June 25 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Frances F. Cleveland (Mrs. Grover Cleveland) in Princeton, N.J..: “Your husband was a man I knew and loved and honored for twenty-five years. I mourn with you. S.L. Clemens” [MTP]. Note: for some reason the NY Times reported this as June 26 [June 27, p.2, “From Mark Twain to Mrs. Cleveland”].
June 24 Wednesday – In Princeton, N.J.. ex-president Grover Cleveland succumbed to a heart attack. His last words were, “I tried so hard to do right.” Sam consistenly held the man in high esteem, and wrote condolences to Cleveland’s widow on June 25.
Alice Minnie Herts for the Children’s Educational Theatre wrote to Sam announcing their move and asking for “a good picture of yourself” [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Answd/ June 29, 08 / Say, yes. For her to get the photo & Mr. Clemens will present it. Mr. C. is in his country home”
June 23 Tuesday – John J. McCowan for the Actors Society of America wrote from NYC. He planned to enter vaudeville dressed up as Mark Twain, if Clemens had no objection [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Answd / June 29, 08; Please refer him to Miss Elizabeth Marbury 1430 Broadway”
Mr. & Mrs. Whitelaw Reid sent an engraved invitation to the wedding of his daughter Jean Reid to John Hubert Ward on June 23 at Dorchester House [MTP].
June 22 Monday – In Redding, Conn., Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Dorothy Quick.
Dear Dorothy: / Mr. Clemens has just left for town, & he asks me to invite your mother & you to come up here on Thursday the second leaving N. Y. Central on the 4:15 train M for Redding. Mr. Clemens & Mr. Paine will be on the same train. Please do not disappoint Mr. Clemens. He sends you much love, & to your mother too. / Yours Ever / I. V. Lyon [MTP].
June 21 Sunday – The photograph of Clemens playing cards with Dorothy Harvey and her friend Pauline Martin, and Louise Paine was likely taken this day, the day after their arrival at Stormfield [MT Journal Spring/Fall 2006 p. 25].
The New York Times, p. C2 under “Nearly 10,000 Guests Bidden to Windsor,” ran a final paragraph about Clara Clemens:
June 20 Saturday – In the morning in Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Clara, now in London.
June 19 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick:
Oh, this will never do! You are having altogether too good a time, you little rascal (because I am not in it.) Still, I’m glad. I mustn’t break into it now, but I’ll have to do it before long; you & your mother will have to pay me a visit here. I want you; & I want my other angel-fishes. I must have a couple of them under this roof all the time, from now until January. There will be 2 under it to-morrow, to stay a week, I hope.
June 18-August 31 – Sometime during this period in Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Margaret Blackmer about a humorous exchange with a supposed lookalike.
June 18 Thursday – The History of Redding website notes that Sam arrived at the West Redding Train Station shortly before 6 p.m on the Berkshire Express out of New York. The train made a special stop for Twain and thereafter continued the stop for his many visitors.
June 17 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam inscribed a copy of LM to Commander Daniel Dow (1860-1931): “Very truly yours / Mark Twain / To Commander Dow, R.N.R. / June 17/08” [MTP]. Note: this from a message board posted by Dow’s grandson, Michael Dow, in 2004: