June 24 Sunday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam gave Lyon instructions to write Ralph W. Ashcroft about a perceived “insulting advertisement” by Harpers, which stated that he was going to withdraw his Christian Science book from publication. Would Ashcroft look in Publisher’s Weekly for April 1903? [MTP].
Sam also replied to the June 22 of Brander Matthews (the note sent by hand to 121 E. 18 , NYC).
I thank you for that hearty word. I am sure we should always like to stand up for each other, but we can’t often get the fitting & unforced opportunity. For instance, in this case I had the right opportunity, but was robbed of it. I didn’t want to say it to his embarrassed face, I wanted to get it into print while he was still in Europe—there was oceans of time—but the Harpers not only beat my game, but beat it by months; & so, took the grace all out of it [MTP].
Sam also replied to the May 26 from William Allen White in Emporia, Kans.
Howells told me that “In Our Town” was a charming book, & indeed it is. All of it is delightful when read to one’s self, parts of it can score finely when subjected to the most exacting of tests —the reading aloud. Pages 197–216 are of that grade—I have tried them a couple of times on the family—& pages 212–216 are qualified to fetch any house of any country, caste or color, endowed with those riches which are denied to no nation on the planet—humor & feeling.
Talk again—the country is listening [MTP]. Note: Howells had recommended White’s book In Our Town (1906) in his May 24 letter. See Gribben p. 762.
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
This afternoon Gerome came to read his play; but Mr. & Mrs. Joe Smith & Mrs. Putnam arrived at the very beginning of the reading & Gerome & Jean fled to the study. The Smiths knew that Gerome was here, though, for he left his tell-tale Eastern hat on the hall table, & Mr. Smith picked it up. We had a very good time for Mr. Clemens got up from his bed where he had been sleeping, after having luncheon with the Pearmains & went down to the porch where we all sat & where he told a profane story or two, & I told a story or two also, about Mr. Clemens & his dislike of “modesty on the premises”. Joe Smith is a delight, & Mrs. Smith is beautiful, slender & straight as a dart [MTP TS 89-90].
Charles J. Drapeau wrote to Sam, enclosing his letter of introduction from Edward E. Clarke. Drapeau requested an interview [MTP].
William Dean Howells wrote from Kittery Point, Maine to Sam
Dear Clemens: / I could not have asked to have anything gentler or kinder said of me than you have said in the July Harper. I was so eager to see it that I sent into Portsmouth for the magazine yesterday, and I have since read it again and again, feeling more and more that it must be true. Such appreciation convinces even the object of it; if it is not quite true, still it is so admirably expressed, that he hopes it will convince other people anyway. The passages you quoted from me shone with a luster that they never had before, and that came from their cordial setting. Your praise has brought back the good great times when the men, Lowell and Longfellow and Holmes, who held the eminence you now hold, spoke well of me. I think round the world, and I find none now living whose praise I could care more for. Perhaps Tolstoy; but I do not love him as I love you, and the honor he could do me would not reach my heart as the honor you have done me does.
Dear friend of forty years, thanks! / Yours affectionately / W.D. Howells [MTHL 2: 813]. Note: Sam’s essay in July Harper’s Monthly, “William Dean Howells.”
June 24 ca. – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to Aubrey Boucicault’s June 22 for the Green Room Club. Sam was leaving Dublin for ten days but would “comply with pleasure” on his return [MTP].