March 13 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to Gertrude Natkin. In full:
To whom these presents shall come—greeting:
One unto you unknown— & yet a Friend—instructs me to beg you to hold free of engagements the evening of April fifth. This, from Another Unknown Friend [MTAq 20].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Jean, at 8 this morning. Santa C. came back from Atlantic City.
I talked with Mr. Clemens about Miss Hobby, who said she won’t be able to give up her position with the Century people. Mr. Clemens finds her entirely to his liking & he says “it is a case of established competency” which is saying a great deal, for she is a good audience, is sympathetic & very appreciative.
(Later in the day) I talked with Miss Hobby, when I told her that Mr. Clemens would want her from May 11th to he first of November, she said she’d be willing to think it over. Just then Mr. Paine came in full of my same advice, “Give up the Century”—and she’ll do it [MTP TS 49- 50].
Joseph Baron wrote a long “fan letter” from Blackburn, England to Sam, noting that as a “slim youth” he had spent a US dollar on a copy of IA, and had not stopped laughing since. “Mark I have laughed & grown fat!!!” He was going to get “the best & biggest photo of yourself, & to sign it send it to me for framing in my den” [MTP].
Thomas P. Brown wrote from Compton, Calif. to Sam, informing him of a letter given to his father by King Kalakaua after a gift of HF. Brown offered to send Sam the original and Sam replied ca. Mar. 15 [MTP]. Note: The mail would have taken a bit longer to cross the country than two days. It is here reassigned to ca. Mar. 19.
Reginald Wright Kauffman wrote from the Curtis Publishing Co. in Philadelphia (Saturday Evening Post, etc.) to Sam. Kauffman enclosed a copy of a letter received “the other day” and thought it “might prove mildly amusing to you. The anxious gentleman from Brooklyn…wants to know the address of Col. Mulberry Sellers” [MTP]. Note: Sam’s answer is catalogued as ca. Mar. 15 by the MTP.
Clara Clemens arrived back in New York from Atlantic City and auditioned for Loudon Charlton as her manager. Charlton thought she wasn’t ready to appear in public.
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
At fifteen minutes past midnight Santa [Clara] stole up to my room. She couldn’t sleep, poor dear, for Charlton’s verdict was one to keep her awake. So she sat in a dear curled up heap on my couch, and we talked over things and people until now—and it is past 2. I have with me the memory of her darlingness, and especially as she stole down stairs into the black black hall, with 2 little bottles of bromide powder in her dear little hand [Hill 122].
Hamlin Garland’s Diaries, ed by Donald Pizer. San Marino, California: The Huntington Library (1968). Tenney: Passim on MT:
At a memorial meeting to MT, April 30, 1910, among the old guard, one intoxicated and “Opie Read purple-visaged walking sedately and talking a lot of `guff'” (17). Dined with Clarence Darrow (November 4, 1920), who “particularly dwelt upon Mark Twain and his savage attacks on the Christian religion. It was all rather wearisome to me” (123). Says Howells inspired MT with reform ideas, and P&P and CY “were due to Howells almost directly” (152). Went to see Will Rogers on the film set for CY (December 28, 1930; 181-82). Describes MT at a dinner honoring Henry James (December 9, 1904): “When Mark Twain’s humor vanishes he is tragic. His wife is dead, one daughter is dead, another is in a sanitarium” (191). At a lunch with Colonel Harvey (March 13, 1906) “Twain looked old and sluggish and congested, his purplish face and bushy yellow-white hair making him a picturesque figure. He drank more than he should and ate more than he should. He is old and his work is nearly done” (191-92). On MT’s friendship for Howells and the differences between them, MT’s coarse anecdotes—”His profanity was oriental in its richness and power” (192-93) [Tenney 338]. Note: no other record of a lunch this day with Harvey was found.
To whom these presents shall come—greeting:
One unto you unknown— & yet a Friend—instructs me to beg you to hold free of engagements the evening of April fifth. This, from Another Unknown Friend [MTAq 20].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Jean, at 8 this morning. Santa C. came back from Atlantic City.
I talked with Mr. Clemens about Miss Hobby, who said she won’t be able to give up her position with the Century people. Mr. Clemens finds her entirely to his liking & he says “it is a case of established competency” which is saying a great deal, for she is a good audience, is sympathetic & very appreciative.
(Later in the day) I talked with Miss Hobby, when I told her that Mr. Clemens would want her from May 11th to he first of November, she said she’d be willing to think it over. Just then Mr. Paine came in full of my same advice, “Give up the Century”—and she’ll do it [MTP TS 49- 50].
Joseph Baron wrote a long “fan letter” from Blackburn, England to Sam, noting that as a “slim youth” he had spent a US dollar on a copy of IA, and had not stopped laughing since. “Mark I have laughed & grown fat!!!” He was going to get “the best & biggest photo of yourself, & to sign it send it to me for framing in my den” [MTP].
Thomas P. Brown wrote from Compton, Calif. to Sam, informing him of a letter given to his father by King Kalakaua after a gift of HF. Brown offered to send Sam the original and Sam replied ca. Mar. 15 [MTP]. Note: The mail would have taken a bit longer to cross the country than two days. It is here reassigned to ca. Mar. 19.
Reginald Wright Kauffman wrote from the Curtis Publishing Co. in Philadelphia (Saturday Evening Post, etc.) to Sam. Kauffman enclosed a copy of a letter received “the other day” and thought it “might prove mildly amusing to you. The anxious gentleman from Brooklyn…wants to know the address of Col. Mulberry Sellers” [MTP]. Note: Sam’s answer is catalogued as ca. Mar. 15 by the MTP.
Clara Clemens arrived back in New York from Atlantic City and auditioned for Loudon Charlton as her manager. Charlton thought she wasn’t ready to appear in public.
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
At fifteen minutes past midnight Santa [Clara] stole up to my room. She couldn’t sleep, poor dear, for Charlton’s verdict was one to keep her awake. So she sat in a dear curled up heap on my couch, and we talked over things and people until now—and it is past 2. I have with me the memory of her darlingness, and especially as she stole down stairs into the black black hall, with 2 little bottles of bromide powder in her dear little hand [Hill 122].
Hamlin Garland’s Diaries, ed by Donald Pizer. San Marino, California: The Huntington Library (1968). Tenney: Passim on MT:
At a memorial meeting to MT, April 30, 1910, among the old guard, one intoxicated and “Opie Read purple-visaged walking sedately and talking a lot of `guff'” (17). Dined with Clarence Darrow (November 4, 1920), who “particularly dwelt upon Mark Twain and his savage attacks on the Christian religion. It was all rather wearisome to me” (123). Says Howells inspired MT with reform ideas, and P&P and CY “were due to Howells almost directly” (152). Went to see Will Rogers on the film set for CY (December 28, 1930; 181-82). Describes MT at a dinner honoring Henry James (December 9, 1904): “When Mark Twain’s humor vanishes he is tragic. His wife is dead, one daughter is dead, another is in a sanitarium” (191). At a lunch with Colonel Harvey (March 13, 1906) “Twain looked old and sluggish and congested, his purplish face and bushy yellow-white hair making him a picturesque figure. He drank more than he should and ate more than he should. He is old and his work is nearly done” (191-92). On MT’s friendship for Howells and the differences between them, MT’s coarse anecdotes—”His profanity was oriental in its richness and power” (192-93) [Tenney 338]. Note: no other record of a lunch this day with Harvey was found.
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