Riverdale-on-the-Hudson DBD

November 4 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Magnus Gross, declining an unspecified request: “for I am loaded to the Plimsoll mark, & mustn’t add an ounce to my cargo” [MTP]. Note: This may have been Magnus Gross, public school principal, in 1905 the President of the New York City Teachers’ Organization. The plimsoll line is the marking on a ship’s hull that shows how low or high the ship is resting in the water, in this case the high mark.

November 5 Tuesday – Election Day, New York City: The Fusion Ticket won Victory in the election, with Seth Low elected by a plurality of 33,000. William Travers Jerome was also elected District Attorney. This was a big defeat for Tammany Hall.

November 5 after – Sam’s notebook:

November 6 Wednesday – The Order of Acorns organized a victory parade after the Fusion ticket won a large victory in the Nov. 5 election. Mark Twain gave a speech at one point; the event was covered by the New York Times, Nov. 7, p.3:

“THE ACORNS” HOLD AN ELECTION JUBILEE

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Mark Twain Delivers a Mock Eulogy on Tammany.

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Then They Parade Up Broadway to

November 7 Thursday – William Dean Howells wrote to Sam, asking for an interview. He addressed the letter to “S.L. Clemens, Litt.D,” honoring Sam’s new honorary doctor of letters degree from Yale.

November 9 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “The King’s birthday. Delmonico, 44th Street. I to arrive 9.30 or 9.45 / Mr. Bradley. Leave 8.45. Britons educated in British schools & colleges. Includes Canadians & other colonials” [NB 44 TS 17]. Note: see below.

October 1 Tuesday – The Clemenses took possession of the Appleton house at Riverdale-on-the-Hudson. Sam wrote sometime after to an unidentified man, heading the letter with this address [MTP].

Sometime between this day and Feb. 22, 1902 Sam also wrote to Frederick A. Duneka [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Charles H. Taylor of the Boston Globe, acknowledging the $100 check and thanking for Taylor’s compliment [MTP].

October 10 Thursday – Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam: “I am in receipt of your letter, and will attend to its contents at once” [MTP].

October 10 or 17 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Theodore Weld Stanton.

October 11 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Robert Underwood Johnson.

“I have been cogitating for 24 hours, & have evolved a scheme. It is quite different from yours, but I believe it promises well. Will you run up here (25 minutes by rail) some day between now & October 30…” [MTP].

The New York Times ran a report of burglaries in Riverdale, quoting Mark Twain:

BURGLARIES ALARM RIVERDALE RESIDENTS

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October 12 Saturday – Sam received a copy of George Washington Cable’s new book, The Cavalier (1901) [Oct. 15 to Cable].

Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam.

October 13 Sunday – In the evening Sam finished reading The Cavalier, George Washington Cable’s new book [Oct. 15 to Cable].

Sam inscribed a flyleaf of Russell Alexander Alger’s (1836-1907) The Spanish American War (1901): “S.L. Clemens, Riverdale-on-Hudson, Oct. 13, 1901” [Gribben 20].

October 14 Monday – William Dean Howells wrote to Sam [MTHL 2: 730]. Note: letter dated Oct. 15; postmarked Oct. 14; Howells was likely confused as to the date.

Michael P. O’Riley wrote from NY to Sam. He was a policeman and had read Sam’s interview in this day’s Herald. He wanted Sam to know that policemen were with Seth Low almost to the man, and wished Sam success in his canvass for votes for Low [MTP].

October 15 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to George Washington Cable.

Your book came three days ago, your note [not extant] this morning. I finished reading the story night before last. From start to finish it kept me electrically a-tingle with its rush & go, & charmed with its brilliances of phrasing & its other manifold fascinations. Thank you cordially! [MTP]. Note: See Gribben 123. Cable’s book referred to was The Cavalier (1901)

October 16 Wednesday – William Dean Howells replied to Sam that he would “gladly come to your feast of acorns tomorrow evening,” but was concerned they might “poke” him out without an invitation. He also poked Sam about the upcoming Yale event publicity:

“In the notice of the Yale guests, as I noted with my usual grouch where you are concerned, your name came first, with some laudatory type round it, and mine followed with the “and others,” and nothing attached to it. So I think there is some mistake” [MTHL 2: 731].

October 17 Thursday – The New York Sun, Oct. 18, p.3, reported Sam’s anti-Tammany talk for policemen in front of his Riverdale house, followed by a trip downtown for his speech at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for the Order of Acorns, a group of independent voters organized to defeat Tammany candidates and elect Seth Low mayor. The New York Times Oct. 18, p.5 reported only on the hotel speech:

MARK TWAIN MAKES A SPEECH.

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October 18 Friday – William Dean Howells wrote to Sam about accommodations in the upcoming Yale Bi-Centennial Celebration:

October 19 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “I go up Hudson by boat from Yonkers at 9.45” [NB 44 TS 15].

In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (1851-1926), youngest daughter of the famous author Nathaniel Hawthorne.

October – Sam inscribed a copy of Memoirs of Samuel Pepys for Susan Crane: “Stolen from / Mrs. Susan L. Crane / by/ her most loving & almost only brother-in-law / SL. Clemens / Riverdale, October, 1901” [MTP].

Sam also inscribed No. 15 of Chatto & Windus’ edition of his works to: John Y. MacAlister: “To J.Y.W. MacAlister with the very best regards of the Author. Riverdale, New York City. Oct. 1901” [MTP: American Art Assoc. catalogs, Jan. 4, 1928, Item 91].

October 20 Sunday – In N.Y.C. Sam wrote on “Order of Acorns” letterhead to Joseph Johnson, Jr.

“Dear Mr. Johnson: / I forgot to say don’t do anything with the article without first giving me a chance to read the proof” [MTP].

October 21 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Professor Farnam. / Yale Leave 4.pm. Rev. Anson Phelps Stokes’s Mother. [inserted above:] Sec’y of Yale / 88 Trumbull St.” [NB 44 TS 15]. Note: Henry W. Farnam (1853-1933), professor of economics at Yale.

Sam went to New Haven, Conn. to take part in the festivities for Yale University’s Bicentennial celebration. He would stay there until Oct. 24 and receive an honorary Doctor of Letters degree; he already had an honorary MA degree from Yale (1888) [Oct. 22 to Livy; MTHL 2: 730n3].

October 22 Tuesday – In New Haven, Conn. sometime after noon, Sam wrote to Livy of missing events of the previous day:

October 23 Wednesday – The fourth and last day of Yale’s Bicentennial Celebration in New Haven, Conn. saw commemoration exercises and conferring of honorary degrees in the Hyperion Theater to more than sixty eminent men. The Doctors of Literature degrees numbered eight: Thomas Bailey Aldrich, George W. Cable, Mark Twain, Richard Watson Gilder, William Dean Howells, Thomas Nelson Page, Woodrow Wilson, and Brander Matthews.

October 24 Thursday – The Bicentennial Celebration over, Clemens said farewell to the Chapins and other friends and returned home to Riverdale, N.Y.

Sam’s notebook: “Dodge dinner 7.30. Henry Guy Carleton comes in afternoon” [NB 44 TS 15]. Note: Henry Guy Carleton( 1856-1910), playwright and journalist, but best remembered as a humorist, his last play Colinette (1899) starred Julia Marlowe.

October 25 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mr. Benthergsen of the N.Y. World, acknowledging receipt of a check for $288.76, which Sam wrote “squares up everything between the World and me and removes the last obstruction to the proper progress of the twentieth century….” [MTP:Kenneth W. Rendell catalogs, No. 134, Item 25]. Note: cable fees for sending the Nov. 1897 Reichsrath story ate up most of Sam’s fees; this squared the account.

Sam also wrote to Miss Meyer.

October 26 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Franklin G. Whitmore’s Oct. 25 request:

“Don’t do it again, Brer. Whenever you receive a book that requires an autograph, paste into it one of those I sent you, & start it along back. Nothing makes me so angry with an admirer as for him to pay me the compliment of putting me to a lot of trouble” [MTP].

October 27 Sunday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frank Bliss, upset at the advertising conflicts between Harpers, the American Publishing Co., and the R.G. Newbegin Co.