May 12, 1906 Saturday

scott 31 August 2022
May 12 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Paine[,] Underwood & Johnson get up a game on copyright / Here’s this old [illegible word] Clemens over 70—in 5 years or more his copyrights will begin to perish, & they are the main support of his children—That should start the ball. Saturday, May 12, 1906, Dublin” [MTP TS 70].

The Saturday Evening Post published “Mark Twain’s Solo.” This issue sold on eBay in Feb. 2009, but no such article is listed in the index of the magazine, so perhaps it was a cartoon.

May 11, 1906 Friday

scott 31 August 2022
May 11 Friday – William Dean Howells wrote from N.Y.C. to Sam. “I wont take advantage of a delicate convalescent; so when I come next, we’ll talk, not read and listen. There’s talk enough left in us, I hope. / Yours ever, / W.D. Howells / This is final” [MTHL 2: 806].

Poultney Bigelow typed a postcard to Sam. Mbr>

May 10, 1906 Thursday

scott 31 August 2022
May 10 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to Gertrude Natkin’s May 5-8:

Hail & Aùfwiedersehen, Marjorie dear! & thank you for the blots—which I duplicate. Indeed it has been a troublesome captivity, but the end is near by, now, for if the weather permits, I am to leave my room day after to-morrow (or at furthest Monday) & break for the woods & freedom —that is to say, Dublin, N.H.

May 9, 1906 Wednesday

scott 31 August 2022
May 9 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “I think it was this day that Mr. Clemens gave the gospel ms. to Mr. Frank Doubleday to take & start in on the publishing of 250 copies to be printed on the DeVinne press. Not to be published in Mr. Clemens’s name, not even to be copyrighted in his name” [MTP TS 70]. Note: clearly added at on later day. See under 1906 year entry a letter to Doubleday on this subject. 8; MTP].

May 8, 1906 Tuesday

scott 31 August 2022

May 8 Tuesday – Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote to John B. Stanchfield with a copy to Sam. “Wright called at my office to-day. He said he has been out to the Coast recently. He said also that Butters had now plenty of money; was largely interested in the Realty Bonding & Finance Company, of Oakland; was actively connected with some new traction syndicates building trolleys in Northern California; and that some of his Oakland property has doubled in value recently.” He gave an address for Wright in E. Orange, N.J. [MTP].

May 7, 1906 Monday

scott 31 August 2022

May 7 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Otis Skinner (1858-1942), actor and a star since the mid 1890s. Clemens came to the defense of Mary Lawton:  

Dear little Otis:

So you have discharged her! Your reasons have greatly interested me. To-wit: She is too tall. But she is no taller than she was when you engaged her.

 She is too large. But she is no larger now than she was then.

 Her voice isn’t right. But it is the same voice that was satisfactory before.

May 5, 1906 Saturday

scott 31 August 2022
May 5 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam inscribed an etching to Edward Lauterbach: “It is not best to use our morals on weekdays, Edward, it gets them out of repair for Sunday. Your friend / Mark Twain / May 5, 1906.” [MTP].  

Sam also wrote to Oren Root, Jr., an officer in the Kingsbridge Railway Co.

May 4, 1906 Friday

scott 31 August 2022
May 4 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam, down with bronchitis again, wrote to Charlotte Teller Johnson.

I have your note, dear lady Charlotte, & of course I say “Yes”—quite willingly, too.

Professor Giddings’s article is remorselessly severe, but it is all good sense. The editorial is sane, also. The whole case is as pitiful as it can be—that of those poor Gorkys, I mean.

May 3, 1906 Thursday

scott 31 August 2022

May 3 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mr. Clemens’s inspiration for this morning. ‘Get up a stench in England about the Gospel. Have 200 copies printed anonymously there, uncopyrighted, too” [MTP TS 69].

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