January 11 Monday – In Redding, Conn. Sam inscribed his photo to Anne Sullivan Macy
(Mrs. John Albert Macy): “To Mrs. John Sullivan Macy, with warm regard, & with limitless admiration of the wonders she has performed as a miracle-worker—/ Mark Twain / Stormfield, Jan. 11/09.” [MTP].
Sam’s new guestbook:
Name Address Date Remarks
Helen Keller Jan. 11 [see below]
Note: Helen signed her own name and across the middle of the page above her signature she wrote in large square even letters:
“I have been in Eden three days and I saw a King / I knew he was a King the minute I touched him though I had never touched a King / before — A daughter of Eve”.
Sam wrote in the Remarks column about Helen’s comment: “The point of what Helen says above, lies in this: that I read ‘The Diary of Eve,’ all through, to her last night; in it Eve frequently mentions things she said for the first time but instantly knows what they were—& named them” [MTP]. Note: was she a guest for three days as her note suggests? Only Jan. 11 is in the guestbook.
(Next page:)
Name Address Date Remarks
Joseph H. Twichell Hartford Conn Jan 11-12 1909 Rev. Joe & Harmony are intimate friends of more than 41 years’ standing
Julia Harmony “ “ “
Sam’s A.D. for this day is offered by Gribben:
In 1909 Clemens testified that he both “published” and “read” [Ignatius] Donnelly’s book [The Great Cryptogram: Francis Bacon’s Cipher in the So-Called Shakespeare Plays (1888)] when it first appeared; he found it then “an ingenious piece of work,” but nearly everyone scoffed at it. Though Donnelly’s acrostics did not entirely convince Clemens, he was enormously impressed by the point Donnelly made about Shakespeare’s never having used any Stratford scenes in his plays and poems [200]. “Mark Twain believed Granville George Greenwood’s claim that ‘through the last page of King Lear is scattered the acrostic “Verulam,” spelled backwards’” [627].
Countess Gaston d’Arschot wrote on mourning border paper to Sam. “Just now I learn of your proposed library, and have much pleasure in enclosing my check for $5, which modest offering I beg you to accept…” [MTP]. Note: “Ansd”; formerly Miss Wilhelmina Detmold, she married Count Detmold, in charge of the Belgian legation in NYC. She died in 1912.
Isaac Guggenheim wrote from NYC to Sam, enclosing $25 for the Mark Twain Library, mentioned by Mr. Dearborn [MTP]. Note: “Ansd”
Charles J. Langdon wrote a short note to enclose a draft for $60 on matured bonds of Park County, Mont., from Livy’s estate [MTP].
A.P. Watt wrote from London to Sam, enclosing “the latest edition of my ‘LETTERS TO A. P. WATT’” which he noted contained 26 letters not previously included [MTP].