whitmore, the first per Isabel Lyon.
Mr. Clemens asks me to write you to “poke up” Dr. Porter with regard to the property question.
November 25 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote a draft of a letter to Frederick C. Harriott in response to Howells’ urging of Nov. 24.
November 26 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Carl Thalbitzer, a Danish writer, who, after reading “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg,” wrote to Sam on Nov. 13 asking if Sam put his personal views into such stories.
November 27 Thursday – Livy’s 57th birthday.
Harry Freeman wrote from NY to Sam offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest [MTP].
Georg Becker wrote from Berlin, Germany (in German) offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest [MTP].
W.T. Leslie wrote from NY to Sam offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest [MTP].
November 28 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Train at 7.07. / 7.07 / Birth-day, dinner (not the 29th or 30th) Train leaves here at 7.07. / Wounds our conventions rather than our convictions. The convictions of one age are the conventions of the next” [NB 45 TS 34]. Note: evidently there had been some changes of the birthday dinner date; Sam entered a few things to say at the event in his Nov. 30 NB entry, and specified there it was to be the 29th; it wound up being this day. The 29th he was in Elmira at his niece’s wedding. The Nov. 30 entry:
November 29 Saturday – In Elmira, Sam, Jean Clemens and likely Katy Leary, attended an evening wedding in the Langdon home between his niece Julia Olivia Langdon (Julie) (1871-1948) and Edward Eugene Loomis (1864-1937) [Nov. 30 to Livy]. Note: Loomis was the First Vice President of the Delaware and Lackawanna Railroad.
November 30 Sunday – Sam’s 67th Birthday. He wrote from Elmira to Livy, with a proviso to daughter Clara at the top of the letter. “Clara dear, this is to your mother, but you must not risk showing it to her without reading it first yourself.”
December 1 Monday – Sam, daughter Jean, and Katy Leary were in Elmira, N.Y. [NB Dec. 3; 45, TS 34].
an unidentified person wrote from St. Louis to Sam offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest [MTP].
December 2 Tuesday – Sam, daughter Jean, and Katy Leary were in Elmira, N.Y. [NB Dec. 3; 45, TS 34].
George B. Harvey forwarded to Sam copies of the regrets and acceptances for his 67th birthday celebration dinner [MTP].
John P. Hermann wrote from St. Louis to Sam offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest:
“He lies here still as he did before” [MTP].
December 3 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Jean, Katy & I returned from the Elmira wedding” [NB 45 TS 34].
Note: Sam dared not travel alone with Jean due to her epilepsy, and so took Katy along, who had family in Elmira.
December 4 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frederick C. Harriott who had coughed up part of the $500 owing Charles W. Stoddard. For weeks Sam and William Dean Howells had been acting in Stoddard’s behalf to recover money owed from Harriott, a literary agent in Boston.
December 5 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to William Denison McCrackan’s Dec. 4 letters:
I am glad to have the book and the other printed matter and I thank you. But as helps in “verifying or correcting statements of fact” in my articles they will not be of service to me. I have made no statements of fact that can require that sort of doctoring.
December 6 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Minnie Dawson, daughter or daughter-in-law of his old Hannibal schoolmaster, J.D. Dawson:
“I thank you very much for the pictures of the cemetery and the Brittingham Building. If the water melon had landed on John Meredith’s head instead of my brother Henry’s, I doubt if Henry would have shed any tears on that account” [MTP]. Note: see Apr. 14, 1847 and Jan. 13, 1885 entries, vol. I.
December 7 Sunday – Thomas B. Reed, Ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives, died in Washington. In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam telegraphed condolence to Susan P. Reed (Mrs. Thomas B. Reed).
“There is none who knew him but is stricken with you & mourns with you. He could have achieved the age of the patriarchs if his friends could have been privileged to spare from their lives to lengthen his. I beg to lay the homage of my deepest & sincerest sympathy at your feet” [MTP].
December 8 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Get to Rices by 6.45. Julia Marlow[e]’s new play. Stay all night. Hot Scotch” [NB 45 TS 34]. Note: English-born actress Julia Marlowe, born Sarah Frances Frost (1865-1950), played the role of Charlotte Durand in
December 9 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Jean fainted again. Are these a result of the fall on the ice?” [NB 45 TS 34].
In Riverdale, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Franklin G. Whitmore.
“Mr. Clemens bids me send the enclosed check for one hundred dollars, to further say there is no special word except the very good one that Mrs.Clemens is getting on very nicely; each day sees a little improvement, which I know will make Mrs. Whitmore and you very happy” [MTP].
December 10 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. about this day, Sam wrote a note to Livy enclosing Henry Van Dyke’s “nice note” of Dec. 8.
December 11 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote one sentence to Connecticut Magazine. “It is a fine and great magazine and I feel a strong interest in it, and a strong pride as well” [MTP].
Sam also replied to Frederick W. Peabody’s Dec. 10.
I shall not be through with what I have to say in the N. A. Review about Mrs. Eddy & Xn Science until the April number.
Do you mean to tell me that my private letters are not safe in your hands?
December 12 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Daniel Carter Beard’s Dec. 10.
You are right—it is never too late to say the kindly word, when one can say it as heartily & cheeringly as you do. You have done great work in great causes, & I have walked by your side. We have our reward: the consciousness that your child (whom God preserve!) & my children will not be ashamed of us when we pass on.
Peace & prosperity be with you & yours always, Dan Beard. And my love therewith [MTP].
December 13 Saturday – Harper’s Weekly, p. 1943 -4 ran William Dean Howells, et al article, “In Honor of Mark Twain: Verses to be read at a Dinner Celebrating his Sixty -seventh Birthday. Included Howells’ “A Double- Barrelled Sonnet to Mark Twain (written to be heard, not read)”; John Kendrick Bangs, “Mark Twain (A Post-prandial Obituary)”; Henry Van Dyke, “A Toast to Mark Twain!” [MTJ Bibliographic Issue Number Four 42:1 (Spring 2004) p.8].