November 11 Saturday – In New York City, The Lotos Club gave a dinner in honor of Mark Twain. Sam’s speech may be found in Fatout, MT Speaking, p.265-7. The New York Times, November 12, 1893 also published a version of the speech. See also MTB 971.
President Frank R. Lawrence (1845-1918) introduced Mark Twain:
November 13 Monday – In New York City in the afternoon, a memorial service was held for the late Edwin Booth, who died on June 7. Sam was in attendance (according to his Nov. 6 to Susy he went with Mrs. Rice). As reported in the N.Y. Times of Nov. 12 and 14, p.3 and 8, “The Booth Memorial” and “In Memory of Edwin Booth”:
November 14 Tuesday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam wrote to Livy.
The Booth Memorial Service a the Madison Square Garden yesterday was impressive & beautiful. All the distinction of New York was massed in that place. I seemed to be personally acquainted with half of the people there. There is no church congregation in Hartford where I would recognize any where near such a huge proportion of the faces. It was like being in a family gathering.
November 15 Wednesday – In New York, Sam inscribed a copy of Roughing It to Francis Wilson: To / Francis Wilson / with kind regards of / Mark Twain. / New York, / Nov. 15, ’93 [MTP: G.A. Baker catalog Nov. 6-7, 1940 No. 54].
November 16 Thursday – In New York, Sam and William Dean Howells saw Henry Irving in the title role in Tennyson’s Becket at Abbey’s Theatre [MTHL 2: 654n4].
November 17 Friday – In New York, Sam sent a brief letter of introduction for William Gillette to William Dean Howells.
…his errand is not business, but only to shake hands & say howdy [MTHL 2: 654-5].
Note: In 1915 Howells would recommend Gillette for membership in the American Academy of Arts and letters as “a consummate artist” [655n1].
Henry Irving gave an invitation to Sam behind stage at Abbey’s Theatre:
November 18 Saturday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy, enclosing the invitation of Nov. 17 from Henry Irving.
I am desperately disappointed because my photograph is not ready for your birthday. I was going to send it to Susy & have her put it with the other tokens of love & remembrance Nov. 27th. But I see I can’t manage it now. I went there & sat 7 times & got one or two very good negatives. Sarony should have had the pictures here two days ago but he has failed me.
November – Tom Sawyer Abroad appeared as a serial in the November issue of St. Nicholas Magazine. “The Esquimau Maiden’s Romance” ran in the Cosmopolitan. This sketch was later collected in The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays (1900), and My Debut as a Literary Person, Etc. (1903) [Budd, Collected 2: 1001].
November 19 Sunday – Sam and Charles Dudley Warner dined with Henry Irving. Fatout reports this as the Henry Irving-Ellen Terry Dinner, and that possibly Sam gave a speech. If so, the content is unknown [MT Speaking 660]. Sam also mentioned the dinner in his Nov. 20 to Twichell, but did not mention Terry or giving a talk [MTP]. Sam’s notebook gives: “Sunday 19, Hutton’s (Henry Irving & Miss Ellen Terry) [NB 33 TS 38].
November 2 Thursday – In New York Sam wrote to daughter Clara. He wanted her to be sure to call “immediately” on the widow Frau Alice von Versen in Berlin; she would need to inquire as the house they were living in had been supplied by the German government. He remarked Clara had been gone 55 hours and was well on her way across the Atlantic. He admonished her to find an escort for the long trip from Berlin to Paris, one who would be satisfactory to Livy, who was worried about the matter.
November 20 Monday – In New York Sam wrote to Joe Twichell. Sam was happy about some “delicious” happening or gift:
It couldn’t have happened to anybody but you. It has done me lots of good and I think it will be better than medicine for Livy, when she gets it on her birthday the 27th. This adventure and the dyed hair of a year and a half ago — well, they make a sparkling pair!
The reference is obscure (that’s what scholars say when they can’t figure out a document).
November 21 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook carries a lined-out memo:
Tuesday, 21st, dine with Mr. Archer M. Huntington at Sherry’s 8.00 [NB 33 TS 39].
November 23 Thursday – The New York Times, p.1, “Americans in Paris” listed Livy, “Mrs. Clemens, wife of ‘Mark Twain’; the Misses Clemens” among those who came to Paris the previous week.
November 24 Friday – Sam’s notebook shows a dinner engagement at Robert Underwood Johnson’s at 7 p.m. 327 Lexington Ave [NB 33 TS 39].
November 25 Saturday – In New York Sam wrote to an unidentified person that the right to his book (unspecified) belonged to Webster & Co. [MTP: Parke-Bernet catalog, Mar. 10, 1938 item 43].
November 26 Sunday – In New York, Sam attended his dinner invitation with Henry Irving at Delmonico’s. Fatout reports this as a dinner speech [MT Speaking 660]. Sam accepted the invitation behind the stage at Abbey’s Theatre on Nov. 17.
Sam inscribed a copy of P&P to Edy (no further name given): To Edy from Mark Twain with his best wishes and kindest regards. New York, Nov. 26, ’93. [MTP].
November 27 Monday– Livy’s 48th birthday. Strictly speaking, the gathering with John Mackay (above) which lasted until 1:30 a.m., went into this day.
November 28 Tuesday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy about John Mackay’s letter he thought he’d sent (inviting Sam to talk to her over Mackay’s cable); the gathering of Mackay and a dozen guests Sam joined at the late hour on Nov. 26 into Nov. 27; the book and inscription Sam gave him; going to Mackay’s office at noon the day before (Nov. 27) [LLMT 279-80]. Note: this is the second letter ascribed to Nov.
November 29 Wednesday – In New York Sam wrote Orion and Mollie Clemens, enclosing the NY Times Nov. 12 article about the Lotos Club dinner, and using one of his famous lined-out words to convey his true feelings, but bowing to self-censorship:
Dear Orion & Molly: I meant to send you this, at the time; I don’t know how I forgot it. Probably for the same reason that I forgot to send any to Livy till it was ancient history.
November 3 Friday – In New York Sam wrote to Orion and Mollie Clemens that he’d “mapped out a long novel to-day, & will bury myself in it to-morrow….” Note: The story was “Tom Sawyer Detective,” which LLMT p.277 calls “an ingenious but uninspired yarn not published until August and September 1896 in Harper’s Magazine.” Sam also wrote about daughter Clara’s trip.
November 30 Thursday – Sam’s 58th Birthday. In New York he wrote to William Dean Howells, apologetic about a mix-up having accepted Howells’ and Judge Charles H. Truax’s invitations for the same day.
I am to go to a breakfast at noon next Sunday [Dec. 3], & am disgusted with myself for being so thoughtless as to consent. I am not capable of two appetites in one day.
November 4 Saturday – In New York, Sam gave a reading at the Uncut Leaves Society. See John D. Barry, “New York Letter,” Literary World (Boston), 24; 18 Nov. 1893, p.385. The Hartford Daily Courant, Nov. 11, 1893, p.4 “Society Notes” reported that Sam and Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856-1923), children’s author and educator, were among the readers. Wiggin is best known for The Birds’ Christmas Carol (1887) and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903).
November 5 Sunday – In New York Sam dined with the William Mackay Laffans [Nov. 6 to Susy]. A declined invitation from Andrew Carnegie to John Elderkin, Secretary of the Lotos Club, names this date and his inability to meet “my friend — everybody’s friend — Mark Twain” on Sunday [MTP: Nov. 3 Carnegie to Elderkin]. Note: this suggests the dinner was a Lotos Club affair.
November 6 Monday – In New York Sam spent the afternoon talking to the actor Joe Jefferson, who dropped into the Players Club to see him. Later in the day Sam wrote to daughter Susy, asking her help in comforting her mother while he was away. With the intercession of Rogers, Sam still hoped for riches from the typesetter.
November 7 Tuesday – In New York Sam wrote on Players Club letterhead to Susan L. Warner, declining an invitation, probably to visit the Warners in Hartford. The need for him to remain in the country might “close at any unforeseen moment,” and then he would “break for ship without stopping to stuff my shawl-strap.” He wrote he would see her at the Hutton’s the next Monday (Nov. 13), however, and then they could talk [MTP].