March 28 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Seymour Eaton.
Dear Sir: May I ask you to tell me if there is any sale for my family’s stock? I am advised to offer it at auction here, but would it not be better to auction it in Philadelphia where it is no doubt best known? Or, will the Company make me an offer? I think there is seven or eight thousand dollars’ worth of the stock; I do not know the exact figure, because all of it but the first two hundred shares was bought by the family & servants & a visiting relative without consulting me, a thing which I regarded as most unfortunate.
May I ask the courtesy of a reply by an early mail? / Sincerely yours … [MTP]. Note: Sam owned shares in Tabard Inn Co. See Apr. 1 for Eaton’s reply.
Sam also wrote to Edward Everett Hale.
Dear D . Hale: / Howells has sent me your letter to him in which it is proposed that Wayne MacVeagh go into court & test common-law possibilities on The Man Without a Country. Howells offers me what I regard as a privilege: an opportunity to contribute to the expenses. I will send you a hundred dollars whenever—now, or when you give me notice.
It seems odd—but not surprising—that we must go back to the comparatively dark ages to get a breath of fresh morals. Twentieth Century Civilization—when we consider the innocent pride which we take in it—is surely the most sarcastic sarcasm which our race has put on the market for many centuries—perhaps a million.
If anybody can make that case succeed, it is Wayne MacVeagh—a straight man, & gifted. It is a grand idea, in any case, & we must go ahead with it, win or lose. I am older than you are, as I know by tallying-off my perished interests & counting up the several that are left alive, but I am not destitute of interest in this scheme—far from it. No, I am as young as you, in this matter.
I am going to hope that we can land a success, and empty all the puerile & mephitic copyright-laws down Congress’s throat, or some other sewer. / Sincerely … [MTP].
Notes: See Gribben p. 285 under Hale for MT’s various references to The Man Without a Country, which Sam used as a phrase several times, including LM, FE, and to describe himself after Livy’s death. Hale was third on Sam’s nomination list for nominees to the American Academy of Arts and Letters ( Apr. 28 to Johnson). Hale published the story in 1863. See also Mar. 15 ca. entry and then MTHL 2: 797n2: Wayne MacVeagh would refuse to argue the copyright issues on Hale’s story because he was not persuaded there was a common-law right in literary ownership.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: I came across the drawings by Dan Beard for “The Yankee at the Court of King Arthur”—and they are great.
Alfred F. Kreymborg, that’s the name of the young man steeped in music and high ideals. He played through 15 rolls of music for me up at Aeolion Hall and he said that Beethoven and Emerson had been his greatest teachers. Beethoven he put first.
On top of a bus I rode up to 85th Street with Wallis. Oh, it was beautiful [MTP: TS 47].
Note: Alfred F. Kreymborg (1883-1966), noted American poet, playwright and novelist. He wrote a short piece “Chess Reclaims a Devotee,” a memoir of time spent in 1910 and 1911 trying to make it as a chess professinal in NYC. In chess literature he is most famous for two games that he lost: a classic rook and pawn endgame against Jose Raul Capablanca (1888-1942), world champion (1921-1927) and a horrendous loss to Oscar Chajes (1873-1928), Austrian chess player and the last person to defeat Capablanca.
Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Mr. Clemens received a letter from Mr. Howells which Dr. Hale wrote to Mr. Howells, on a copy right subject, & Mr. Clemens replied to Dr. Hale. / Mr. Clemens & Jean dined with Dr & Mrs. Rice” [MTP TS 9-10] Note: in this journal #2 (Daily Reminder) Lyon often uses the “&” instead of “and,” leading this editor to suspect that in the original MS of journal #1 she also observed that abbreviation, much as Clemens did in his letter writing. Also, she varied the convention for periods and commas to fall inside of quotation marks, following what today is the British convention. No “correction” of such inconsistency has been made in this volume.
Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Koy-Lo Co. letterhead to Sam.
Dear Mr. Clemens:
I managed to find [Charles S.] Fairchild in yesterday, after many calls. He said he had seen you on Sunday, and that there was nothing new about the cashier. He continues to expect an amicable settlement.
Please sign enclosed proxy covering the forthcoming annual meeting of the Plasmon Company [MTP].
F.W. Stone for Review of Reviews wrote on The American Monthly Review of Reviews letterhead, soliciting Sam to apply for a specimen copy of The Historians’ History of the World, as the introductory offer “must be withdrawn immediately” [MTP].
March 28 ca. – On or just after this date Sam wrote an answer on the bottom of Farrar’s Mar. 27: “Look at the bottom of the article entitled Joan of Arc in any Cyclopedia & you will find all the books that have been written about her” [MTP; amended date estimate].