September 3 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Dorothy arrived. / Such a very very nice dinner at the Sampsons. Mr. [Charles E.] Sampson is the head of that house, for even the fine beautiful table linen is exquisitely marked with his initials & the silver too, has his lettering. He was very delightful. He told me how when he was a boy he crossed from Europe on the steamer with Emerson & how dear Emerson was, waiting on his sister who was an invalid [MTP TS 99- 100].
September 2 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: The King had been up in my study telephoning to Dorothy [Quick] this morning, & when we went back to his room to go on with the morning business we found the smell of tobacco pretty strong & he said it smelt “as if a stuffy old archangel had been in there”. I told him that Santa & I love the smell of an archangel. He said “yes, the smell of young ones, but not the stale old ones.”
September 1 Sunday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Albert Langen.
Although Twain would not have identified this as an amphitheater by looking at it:
The great theater of Ephesus is a splendidly preserved and very impressive building. This structure, built of marble, has a width of 145 meters, and its audience once reached up to 30 meters. In its heyday, it could accommodate up to 24,000 spectators.
September – Bookman (NY) ran a sour article, “Mark Twain’s Publicity R.I.P.” p. 9-10. Tenney: “‘Mark Twain’s work,’ said one British writer when British applause was at its loudest, ‘has absolutely no connection with literature,’ and some of it ‘has for sheer concentrated vulgarity never been beaten’; and it was a pity, said another, that Oxford did not honor Henry James instead. The American press reported only England’s praise when MT visited.
August 31 Saturday – Sam sent a telegram to Dorothy Quick:
August 30 Friday – H.H. Rogers wrote from Fairhaven, Mass. to Sam.
August 29 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Today I went to spend the day with Santa who appeared suddenly from Norfolk. She is beautifuller than she has ever been, for Boston agrees with her and her intense happiness in her life and in her art are making for her an existence that is ideal. It was a scurry to get off—a scurry to get my home train and to bed I am—exhausted. Mr. Baker went in on my train and he has a proper appreciation of the King. So we talked forever [MTP TS 96]. Note: George Barr Baker.
August 28 Wednesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick: “Dorothy dear,
I am writing you a real letter, and it will go to you in a day or two. But this is only just a line, to send you my love & say how glad we are that you are coming, and that we can have you one day earlier—which is delightful” [MTP; MTAq 47]. Note: MTAq erroneously puts this to “early August 1907,” but there was no change of plans on the earlier visit to come one day earlier. MTP puts it at Aug. 28, which is judged to be correct.
August 27 Tuesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam finished his Aug. 26 to Dorothy Quick.
Yes, Wednesday will be perfectly convenient—and we’ll have you a whole week, which is grand! Provided you don’t get homesick—& we do hope you won’t. We’ll do our very best to keep you happy & content. Miss Lyon will arrange about the trains with your mother by telephone, if she can; otherwise by letter.
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