December 25 Tuesday Christmas – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam inscribed in a copy of What is Man? to Neltje Blanchan DeGraff Doubleday (1865-1918) (Mrs. Frank N. Doubleday) :
Dear Mrs. Doubleday: / This book has wandered into my hands, & as it is too delicate & pretty for a person like me, & just right for a person like you, I wish to beg you to take it. / With the affectionate regards of a long-time friend—to wit / SL. Clemens / New York, Xmas, 1906 [MTP: Christie’s catalogs, May 20, 1988, Item 156]. Note: Mrs. Doubleday often wrote under the pseudonym of Neltje Blanchan, and was a significant nature writer and contributor in Atlantic Monthly and Harper’s. See also Gribben 200.
Sam also inscribed a copy of Eve’s Diary to Percy Stickney Grant:
Dear Neighbor Grant: / Do not cast this friendly token aside on account of the pictures. Skip the pictures. I didn’t make the pictures. But the letter-press is safe; I made the letter-press. I prefer the pictures, myself, but they have been condemned by the Charlton Village Library, because it has a standard of indecency of its own, & these pictures have failed to reach it. / A merry Christmas to you! / SL. Clemens / Xmas, 1906 [MTP].
Sam also inscribed a copy of Eve’s Diary to Katy Leary: “To Katy Leary with the affectionate regards of her age-long friend. The Author. New York, Xmas, 1906” [MTP: American Art Assoc-Anderson Galleries Catalogs, Feb. 15-16 1934, Item 65].
Sam also inscribed a photograph of himself to Henry Rawcliffe: “Truly yours, Mark Twain. Dec. 25, 1906 to Henry Rawcliffe.” At the top of the mat Sam wrote an aphorism from Chapter IX of PW: “It is easy to find fault, if one has that disposition. There was once a man who, not being able to find any other fault with his coal, complained that there were too many prehistoric toads in it” [MTP: Parke-Bernet Galleries catalogs, Feb. 23, 1954, Item 118].
Sam ate Christmas dinner with the Rogers family [MTHHR 622]. Note: n1 of source: “Miss Lyon notes in her journal for that day that he was waiting to see ‘what kind of an indigestion’ he would get from all ‘the mince pie and plum pudding mixed together he had eaten.’”
While spending Christmas with the Rogerses, Sam inscribed a copy of The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories to H.H. Rogers’ youngest daughter, Mai Rogers Coe: “To Mrs. William R. Coe / Merry Christmas! December 25, 1906. / Taking the pledge will not make bad liquor good, but it will improve it. M.T.” [Sotheby’s NY, June 18, 2002, Lot 128].
Jean Clemens’ diary: “Father’s ‘Birds of North America’ is a beautiful book and will prove very useful indeed” [Gribben 675: TS in DV13a, MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Christmas—& I’ve spent a lot of it with the King—both before he went out to the Rogers’s for dinner—for C.C. stayed a long time at the Gilders’ & it seems dreadful for the King to be much alone—& after he came back I went down to his room & for nearly 2 hours we talked with a solid frankness. He told me how Gardenhire was drawing up papers to make AB literary executor—but that isn’t the place for AB & C.C. would not wish him to occupy it—so he will be surprised to learn of an annulment of that situation. I read a lot of the “Orion” auto-ms. aloud to dear mother this afternoon. She does love it so—& then we went down to the Brevoort for some sweetbreads & a bottle of Sauterne. On the way out I had a surprise for her, for I had asked the King if I might bring her to salute him in his bed & she was in the sweetest flutter of excitement when she went in & he talked to her about the mince pie & plum pudding he had eaten for dinner, & he was waiting to see what kind of an indigestion he’d get out of it [MTP TS 153].
Tryphosa Bates-Batcheller sent a 3”x5” purple card of Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 1907 [MTP].
Gertrude Natkin wrote to Sam. “Knowing how busy you are and also how tired you are I do not wish to make you more so by taking up time but I do want to wish you a very merry Christmas. I hope that Santa has many good things in store for you, the Coming Year, including your copywright law” [MTAq 31]. Note: Sam replied, on or just after this day, also by telegram: “Wish you same and good health and happiness” [ibid.].