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December 29–31 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam replied to the Dec. 12 from Paula Lorch (Mrs. Emil Lorch)—was he writing another great book? Lorch was in Nurnberg, Bavaria.

“I am happy to say dear Madame, that I am writing another book & that it is half finished; also that I am writing 4 other books, & they are half finished; & finally, that I do honestly intend to finish all of them, but do not really expect to finish any of them. It is an odd confession, but it is perfectly true” [MTP].

On or just after Dec. 29, Lyon answered Dr. Albert R. Halley’s Dec. 25: “Have always declined to be a party to a biography of him & he will never expect to feel otherwise about it[.] Commissioned his daughter to write it” [MTP].

On or just after Dec. 29 At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam sent thanks to J.H. Nolen for his Dec. 26 letter and gift of “a little souvenir made of wood taken from” Sam’s birth house in Florida, Mo.:

“Thanks / value much more because made by a boodler whom Gov. Folk has guided into honest ways to make his b & b” [MTP].

Note: The MTP catalogs this reply as “on or after 26 Dec.,” but Dec. 26 is the date Nolen wrote. Three days estimated postal time is allowed here. Joseph Wingate Folk (1869-1923) lawyer, reformer, Missouri governor (1905-1909), nicknamed “Holy Joe” for his work in prosecuting corruption and political machines in St. Louis.

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.