March 20 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka of Harper & Brothers about the illustrations for Eve’s Diary (1906).
We all think Mr. Ralph’s pictures delightful—full of grace, charm, variety of invention, humor, pathos, poetry—they are prodigal in merits. It’s a bonny Eve, a sweet & innocent & winning little lassie, & she is as natural & at home in the tale as if she had just climbed out of it. Now do you think draperies are indispensable to picture women? /Truly yours / SL. C.
Clemens met biographer Albert Bigelow Paine in 1906 while living in New York City.
March 19 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to W.T. Hall.
I thank you very much for the clipping from the Atlantic [sic Atlanta] Evening News. I have waited these many years for you to hear me lecture, but now it is too late: I am taking my farewell of the platform three weeks hence. The hostiles say “But you are forgetting the gallows—” a joke which I am too proud & arrogant to notice [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Jean, 8:20 10:30
March 18 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Gertrude Natkin, who, upon learning from Isabel Lyon that Sam was in bed with a cold, had sent flowers.
Aren’t you dear! Aren’t you the dearest child there is? To think to send me those lovely flowers, you sweet little Marjorie. Marjorie! don’t get any older—I can’t have it. Stay always just as you are—youth is the golden time.
March 17 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to an unidentified person:
“Mr. Clemens not very well wishes me to thank you very much for your letter which greatly interested him—& that far from objecting to his translating the article into French it is a compliment which I accept with pleasure & hold at a high value—” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
March 16 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam began a siege with a bad cold which would keep him in bed until Mar. 23. He wrote to Gertrude Natkin:
To whom these presents shall come—greetings & salutation. And thereto—this: It’s postponed to April 10 , you little rascal. Unknown Friend” [MTAq 20].
Gertrude Natkin wrote a short reply:
March 15 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote an aphorism to Florence Watson- Cadieu, secretary of the Whidden Memorial Hospital Guild, Everett, Mass. “On the whole it is better to deserve honors and not have them, than have them & not deserve them. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain” [MTP].
Sam hosted a dinner for the Rogerses and Dr. Edward Quintard [Hill 124].
March 14 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam replied to Edward M. Foote’s Mar. 9 invitation:
March 13 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to Gertrude Natkin. In full:
To whom these presents shall come—greeting:
One unto you unknown— & yet a Friend—instructs me to beg you to hold free of engagements the evening of April fifth. This, from Another Unknown Friend [MTAq 20].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Jean, at 8 this morning. Santa C. came back from Atlantic City.
March 12 Monday – George Henschel wrote fom the Institute of Musical Art, 53 Fifth Ave. to Sam:
On case your daughter Clara can’t accompany you to my little Bohemian (or rather Bavarian) dinner on Tuesday the 20 at the Aufbrauhaus, won’t you give me the pleasure of your company even if you have to come alone?…We shall be twelve all round—all round a round table—in a very cosy Room, drinking the most delicious Munich beer imaginable. Pray come and make us all young and happy [MTP]. Note: Sam’s reply, instructing Miss Lyon to telegraph “yes” is dated ca. Mar. 14.
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