January 15 Friday – Harry Windsor Dearborn for the Robert Fulton Monument wrote to Sam, attempting to entice him to attend the “informal reception” for which he’d changed the date from Jan. 23 to the 21st to accommodate Sam’s visit to NYC. He listed a string quartet which would be there, a waiting billiard table of Henry W. Marsh’s, and would send an automobile for Clemens. He added a P.S.: “I have invited a number of very young and beautiful girls who will be so pleased to see you on Thursday next” [MTP].

January 14 Thursday – In Redding, Conn., Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Archibald Henderson at the Univ. of N. Carolina at Chapel Hill.

January 13 Wednesday – Ino Downey for the Men’s Club of Holy Trinity Church, NYC wrote to invite Sam to their annual dinner on Feb. 22 [MTP]. Note: “Ans. Jan 14 M.L.H.”

January 12 Tuesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam replied to the Jan. 8 from General Oliver Otis Howard (1830-1909).

Dear General Howard:

You pay me a most gratifying compliment in asking me to preside, & it causes me very real regret that I am obliged to decline, for the object of the meeting appeals strongly to me, since that object is to aid in raising the $500,000 Endowment Fund for Lincoln Memorial University.

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]

January 10 Sunday – Richard Watson Gilder wrote on Wells College, Aurora NY letterhead to ask Sam if he could be present on Wed. Jan. 13 at Carnegie Hall, 5 p.m. for a meeting in memory of Stedman—“if it wouldn’t be a burden” [MTP].

January 9 Saturday – The Armstrong Assoc. of New York, per May Hurlburt sent Sam tickets for a box at Carnegie Hall on Jan. 22 [MTP].

Diana Belais, President of the New York Anti-Vivisection Society wrote to ask Sam for a letter of introduction to Harpers, as they were in “a terrific fight …against the Medical Society of New York, which has banded indissolubly to crush out our movement” [MTP].

January 8 Friday – John Albert Macy brought galleys of Some Acrostic Signatures of Francis Bacon, etc. (1909) by William Stone Booth (1864-1926) . Sam then wrote the first pages of “Is Shakespeare Dead?”  Sam thereby became convinced that “Booth, had demonstrated, beyond any doubt or question, that the Bacon signatures were there” (in Shakespeare’s works) [Gribben 77; MTB 1479, 1485-6].

Sam’s new guestbook:  

Name Address Date Remarks

Annie S. Macy

January 7 Thursday – Sam’s new guestbook:           

Name Address Date Remarks

H.W. Dearborn [signed]    [New York]  Jan. 7

Ragnvald Blix began a letter to Sam that he finished Jan. 21 [MTP]. Note: not found at MTP.

January 6 Wednesday – Anna L. Cunningham wrote to thank Sam for the box of chocolates [MTP]. Note: “Telephone girl”