Submitted by scott on
August 21 Monday – In Norfolk, Conn. Sam added a PS to his Aug. 20 to Isabel V. Lyon. They must have mailed it back and forth between Norfolk and Dublin: Monday, Aug. 21. / P.S. I expect to be able to leave for New York next Thursday or Friday; thence to Fairhaven for a day or two. But I am still in bed. [in IVL’s hand:] The amount of the check to M . Renwick is $875 . Rent for June, July & August. 01 [in SLC’s hand:]Yes, that is my idea of it [MTP].

Sam also wrote to George B. Harvey.

“DEAR COLONEL: / I am publishing anonymously an article in an outside paper, in the hope that the authorship will not be detected. I think it is sufficiently disguised. Don’t you speak of this to any one, but if you should detect it, I should like to know” [MTP].

Before Aug. 21 John Marr (1832-1921), sculptor in Milwaukee, Wisc wrote to Sam, that he had taken the last number of Harper’s Monthly with Sam’s portrait, and made a clay cast (see insert). Could Sam sit for a lifesize bust? [MTP].

Sam replied to John Marr.: “Aug. 21. Acknowledged the receipt of the cast” [MTP]. Note: Marr did a bust of Mark Twain. Insert: Washington Times, Sept. 7, 1907.

At noon Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers.

I am going to venture the trip to Boston to-day & the trip to Dublin tomorrow morning. I am still crippled, but I believe I am competent—competent to start, anyway. But I’ve had so many backsets, & had my plans smashed so often in the last week or ten days that I’ve stopped betting on any plan. For a little while I thought the gout had retired; so I wrote Dublin & said I was expecting to start for Fairhaven in a day or two—but next day I was bedridden again. That was days ago; since then, no letters have come here—is it possible that Miss Lyon has sent them to Fairhaven? What the nation could I do with them there? Answer them myself? Not by an Amster-damn sight! Here Clara was answering them for me.

Clara is surprisingly well, & has been able to take first-rate care of me & not over hear me when I was blaspheming [MTHHR 596-7].

Sam then traveled to Boston where he spent the night.

Edith L. Harter wrote from NYC what appears to be a simple fan letter of appreciation [MTP].

Ellen Martin (North) wrote from Parkersburg, W.Va. to Sam. Martin enclosed a paragraph (not in file) with him mentioning the name “North”—a man he met in Reno. Was that Edward North, an Englishman? She would be grateful for any information he might give [MTP]. Note: likely it was John W. North see July 3 entry responding to North’s son.

Day By Day Acknowledgment

Mark Twain Day By Day was originally a print reference, meticulously created by David Fears, who has generously made this work available, via the Center for Mark Twain Studies, as a digital edition.