January 27 Monday – At the Princess Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to daughter Clara .
Clara dear, we arrived early this morning, after a voyage which began in good form but soon degenerated into storm and turmoil.
January 26 to February 2 –– Sometime during the short stay in Bermuda, Sam traveled to Somerset to see 29-year-old Upton Sinclair, who had arrived on the island on Dec. 20, 1907 for a six-month stay. In 1906 Sinclair sent a copy of his best-known book, The Jungle, to Clemens (see Gribben 644). At this time Sinclair was collaborating with fellow socialist Michael Williams on a book about health. The Royal Gazette of Feb. 8 reported on Sam’s trip to Somerset. D. Hoffman writes, quoting the Gazette:
January 26 Sunday – After traversing stormy seas, the Bermudian docked in Hamilton Harbor, Bermuda in the morning [D. Hoffman 89]. Note: The passage took 45 hours; Sam left shortly after a ten-inch snowstorm in NYC [A.D. of Feb. 12].
Woodrow Wilson, at that time President of Princeton, arrived in Bermuda on Jan. 20, and wrote his wife, Ellen Axson Wilson on Jan. 26:
January 25 Saturday – Sam left for Bermuda on the Bermudian. The New York Times, Jan. 26, p. 4 noted his departure and added:
“Mr. Clemens has been ill at his home for some days, and when he arrived at the vessel went direct to his stateroom and did not emerge while the vessel was at her pier. He was ordered south by his physician because of an attack of laryngitis.”
January 24 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to the Jan. 16 from Elinor Sutherlin Glyn. The letter below was Sam’s protest of the publication by Glyn of a pamphlet (Mark Twain on Three Weeks) which included a purported verbatim account of a conversation between the two discussing Glyn’s novel, Three Weeks (1907), which had shocked sensibilities (and gained many sales) for it’s unabashed account of an adulterous relationship.
January 23 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y.
January 22 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Andrew Carnegie.
Dear St. Andrew:
I have had to decline this mission a couple of times in the past year or two, & the most I can do now is to forward the letter—which I do, & leave it to take its chances.
That whisky came very handy. I had a very wild & exasperating cold, but a pint of the whisky tamed it in 3 minutes by the watch & I did not wake up again for ten hours.
I shall be out of bed tomorrow, I think, & I’ll break straightway for Bermuda [MTP].
January 21 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally.
Francesca dear
I wish you were here
And had 2 weeks to spare. Then I would pack you & Miss Lyon aboard ship & sail for Bermuda Saturday. Now you see what you are robbing her of—& she needs that trip very much. I shall take nobody but Ashcroft—yet he hasn’t any use for a voyage.
You are going to spend those ten Easter days here, aren’t you, dear? We’ll come to Catonville & fetch you.
January 20 Monday – The New York Times, p. 9 reported on Sam’s health, as “No Worse”:
MARK TWAIN NO WORSE
———
But Still In Bed Nursing His Cold—To Go to Bermuda Soon.
There was at least one sore man in the city yesterday, and he was sore in two places at once—in his chest and in his mind. The man was Samuel L. Clemens, whom almost everybody knows best as “Mark Twain.”
January 19 Sunday – In the morning Dr. Edward Quintard checked on Sam’s condition again, noting that he was “no worse” [NY Times Jan. 20, 1908, p.9 “Mark Twain No Worse”].
The New York Times, Jan. 18, 1908, ran a squib under “City Brevities” p.9: