January 2 Thursday – The New York Times, p. 9 ran this brief squib of an upcoming gathering:
Lotos Club Dinner to Mark Twain
A jollification dinner is announced at the Lotos Club on Jan. 11. Mark Twain is to be the guest of the evening.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Loose jointed & weary I am in bed all day. Not doing much thinking— not doing any work but reading Daniel Deronda with greater delight than ever.
January 1 Wednesday – In N.Y.C. Sam attended a farewell dinner for William Dean Howells at the Metropolitan Club, thrown by Col. Harvey. According to Lyon’s datebook for Jan. 2, Sam spoke last after six speeches [MTP: IVL TS 1]. See entry.
Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Robert Underwood Johnson. “Dear Mr. Johnson: / Mr. Clemens asks me to write for him to say that he is not sufficiently interested to vote on coming membership” [MTP]. Note: Lyon dictated this to Josephine Hobby.
Sam also wrote to Eden Phillpotts.
January – “Extract from Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven” first appeared in two installments in Harper’s Monthly for Dec. 1907 and for Jan. 1908. It was published by Harper as a book in Oct. 1909 as Extract from Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven. Budd points out that Twain worked on various versions of the story at multiple times—in 1869, 1870, 1873, 1878, 1881, 1883, and 1893 [Budd Collected 2: 1013].
Year of the Angelfish – “A Good Place to Live in, a Good Place to Die In” - Autobiography House” becomes “Innocents at Home” becomes “Stormfield” - Doe Luncheons – Elinor Glyn – Knickerbocker Crisis - Bermuda Trips: Margaret, Maude, Reginald; HHR – Children’s Theatre - Jubilee City College – Aldrich Memorial– Commodore Dow – Moffett Drowns - Guests, Guests, More Guests – Redding Library “Tax” Dedication - Burglars! Staff Quits – Requires Cat in Pace – Elizabeth Wallace Visits
December 31 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote on a card picturing a woman in a hat to Maud W. Littleton: “Happy New year / to / Mrs Littleton / from / SL. Clemens” [MTP]. Note: Martin W. and Maud W. Littleton, across-the-street neighbors.
December 30 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Carlotta Welles.
Your letter has just arrived, & is a very pleasant & very welcome surprise; I thought you had forgotten me long ago. The xmas holidays have this high value: that they remind Forgetters of the Forgotten, & repair damaged relationships.
December 29 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally; his letter informs of a short trip he took the day before, and of his dinner plans for this evening.
Ah, you dear Francesca, you & your mother gave me a pleasant surprise in that beautiful & valuable addition to my winter comforts, & I thank you cordially ; & I wish also to thank you, dear, for the fine album of Rembrandts. I am the better, bodily & spiritually, for these welcome remembrances.
December 28 Saturday – In his Dec. 29 to Nunnally, Sam wrote: “Yesterday I went with 70 other slaves of Harper & Brothers to Lakewood to lunch Mr. Howells out of the country & give him God-speed. The distance was greater than I was expecting it would be.” On Dec. 21 he had written to daughter Jean: “The Howellses sail for Europe Jan. 4; on the 2d all the Harper staff, to the number of 60, go down to Lakeville by special train & give him a send-off. Miss Lyon & Mr.
December 27 Friday – Sam and Dorothy Quick had some unspecified engagement for today; see telegram Dec. 25 to Quick.
The New York Times ran “Want Tchaykovsky Free” on p. 8, and included Samuel L. Clemens in a list of about 500 names signed to a petition plea to liberate Nicholas Tchaykovsky (Nikolai V. Chaikovsky), recently arrested for complicity in the Russian revolutionary movement.
December 26 Thursday – Harper & Brothers wrote to Miss Lyon replying to hers of Dec. 23 and would be “very glad to communicate with Miss Katharine I. Harrison in regard to the 24the and 25th Volumes of Mr. Clemens’ Works” [MTP].
Ethel Newcomb wrote to Sam, hoping she might see him before going back to Europe, as she’d missed him at Brown’s Hotel in London when he was there. Regards to the girls [MTP].