November 15 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal noted she was still ill [MTP TS 146].
J.G. Babb Secretary for University of Missouri wrote to Sam requesting his portrait, though it must be “approved by a committee competent to pass on its artistic merit” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “No answer – the terms of the letter being uncourteous to the verge of brutality.”
November 14 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Ill on this day” [MTP TS 146].
Fanny Flint Conradson wrote from Franklin, Pa. to Sam. She, like many others, had read in the NY Herald of his bronchitis. She was a lifelong fan of his books since IA. Now she was a “twisted cripple” but owed much to his books for lightening her load.
November 13 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean , in Katonah, N.Y. “Jean dear, since I wrote the other day, conditions have not changed—at least for the better. They stopped me from playing billiards & I have been in bed ever since.” Sam then told of his “Stag dinner party” of Nov. 9, and of being tired on Nov. 10 from playing billiards until the wee hours, and of not going to Henry M. Alden’s dinner party celebrating his 70 . He was ordered to bed by Dr. Halsey. He finished with:
November 12 Monday – In N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote to Harriet E. Whitmore.
The darling wonderful White King isn’t out of the house yet. It wasn’t a bad bronchitis, but it housed him well & on Saturday when Thomas Bailey Aldrich was here—(he came Friday & left Sunday) the King hopped around without many clothes on & so added to his bronchial condition which finished with heavy coughing again. But again he is better.
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.