January 6 Saturday – Clara Clemens continued to suffer a throat affliction. On this day she returned to the Norfolk sanitarium; she would return on Jan. 9, then go to Atlantic City [IVL TS 4; Hill 121].
Albert Bigelow Paine called on Sam at 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. about the possibility of writing Mark Twain’s biography. Paine writes of the meeting:
January 5 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to Herbert Gunnison (1858-1932), publisher of the Brooklyn Eagle, declining an invitation (not extant) [Christie’s auction 24 May 2002, Lot 1, Sale 1083]. Note: Gunnison was an “avid collector who sought to obtain material from a variety of 19 century personalities in the political, military, religious and cultural spectrums. The collection contains approximately 2000 items” [Ibid].
January 4 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Today young Mr. [Horace] Ashton came and made 8 photographs of Mr. Clemens in his bed. Not very good.
January 3 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to William D’Alton Mann.
I supposed its intent was malicious, but if Fiske wrote it it wasn’t. I went to the Court for a very definite purpose; but as I have not spoken to any one about it, no one knows what it was but myself.
January 2 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
January 1 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. Sam replied to Gertrude Natkin’s Dec. 31 note.
Don’t forget, dear, to make your New-Year good-resolutions. Not that I think you need any reforming, for I don’t; I love you plenty well enough, just as you are. Happy New-Year! I forgot to say it before: this comes of being 17 times as old as you are, & accordingly cripple in my mind & forgetful [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Jean, 11; 1:20, 7 p.m., very severe.
January – In N.Y.C. Sam wrote an aphorism to The Printer’s Home: “Let us save the to- morrows for work. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain, / Jan./06” [MTP:Mac Donnell, No. 22, Item 123].
Sam also inscribed a printed bust portrait of himself to an unidentified person: “S.L. Clemens / Truly yours / Mark Twain / Jan.06” [MTP:Hamilton catalogs, Sept. 12, 1968, Item 88].
Sam also inscribed a photograph of himself to Klaus Kaempher in Berlin: “Truly Yours / Mark Twain / Jan./ 06” [MTP].
Paine Hired, Dictations Begin – Retired from Congo – Auto Show – Pleas for Tuskegee Gridiron Club – Swapping Lies with Joe Cannon – Tea at Columbia U. Blots from “Marjorie” – Pallbearer for McAleer – MT Fans Mob Majestic – Putzel Daily with Charlotte – “A” Clubbers – Gorky & Scandal – Speaks for Blind Upstaging Billiardists – Kissing Vassar Girls – Pleas for S.F. Quake Victims – Bronchitis Lying Fallow in Dublin – Harper Treacheries – Eve’s Diary – Poor Old Friend is Free Harvey Picks A.D. segments for N.A.R.
Late December – Mrs. Helen Grandin Lord, corresponding secretary of the Sorosis 1868 requested Sam’s presence on a printed invitation to luncheon on Monday, January 1 , 1906 at 1 p.m. at the Waldorf-Astoria. Sometime before that date Sam wrote on the invitation for Isabel Lyon: “Decline it” [MTP].
Continue on to 1906:
December 31 Sunday –Sam also wrote his signature to William H. Ridgway in Contesville, Penn.: “None Genuine without this signature on the bottle: / Truly Yours / Mark Twain” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to George Standring:
Dear Standring it was good to hear from you. I wish you lived here, & close by—I should
enjoy that. For I have no young friends now; except Aldrich & [Thomas] Wentworth
Higginson & Julia Ward Howe & Edward Everet Hale: Howells is old, Tom Reed & John
Hay were young, but they are gone.
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