October 14 Monday – William Dean Howells wrote to Sam [MTHL 2: 730]. Note: letter dated Oct. 15; postmarked Oct. 14; Howells was likely confused as to the date.
Michael P. O’Riley wrote from NY to Sam. He was a policeman and had read Sam’s interview in this day’s Herald. He wanted Sam to know that policemen were with Seth Low almost to the man, and wished Sam success in his canvass for votes for Low [MTP].
October 13 Sunday – In the evening Sam finished reading The Cavalier, George Washington Cable’s new book [Oct. 15 to Cable].
Sam inscribed a flyleaf of Russell Alexander Alger’s (1836-1907) The Spanish American War (1901): “S.L. Clemens, Riverdale-on-Hudson, Oct. 13, 1901” [Gribben 20].
October 12 Saturday – Sam received a copy of George Washington Cable’s new book, The Cavalier (1901) [Oct. 15 to Cable].
Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam.
October 11 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Robert Underwood Johnson.
“I have been cogitating for 24 hours, & have evolved a scheme. It is quite different from yours, but I believe it promises well. Will you run up here (25 minutes by rail) some day between now & October 30…” [MTP].
The New York Times ran a report of burglaries in Riverdale, quoting Mark Twain:
BURGLARIES ALARM RIVERDALE RESIDENTS
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October 10 Thursday – Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam: “I am in receipt of your letter, and will attend to its contents at once” [MTP].
October 10 or 17 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Theodore Weld Stanton.
October 9 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to George B. Harvey, president of Harpers and the North American Review: “If you are going to issue the North American several days before election day (Nov. 5) I’d like to have a few pages of space in it—otherwise, if it can’t be, I won’t waste my article but go to a political meeting & deliver it as a speech” [MTP].
October 8 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edmund Clarence Stedman in Bronxville, N.Y.
Mr. Dodge gave me the valued accommodation of a lift up the hill the other day, & although he wouldn’t come in at that time he promised that he & his family would come & see us later—we hope the contract will be made good. Yes, I am here for peace & repose…we are not of those who desire the peace & repose of the hermit or the convict.
William Lewis Morris and his wife Mary Elizabeth Babcock acquired land in Riverdale in 1836, and built what we know as Wave Hill House in the early 1840s. ... The internationally known publisher William Henry Appleton bought Wave Hill in 1866. By then, the areas was easily accessible to New York City by rail, and had become a fashionable location for summer houses. The Appletons transformed the house into a Victorian villa, calling it Holbrook Hall. ... Between 1893 and 1911 George W. Perkins acquired several pieces of property in Riverdale, including Wave Hill House in 1903.
October 7 Monday – R.G. Newbegin wrote to Sam that Thomas Reed had called his attention to the fact that a letter had been sent in their company name “reported to have been signed by you.” Newbegin blamed W.I. Squire, another agent in Toledo, Ohio; he understood Sam’s indignation, was sorry that the matter occurred, and would do their best to see it didn’t happen again. He confided Reed’s assertion that the act was “forgery in the third degree” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env.
October 5 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mr. Osborne (not further identified): “Indeed I should very much like to see that institution, but I have settled down, now, to stir from under the rooftree no more forever—at least for a year or two, I hope. / Won’t you send me another copy of the pamphlet? I hadn’t read three pages of it before some one carried it off. I was thoroughly interested” [MTP].