October 5 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
At 3 p.m. to-day I finished the fifth & last revising of “A Horse’s Tale” & am going to bed & stay there 2 weeks, for I am a free person once more. I have worked like a slave, from morning till—well, all day,—for I don’t know how many consecutive days [He began Sept. 23], & have enjoyed it ever so much—thoroughly, in fact—but I’m as tired as a dog.
I believe I’ve got through in time to crowd it into the Jan & Feb numbers of the Harper, & that is what I have been rushing to accomplish. (Don’t pray for me, I can get along without that—I only want congratulations/ I’m not begging for influence.)
Clara & Katy are keeping house at 21-5 Avenue, I think—& I woke up scared, last night, & wondering if the place is warm enough with its new furnaces to be safe. I do hope so. Last year I sent to hell for an expert, but he was defeated, & went away ashamed [MTHHR 601-2]. Note: “A Horse’s Tale” first ran in the Aug. and Sept. 1906 issues of Harper’s; in 1907 it was issued as a 153 page book.
Sam also replied to Miss Carrie Rosenheim of Baltimore, who had written in September sometime asking for his autograph: “Dear Miss Carrie / I am a dear, & so I send you two. / Sincerely Yours / Mark Twain” [eBay item 230470822748, May 5, 2010]. Note: [MTP: Cummings file lists this as Oct. 9].
Sam also sent a telegram to Frederick A. Duneka. The message is not extant but referred to in Duneka’s reply below.
In the evening Sam entertained seven people with a reading of “A Horse’s Tale,” with Isabel Lyon accompanying in parts on the Orchestrelle. He wrote of the good time in his Oct. 6 to daughter Clara:
I think we had a very nice time last night. We assembled a jury of 7 & I read the “Horse’s Tale” an hour & a half; then dinner; then finished it in another hour & a half. When we came to the bugle-calls & the War-songs, Miss Lyon broke in at the appropriate places & played them.
The jury approved the tale. I endorse the jury’s verdict. For an 8-day job it isn’t a bad tale. Profitable, too—an average of $700 a day—for it is to go into the magazine—Jan. & Feb. numbers of Harper’s [MTP]. Note: it ran Aug.-Sept. 1906. Though the guests are not named, in his Oct. 3 to Clara he identified them only as: “a man, a woman, & 2 girls of 15.”
Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Mr. & Mrs. Henderson, Hildegarde Henderson, Nancy & Jerome [sic Gerome] Brush came at five o’clock to hear the reading of ‘A Horse’s Tale.’ Mr. Clemens read an hour & a half before dinner & an hour & a half afterward and his listeners were delighted” [MTP TS 30].
Frederick A. Duneka wrote to Sam. “Thank you for your telegram [not extant] of to-day, and your promise to secure photographs of the house you now occupy and the one you propose to occupy next year.” He wished Sam would trust the MS of “A Horse’s Tail” to registered mail, because they were too busy to send a man for it [MTP].
At 3 p.m. to-day I finished the fifth & last revising of “A Horse’s Tale” & am going to bed & stay there 2 weeks, for I am a free person once more. I have worked like a slave, from morning till—well, all day,—for I don’t know how many consecutive days [He began Sept. 23], & have enjoyed it ever so much—thoroughly, in fact—but I’m as tired as a dog.
I believe I’ve got through in time to crowd it into the Jan & Feb numbers of the Harper, & that is what I have been rushing to accomplish. (Don’t pray for me, I can get along without that—I only want congratulations/ I’m not begging for influence.)
Clara & Katy are keeping house at 21-5 Avenue, I think—& I woke up scared, last night, & wondering if the place is warm enough with its new furnaces to be safe. I do hope so. Last year I sent to hell for an expert, but he was defeated, & went away ashamed [MTHHR 601-2]. Note: “A Horse’s Tale” first ran in the Aug. and Sept. 1906 issues of Harper’s; in 1907 it was issued as a 153 page book.
Sam also replied to Miss Carrie Rosenheim of Baltimore, who had written in September sometime asking for his autograph: “Dear Miss Carrie / I am a dear, & so I send you two. / Sincerely Yours / Mark Twain” [eBay item 230470822748, May 5, 2010]. Note: [MTP: Cummings file lists this as Oct. 9].
Sam also sent a telegram to Frederick A. Duneka. The message is not extant but referred to in Duneka’s reply below.
In the evening Sam entertained seven people with a reading of “A Horse’s Tale,” with Isabel Lyon accompanying in parts on the Orchestrelle. He wrote of the good time in his Oct. 6 to daughter Clara:
I think we had a very nice time last night. We assembled a jury of 7 & I read the “Horse’s Tale” an hour & a half; then dinner; then finished it in another hour & a half. When we came to the bugle-calls & the War-songs, Miss Lyon broke in at the appropriate places & played them.
The jury approved the tale. I endorse the jury’s verdict. For an 8-day job it isn’t a bad tale. Profitable, too—an average of $700 a day—for it is to go into the magazine—Jan. & Feb. numbers of Harper’s [MTP]. Note: it ran Aug.-Sept. 1906. Though the guests are not named, in his Oct. 3 to Clara he identified them only as: “a man, a woman, & 2 girls of 15.”
Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Mr. & Mrs. Henderson, Hildegarde Henderson, Nancy & Jerome [sic Gerome] Brush came at five o’clock to hear the reading of ‘A Horse’s Tale.’ Mr. Clemens read an hour & a half before dinner & an hour & a half afterward and his listeners were delighted” [MTP TS 30].
Frederick A. Duneka wrote to Sam. “Thank you for your telegram [not extant] of to-day, and your promise to secure photographs of the house you now occupy and the one you propose to occupy next year.” He wished Sam would trust the MS of “A Horse’s Tail” to registered mail, because they were too busy to send a man for it [MTP].
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