January 24 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to the Jan. 16 from Elinor Sutherlin Glyn. The letter below was Sam’s protest of the publication by Glyn of a pamphlet (Mark Twain on Three Weeks) which included a purported verbatim account of a conversation between the two discussing Glyn’s novel, Three Weeks (1907), which had shocked sensibilities (and gained many sales) for it’s unabashed account of an adulterous relationship.
Dear Mrs. Glyn—it reads pretty poorly. I get the sense of it, but it is a poor literary job. However, it would have to be that because nobody can be reported even approximately except by a stenographer. Approximations, synopsized speeches, translated poems, artificial flowers and chromos all have a sort of value, but it is small. If you had put upon paper what I really said it would have wrecked your type machine.
I said some fetid and over-vigorous things, but that was because it was a confidential conversation. I said nothing for print. My own report of the same conversation reads like Satan roasting a Sunday school. It, and certain other readable chapters of my autobiography, will not be published until all the Clemens family are dead—dead and correspondingly indifferent. They were written to entertain me, not the rest of the world. I am not here to do good—at last, not to do it intentionally. You must pardon me for dictating this letter; I am still sick a-bed and not feeling as well as I might. / Sincerely yours / S.L. Clemens [MTP].
Notes: Glyn’s pamphlet is dated as 1908; it would have predated this letter by at least a few days. See also Dec. 1907 entry and others on Glyn; Gribben 262; Scharnhorst 673-4, quotes the N.Y. American for Sept. 27, 1908, sec.2, p.1 (see Sept 27 entry for this short interview). Glyn would coin the term the “It Girl” for Clara Bow in 1927.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Headache. Such a busy day, planning for the King’s departure, looking after him to see that he does not get into drafts when he stands at the leaky loose windows to watch the snow & the children & the dogs & things frolicking in the beautiful white storm.
Ashcroft came after dinner & while Mrs. Littleton was here to say goodbye to the King & to bring him a great basket of pears I slipped away to talk with Ashcroft about the letters episode, & he approved of my method of procedure with Mr. Howells for I wrote him of the fact that the King is quite unaware that Paine sent for the letters. / Ashcroft is so good— [MTP: IVL TS 15]. Note: See Lyon’s journal for Jan. 22 which included a letter to Albert Bigelow Paine written this day about the letters taken.
Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Miss Lyon, again about John W. Postgate’s efforts to dramatize JA [MTP]. Note: Marbury wrote many notes to Lyon or Clemens on every detail with regard to dramatizing Twain’s works.
F.J. Neil wrote to Sam, at least the second reader to catch that in his Autobiography he wrote he paid Horace Bixby $100 while in LM paid him $500. “There is yet time to repair the wrong & so save your reputation to future generations” [MTP]. Note: Was miscatalogued as “F.J. Weil.” Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd. Jan. 28, 1908” and “Mr Clemens does not carry these small details in his mind. And the probabilities are that the statement in Life on the Miss is the correct one”
Dorothy Quick wrote from Plainfield, NJ to Sam on the SS Bermudian. “I am so glad you are over your cold and able to go away….I have a new book called Ozma of Oz by L. Frank Baum it is awfully nice, and awfully funny I am going to send this to the steamer for I am afraid you wont get it otherwise” Dorothy hoped to go to Bermuda in the spring [MTP].
Marcella Sembrich wrote to Sam, sorry she could not attend the Doe Luncheon on Feb. 11 due to a singing performance in Syracuse that day [MTP].
Stephen Terry wrote from Surbiton, Herefordshire to thank Sam for “Soldier Boy” and to ask him to read his articles in The Animal World for “April to Sept last year, which I am sending for your kind acceptance.” He wished he’d met Sam at the Savage Club in London [MTP].
Harry P. Wood left Sam his calling card: “With earnest wishes for your early and full recovery.” He also wrote a full letter from Washington, DC that when in NY he’d left photos and pamphlets describing Hawaii—a place he felt would bring Sam back to good health” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd. Jan. 27, ‘08”