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].
December 8 Saturday – At the New Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C., Sam wrote Emilie R. Rogers:
Oh, dear me I am ashamed! I forgot to telephone you (in my hurry) that I must rush off to Washington in the interest of the new copyright bill & couldn’t keep my engagement for 5 p.m. yesterday with you. I am dreadfully sorry, & I apologize.
December 7 Friday – Sam was in Washington, D.C., and spoke before the Joint Congressional Committee on Patents in favor of stronger copyright legislation. It was a cause Twain was long chasing. Shelden writes perhaps the most dramatic and telling account of his appearance in his white suit: