November 11 Sunday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich left 21 Fifth Ave. after a weekend stay with Twain. He [Lyon to H. Whitmore Nov. 12].

November 10 Saturday – Sam  wrote of  playing billiards until 1:15 a.m.: “I got but poor sleep afterwards & was pretty tired next day. I stayed home at night [Nov. 10] & did not go to the Alden feed. Those who went to it did not reach their beds until 4 a.m.—Howells & Paine included—but Aldrich got here at 2 a.m.” [Nov. 13 to Jean].   

Isabel Lyon’s journal:

T.B. Aldrich is so disappointing in appearance & in qualities of all kinds that go to make up the literary man bearing a high reputation.

November 9 Friday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich arrived at 21 Fifth Ave. for a weekend stay with Twain. He left on Sunday, Nov. 11 [Lyon to H. Whitmore Nov. 12].

November 8 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean.

It is a gray morning, Jean dear, and I have awakened prematurely.

I have been coughing only 8 or 9 days, yet I am already more than half tired of it. This is because it’s not sentimental or sympathetic, but is a dry bark like tan-bark. I do not go out of the house yet; I go down stairs, but not frequent

[segment about the Nov. 7 dinner party]

November 7 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote his “pal,” Mary B. Rogers:

Dear pal, there are many nieces in the world, but you are the most patient one there is, & in my opinion the only perfect one.

November 6 Tuesday – Rev. William Fitz-Simon of St. Mary’s Rectory, NYC wrote to Sam.

It was so kind, and doubtless characteristic of you to remember the clergy. The crown jewels reached me through Rushmore[‘]s hands and you have my sincere gratitude.

November 5 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Emilie R. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers).

The billiard table is better than the doctors. It is driving out the heartburn in a most promising way. I have a billiardist on the premises, & I walk not less than ten miles every day with the cue in my hand. And the walking is not the whole of the exercise, nor the most health-giving part of it, I think. Through the multitude of the positions & attitudes it brings into play every muscle in the body & exercises them all.

November 4 Sunday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote from Ponkapog, Mass. to Lyon & Sam that he had no plans except Sam’s for Friday night, and intended to leave Boston by morning train Nov. 9 [MTP].

November 3 Saturday – Either this day or the next Sam took a train trip of an hour-plus and visited daughter Jean in her Katonah, N.Y. sanitarium [Nov. 5 to Emilie Rogers].

Andrew Carnegie wrote to Sam. “So glad to learn that you are yourself again, back in town running about able ‘to take sustenance’ . Delighted to attend at dinner. / I hope we are going to snow under that Reprobate Hearst—His article upon Gilder roused my ire. / Yours Ever…” [MTP]. Note: see Carnegie’s Nov. 2 “invitation.”

November 2 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.).