May 2 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Headache. So ill all day, for I wept without control for hours last night, because I was exhausted, and the fact that Santa [Clara] misunderstood all my efforts, in working over the house. My anxiety over the finishings, my interest in my search for the right thing for the King’s house has all been misinterpreted, and the child says I am trying to ignore her. All my effort has been to please her, to keep her from the dreary search of hours and hours to find the right thing, or shape or color.

May 1 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to the Apr. 30 to Frances Nunnally.

The way you are arranging things, you little rascal, what sort of a glimpse of you am I going to get? Before the 6th of June we shall be living in the house I am building in the country. However, it isn’t far away—only an hour & a half. When you arrive here I will come to town & see you—& then I hope you & your mother can run out to the villa with me & give me a visit.

May – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam inscribed a copy of LM to an unidentified person: “Mark Twain /.  I published this book at my own expense, as an experiment in economy. It cost me fifty-six thousand dollars before the first copy issued from the press. / SLC / May, 1908.”

Sam discussed The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine (1737-1809) with Albert Bigelow Paine, who quotes Twain:

April 30 Thursday –  Frances Nunnally wrote from Baltimore to Sam.

April 29 Wednesday– Sam wrote a sketch unpublished until 2009: “Dr. Van Dyke as a Man and as a Fisherman”  [Who Is Mark Twain? xxvi, 87-94]. Note: title assigned by the MTP. Undoubtedly the sketch owes itself to an Atlantic article in the May 1908 issue by Henry Bradford Washburn, “Shall We Hunt and Fish? The Confessions of a Sentimentalist,” where Washburn opens with a quotation from Van Dyke’s “Some Remarks on Gulls, with a Foot-note on a Fish,” Scribner’s Magazine Aug. 1907. In his A.D.

April 28 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Nancy Langhorne Astor.

I am very sorry to hear that you have been sick, & very glad to believe that you are well again.

I wonder if I am really to have the lark of darting over to England & back, in the summer? The thought of it is enticing, but—There’s always a but. I do not suppose I can go—still, it is good enough material to dream upon, till by & by.

April 27 Monday –  Helen Schuyler Allen wrote to Sam.

My dear Mr. Clemens, / I was afraid that possibly you had forgotten to write me, so decided I would write you first, and tell you how much I have missed you, I shall always remember the lovely times we had together and particularly our fine swim that last day you were in Bermuda.

When ever I use my camera I think of you, and how kind you were to help me get it. Please do write me soon. I remain you loving and devoted “Angel-fish” / Helen Schuyler Allen

April 26 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Eden Phillpotts.

Dear Mr. Phillpotts:

The Human Boy Again has arrived, & I have just begun it & am greatly enjoying it. Meantime (in Bermuda) I read—& re-read—The Mother of the Man, with high admiration. A great book!

I wish I had energy enough to resume work upon one or two of my several half-finished books —but that is a dream, & won’t ever come true. / Cordially your friend … [MTP].

April 25 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Helen Schuyler Allen.

I miss you ever so much, you dear Helen. There’s been a queer & constant reminder of you— salt in my hair—ever since that pleasant bath, until an hour ago when I washed it out with 5 separate & distinct soapings & scourings.

April 24 Friday – Clemens and Ralph Ashcroft traveled to Greenwich, Conn. to visit Jean Clemens. Jean, her two nurses, and friend Marguerite Schmidt; the ladies would shortly move to Gloucester, Mass. Meanwhile, Isabel Lyon inspected the construction site of what would be Stormfield at Redding [Hill 197; 203]. Note: the exact date of Jean’s move was not determined, but on May 20, Sam wrote a “welcome to your new home” for her. It becomes apparent that Hill used IVL’s journals for much of his source, though he didn’t always cite it.