September 29, 1905 Friday

scott 15 August 2022

September 29 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Harper & Brothers, asking them to send the magazine to 21 Fifth Avenue in N.Y.C. instead of to Dublin, beginning with the Nov. issue [MTP].

Lyon also replied to Robert Underwood Johnson (incoming Sept. 21) that Sam would be unable to make a meeting of the Academy of Arts & Letters as he would not be in the city until about Nov. 7 [MTP].

September 28, 1905 Thursday

scott 15 August 2022

September 28 Thursday – Sam’s essay: King Leopold’s Soliloquy: A Defense of His Congo Rule, was published as a pamphlet for the American branch of the Congo Reform Assoc. by The P.R. Warren Co., Boston. Budd: “At least three further printings followed soon afterward, and a ‘Second Edition,’ with additional supplementary material, was issued late in 1905 or early in 1906” [Collected 2: 1010]. Note: Hawkins points out that the pamphlet, by Twain’s suggestion, “contained several photographs of mutilated Congolese.

September 26, 1905 Tuesday

scott 15 August 2022
September 26 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Tonight Mr. Clemens read 70 pages of the new story he has been working upon for the last 4 or 5 days. (“A Horse’s Tale”)

A letter from Santa C. [Clara] tells that she had a nasal operation last week, and is weak and tired and discouraged, but she’s better now than she was [MTP TS 102].

September 25, 1905 Monday

scott 15 August 2022

September 25 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka (letter not extant but referred to in Duneka’s Sept. 26) [MTP].

Isabel Lyon’s journal:“Some youngsters here for dinner and a romp. Jean in a turmoil and a nest of tempers because those young guests didn’t assemble in invited sequence. The two Henderson children, Gerald and Hildegarde, didn’t talk a bit—but listened spellbound to every word that fell from Mr. Clemens’s lips” [MTP TS 102].

September 23, 1905 Saturday

scott 15 August 2022
September 23 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Thomas S. Barbour of the Congo Reform Assoc. in Boston.

M . Clemens directs me to write for him saying that he has been considering whether he could be made an honorary president, or a second president, so that he could be connected with the Congo Reform Association without doing any work, but could be of service by giving the use of his name. Will you kindly tell M . Clemens what you think of it? [MTP].

September 22, 1905 Friday

scott 15 August 2022

September 22 Friday – At 9 a.m. in Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Thomas S. Barbour of the Congo Reform Assoc., Boston, that he was “sending something which you should stop the press & add if humanly possible.” Mounted on another page was the following:

KING LEOPOLD’S SOLILOQUY

THE PUBLISHERS DESIRE TO STATE THAT MR. CLEMENS DECLINES TO ACCEPT
ANY PECUNIARY RETURN FROM THIS BOOKLET, AS IT IS HIS WISH THAT ALL
PROCEEDS OF SALES ABOVE THE COST OF PUBLICATION SHALL BE USED IN

September 21, 1905 Thursday

scott 15 August 2022

September 21 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to George B. Harvey

“Dear Colonel— / All right, bang away, go ahead. Yes it will be a ‘red-letter day,’ & a red-headed day, too, for Old Age will take the scalp of Belated Youth that day—mine, to-wit” [MTP]. Note: likely a go-ahead for Harvey’s plans to honor Mark Twain’s 70th birthday.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: All the days are sprinkled with pin cushions. They’re pretty little creatures, and best of all they sell. Teresa calls them my boys. George MacDonald is dead at 83

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