December 18 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to Frederic Whyte’s Dec. 7, which included an excerpt from Alfred Russel Wallace’s book The Wonderful Century containing advocacy of phrenology. Whyte asked if Sam had studied phrenology (reading of bumps on the scalp).
December 17 Monday – In N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam and declined an invitation to lecture from Mrs. Caverly [MTP].
Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: The coincidence of the Kaiser’s and the portier’s appreciation of “Old Times on the Mississippi,” expressed almost in the same moment—The coincidence of Clemens reflecting on the definition of the word civilization, and then picking up the morning paper and finding his very ideas set forth by a writer who attributed the marrow of his remarks to Clemens [MTP Autodict3].
December 16 Sunday – Mr. and Mrs. Edwin R. Ray wrote, from Tacoma,Wash. to express thanks for HF—their two “fine boys” are always “instantly delighted” by having it read to them [MTP].
December 15 Saturday – Harper’s Weekly published Mark Twain’s letter to Henry Mills Alden to observe Alden’s 70 birthday. The letter was written sometime between Oct. 22 and Nov. 10, 1906.
December 14 Friday – C.B. Fleet, druggist, Lynchburg, Va. wrote a humorous anecdote prefaced by the tale that Sam once told of a chairman of a lecture committee, complimenting him on “Heathen Chinee,” one of Bret Harte’s poems. It seems just after a play of Col. Sellers there, a man thought to be intelligent said about the play, “if you’ve seen one Shakespeare play, you’ve seen them all” [MTP].
December 13 Thursday – Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: As regards the coming American Monarchy [MTP Autodict3].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
This morning when I told the King apropos of AB’s friends that there was one of them that he didn’t like & that it was Stedman, he said, “Oh, no, I only despise him, I don’t dislike him.”
AB is going to live here in the house to be the King’s billiard player.
Strength is flowing back into my veins & I am glad to be alive.
December 12 Wednesday – Sam returned to New York, and 21 Fifth Ave. [NY Times – above].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “This afternoon I went out to do an errand & on my return I found the King had arrived. He seemed sweeter & mellower than ever before. He can go away from me, but I shall not go away from him again unless he sends me” [MTP TS 149].
December 11 Tuesday – Sam sat for photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952) in her Washington, D.C. studio. He wore his white suit [Madsen 53]. Note: Johnston was a well-established professional who had photographed some of America’s prominent figures, including Theodore Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony, Booker T. Washington, Andrew Carnegie, John Philip Sousa and others; She was the first official White House photographer. See p. 54 or print LC-J601-1305 or 1305A on Library of Congress website.
December 10 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Home again—& the King is still in Washington. The papers are full of him, for he went down there with plenty of white clothes & people love to see him in them” [MTP TS 149].
David A. Munro for the North American Review wrote to Sam:
I am in distress over one of the first four pages of the new instalment of the autobiography, and the printer expects me to send them to the press tomorrow. That is why I pursue you to Washington.
December 9 Sunday – Margaret H. Wentworth wrote from Wash. D.C. to Sam. She had “two young orphan nieces” under her care and asked if Twain might see them for a minute while in town [MTP].