July 22 Sunday – Sam was in NYC. He signed and inscribed a photograph of himself in his three-piece white suit in a rocking chair, to Mai Rogers (Mrs. William R. Coe): “A happy voyage to you dear Mrs. Coe & a speedy return! Sincerely yours, S.L. Clemens July 22, 1906.” On the back he wrote, “Shall I learn to be good? ….I will sit here & think it over” [Skinner Auctioneers Nov. 19, 2006, Sale 2341, Lot 27].
July 21 Saturday – Sam was in NYC. Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.): “These are such beautiful days. The mountain has brought life to me. Who could have thought within the month there could be an awakening such as mine—an awakening out of black poisoned misery into the meaning of the mountain & the meaning & sacredness of life, whether in solitude or not” [MTP TS 99].
July 20 Friday – John T. Lewis, hero of Elmira, died on the way to the hospital [Sue Crane to Sam July 23, 1906].
Sam was in NYC. Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.): “Today we read Orion Clemens letters. Some of them written back in 1862. Mr. Paine is [many illegible cancelled words]. Oh, the wonder of life” [MTP TS 99].
July 19 Thursday – Sam was in NYC. Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.): “Today we climbed Monadnock—starting before nine o’clock we slowly wound our way up those mighty slopes. I cannot write of the wonder of the mountain—the wonder of the day. It was too great. It was a mighty stroke out of the great drama of eternity. Oh the great soul of that eternal mountain” [MTP TS 98-99].
July 18 Wednesday – Sam was in NYC. Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):
What will this day bring?
The grass is down! It was so ripe, so ready, and willing, to be slain. (3 men have been working at it all the morning.) It began to be so tired; & when the scythe swept through it, it lay so still, as if glad and full of rest—like other deaths.
July 17 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):
Jean, 3:30
July 16 Monday – N.Y.C. 10 a.m. Sam wrote to Isabel V. Lyon in Dublin, N.H.
“I have just arrived. Please thank my nephew Sam Moffett for me, & say I wonder at his sending a valuable letter to ‘Redding,’ a place I have no recollection of ever having heard of in my life. Preserve his statistics. / With love to Jean” [MTP].
July 15 Sunday – Sam was at the Rogers’ residence in Fairhaven, Mass. for a weekend stay [July 12 and July 16 to Lyon].
Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.): “I am alone today;—wonderfully alone! / All the morning I had a rich solitude here in my room, reading Nietzche & theosophy… / A solitary luncheon—more reading—& then at 4.30 lovely Gladys Thayer came, & we had tea & talk together. I played for her the Tannhauser Overture & Grieg & Träumerer, before she left to hurry home” [MTP TS 96-97].
July 14 Saturday – Sam was at the Rogers’ residence in Fairhaven, Mass. for a weekend stay [July 12 and July 16 to Lyon].
Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):
Here am I reading “Thus spoke Zarathrustra” & I do not pretend to be qualified to say how wonderful I find it. …
July 13 Friday – In the a.m. Sam and H.H. Rogers sailed again for Fairhaven on the Kanawha [July 12 to Lyon].
Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):
“Zarathustra” has arrived!