September 27 Thursday – In the evening at 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Ralph W. Ashcroft.

The Colonel [Harvey] has just gone. I expected he would not be willing that any but Harpers should issue the brochure, & he wasn’t.

He wants to put the 7 [photographs on being good] in the Xmas Weekly—a huge & elaborate number—& says he can print them perfectly; so I told him to go ahead. Miss Lyon is suffering a severe nervous collapse [MTP].

September 26 Wednesday – NYC: Sam inscribed a photograph of himself sitting up in bed to Katy Leary: “It is your human environment that makes the climate. To Katy Leary, with the affectionate regards of her friend. / Mark Twain / Sept 26/06” [MTP].  

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Petit mal all day.  / I got up to lie out in the sunshine with a piteously aching & suffering & quivering spine. AB came out with the mail & he took a lot of it away to dictate answers to Miss Hobby” [MTP TS 122].

September 25 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Isabel V. Lyon, with a humorous end note to daughter Jean, in Dublin, N.H.  

About 10 last night Clara took the alarm & fled to the sanitarium in 69 street. It was because the tearing up of the avenue made such a pounding racket. I hope she will stay there—for two reasons. Miss Gordon is good company for her, & there’s none here; & up there she is close to Luckstone.

September 24 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Charlotte Teller Johnson.

September 23 Sunday – In Norfolk, Conn. at midnight, Sam added to his Sept. 21 and 22 letter to Mary B. Rogers.

Midnight. It’s over!,

Sack, it was a distinct triumph!—an unqualified triumph—a triumph without any alloying doubts hanging about it—a beautiful, & blood-stirring, & spirit-satisfying triumph; & I would rather have lost one of my ear than missed it, & I would have contributed the other one to have you there.

September 22 Saturday – At 3 p.m. in Norfolk, Conn. Sam added to his Sept. 21 to Mary B. Rogers. Norfolk, 3 p.m., 22

I have gone to bed—as usual. It is to be hope that you are in bed, too, & that last night’s hilarious late hours & this morning’s murderously early ones have not broken you down utterly & condemned you to Norfolk again. I had a marvelously narrow escape from death coming up in the train.

===

September 21 Friday – In N.Y.C. Sam began a letter  to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.) that he added to after reaching Norfolk, Conn. Sept. 22, where he finished it on Sept. 23. Daughter Clara was to make her American debut as a concert singer in Norfolk on Sept. 22.

[first page of letter written between typewritten lines of letter to SLC from W. M. Vanderweyde:]

September 20 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Isabel V. Lyon in Dublin, N.H. 

Clara & I have just come in from dinner at the Grosvenor, & I am gone to bed.

Day before yesterday I told Mrs. Johnson frankly & in detail our judgment of the Joan play, & she took it in good part.

Yesterday on the yacht I read 10,000 words of the story, & to-day I read 10,000 more—both batches with great admiration & continuous & strong interest.

September 19 Wednesday – Sam left Fairhaven, Mass. on the Kanawha for New York City. On board he read 10,000 words of Charlotte Teller Johnson’s play [Sept. 20 to Lyon].

In the evening Sam spoke at the Associated Press Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in N.Y.C. The NewYork Times, Sept. 20, p. 4 reported on the event:  

SPELLING AND PICTURES AND TWAIN AT DINNER

The Associated Press Men Hear a Plea for Phonetic Forms.

September 18 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

AB came back today, came back tired & brought me “Madame Butterfly”. He’s a thoughtful creature. I was so glad to see him—so very glad for when the King is away the loneliness of this place can be screaming, because I’m not alone. I can endure myself. It’s the rest of the world that chokes me so—a certain spirit world that is disastrous to me [MTP TS 120-121].