April 15 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied with an aphorism to Carolyn Wells: “It is easier for a needle to go through a camel’s eye than for a rich woman to sprain her ancle & keep it out of the papers. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / April 15, 1906 / With greetings & good wishes to Carolyn Wells” [MTP].
The New York Times ran a front-page scandal story involving Maxim Gorky; Mark Twain’s remarks on helping Russia were included:
GORKY AND ACTRESS ASKED TO QUIT HOTELS
She Is Not Mme. Gorky, Though He Calls Her So.
April 14 Saturday – Four autographed notes by Clemens on a four-page letter by an unspecified reporter of the NY Times, requesting his opinion on Maxim Gorky’s trip to America to raise funds in the cause of Russian emancipation. Sam refused to be interviewed but answered written questions with written answers, with the priviso that they would be printed verbatim, if at all. Two of the notes follow:
April 13 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote a note of introduction for Maxim Gorky to Josiah Flint Willard at 119 Waverly Place, N.Y.C., replying to Willard’s Apr. 12:
“Dear Maxim Gorky: / M . Willard, the bearer of this, begs me to give him a line of introduction to you & I comply with his request in the conviction that you will find him interesting, since, like yourself, he has seen the seamy side of life & has had adventures” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Charlotte Teller Johnson.
April 12-15 Sunday – Sometime during this period Sam left a calling card at Charlotte Teller Johnson’s house: “I have come to ask after your cold, & to see if you are up & about: in which case can you see me in your workroom instead of venturing out into the air to come to my house? I hope you are well enough to take that risk, but naturally I am not in a position to guess intelligently. / SLC” [MTP].
April 12 Thursday – In the evening Sam and William Dean Howells visited Maxim Gorky. New York newspapers followed Gorky’s every move, including a p. 2 article from the Apr. 13 Times, “MAXIM GORKY VISITS THE TOMB OF GRANT,” which included the following passage on Mark Twain and W.D. Howells:
Mark Twain and W. D. Howells called upon Gorky at his apartments in the Hotel Belleclaire last evening. They remained with him for about half an hour discussing literature, and invited him to attend a literary dinner about a fortnight from now. Gorky accepted the invitation.
April 11 Wednesday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote from the Hotel de France & Choiseul, Paris:
Dear Mark: / I’ve a bit of news which I am sure will interest you, since it is the only happy thing that has befallen this stricken family during the past three years—the engagement of Talbot to a sweet young New England girl, a Miss Eleanor Little. ….
April 10 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote a reply on Edward Everett Hale’s Apr 8. “I had already dismissed the copyright matter from my mind, recognizing that it was too late to accomplish anything with it this year. Therefore I squash my answer to your letter into a simple sentence, to wit:—I haven’t any wish to follow up the copyright matter this year” [MTP].
Sam also replied to the Apr. 8 praise of his A.D. from William Dean Howells:
April 9 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
When you come by for me at 5 this afternoon won’t you please bring me
1—$500-bank note;
4—100- " "
10—10- " "
& please ask Miss Harrison to draw this $1000 from my balance at the Guaranty Trust. / Yours ever
Miss Lyon doesn’t know about this. SL. Clemens [MTHHR 604-5].
Mark Twain in Cincinnati: A Mystery Most Compelling
Author(s): William Baker
Source: American Literary Realism, 1870-1910 , Autumn, 1979, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Autumn,
1979), pp. 299-315
Published by: University of Illinois Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27745901
April 8 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to a not-extant letter from daughter Clara, now convalescing at the Hotel Brighton in Atlantic City, N.J.
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