December 22 Tuesday – Mansfield Hobbs, an attorney friend of Ralph W. Ashcroft filed incorporation papers for the Mark Twain Company, with $5,000 in capital stock. Clemens, Ashcroft, and Isabel Lyon were the original officers. Sam signed a document assigning and transferring all of his literary rights to the new corporation. Later, Ashcroft mentioned that Jervis Langdon II, Edward Eugene Loomis, and Zoheth Freeman were directors [Hill 212].
In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Richard R. Bowker.
Dear Mr. Bowker: / I am somewhat acquainted with the best of the 4 bills you mention. It is a good one, but is too complete & cannot be passed without great difficulty. Its features ought to be striven for, one at a time. My bill will not interfere with it. On the contrary it will help toward the achievement, later, of the only valuable feature of any of the 4: extension.
As for international copyright, a long term for it is not really worth working for; it has no importance. However, one may say that of domestic copyright-extension too, I suppose—or nearly that, commercially speaking. Honesty is involved in both cases, but no money in either.
I thank you for the book, & the fine large work.
With Xmas best wishes / Truly Yours
Push the other bills. I expect to postpone my efforts until next session of Congress [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Charles C. Clarke.
Dear Mr. Clarke:
I shall value that ancient picture, & I thank you ever so much for letting me have it.
Sincerely yours,
Mark Twain.
[enclosure, a photograph of SLC looking out of a window, inscribed as follows:]
The latest. It was taken last Saturday.
(Showing off.) / Truly Yours [MTP].
Sam also sent a postcard with a photo of Stormfield to George Bernard Shaw, in London, England: “Hearty Xmas greetings from / Mark Twain” [MTP].
Clemens’ A.D. for this date complimented Wallace Irwin’s “Letters from a Japanese Schoolboy,” in Collier’s Weekly, which became a book in 1909. Gribben offers: “…Mark Twain complimented Irwin’s schoolboy English character (like Huck Finn) to be ‘innocently unconscious’ of its effects” [347].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The men, except Gabrilowitsch, went fluttering away on an early train. It is so nice to have him in the house for he is working, & as the King says, must be allowed to do so undisturbed. He is composing as well as practicing” [MTP: IVL TS 85].
American Health League, New Haven per J. Pease Norton wrote to ask Sam to become a member [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 22 MLH”
Fanny Francis wrote from Melbourne, Australia to inquire if Sam was related to her uncle Clemens, who had deserted a British Man ‘o War and changed his name to William Symmons in Georgia. Fanny’s mother was 85 and begged her to write to find her only living relative [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 22 MLH”
Miss Izora V. Hunter wrote from Phila. to ask for an autograph [MTP]. Note: “Autog. Sent Dec 22 MLH”
Charles Gilman Norris wrote to Lyon (though catalogued as to Clemens) [MTP].
Donald Pearsall, 14 year old in Westfield, NJ, wrote to Sam [MTP]. Note: “Autog. Sent Dec 22 MLH”
Arthur A. Stoughton for the Bronx Society of Arts, NYC wrote to invite Sam to preside at ceremonies for the centenary of the birth of Edgar Allen Poe on Jan. 19 [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 23 MLH”