November 19 Monday – In the morning at 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.), enclosing his latest photograph for her opinion; he wanted to put it in a locket for Clara. He revealed his creative method for catching up on mail, since Isabel Lyon was ill.
This portrait looks too holy, perhaps—holier than is my custom to look, except on the Sabbath —but it is because of the new way I dressed my hair for the sitting. I am finishing a remarkable book, dear pal, by a child of 15. You will have seen reviews of it. It is virile & rugged, & will make a pleasant change for you after the polished clean diction of the Call of the Blood. Will you be good & come & get it, or shall you prefer that I send it to you. (If I may have a choice, it’s the former). When is your next singing lesson? Won’t you call me on the telephone? I expect to be permitted to step outside the house about January or February. This isn’t good weather, Mary dear; it makes me feel mouldy. / Affectionately your uncle / Mark.
Miss Lyon has been ill in bed a week, & it seemed as if I never could begin the burden of clearing off the accumulated mail. But at last I went at it with determination last night & accomplished it in 5 minutes without a pen-stroke. By help of the fire. It show what native talent, unobstructed by principle, can do, when duty calls [MTP]. Note: the book was The Viper of Milan by Miss Marjorie Bowen—see Nov. 2 entry.
Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: Susy’s spelling—More remarks about Simplified Spelling [MTP Autodict2].
J.Q. Adams wrote from Evanston, Illinois to Sam, not liking the bronchitis of Sam’s and enjoying the Autobiography in the NAR, and mentioned several passages they especially liked [MTP].
Hugh Armstrong wrote from Sawtille Calif. to Sam. He’d just read RI and asked if Sam knew “the whereabouts of any of the old boys who were writers in the Territorial Enterprise.”
Armstrong had followed Sam’s “course” and had “been so much delighted” with his writings during his Army service, which progressed from the rank of private to captain. He signed “Your Old Friend” [MTP]. Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd Nov 26”
John I. Raymond wrote from NYC to Sam.
“An article published in the Literary Digest of September 22nd, containing an extract from your autobiography, has just come to my attention. I regret not having read the first instalment of your autobiography when it appeared, so that I might have spoken sooner, a word of defence of my father, John T. Raymond’s, memory[.] You have every right in the world to criticise his interpretations of the character of Colonel Sellers, but in doing so, is it necessary to besmirch his memory as you have? My father has been dead twenty years, but I think there are still those left who remember him as the antithisis [sic] of all you call him.” Raymond asked Sam to “retract the insults heaped upon” his father [MTP].