June 15, 1905 Thursday

June 15 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Headache (?) not sure.It is summer, supreme summer with heat that glows and glorifies.

Today Mr. Clemens couldn’t write. He’s been tiring himself, and indigestion follows with a brain fog—so he spent most of the day loafing on the porch, reading and smoking [MTP TS 65-66].

Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Today Mr. Clemens began to read the Revision of the microbe Story” [MTP TS 21].

June 14, 1905 Wednesday

June 14 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The microbe revision goes on and Mr. Clemens gives the sapient results to us” [MTP TS 65].

F.P. Keppel for Columbia University sent Sam a printed invitation to be a guest at the 151 Commencement, Wednesday June 14, 11 a.m. A place would be reserved for him in the Academic Procession [MTP].

June 13, 1905 Tuesday

June 13 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Katharine I. Harrison, asking her to transfer $2,000 from the Guaranty Trust to the Lincoln National Bank. She added, “Mr. Clemens is well” [MTP].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Jean wasn’t well today. She went down to her study, but came back so weary and dazed. Today the Thayers lunched here and Mr. Clemens and Mrs. Thayer talked of the “Quaker City” for a long time. Did Mrs. Thayer know anything about Mrs. Fairbanks?” [MTP TS 65].

June 12, 1905 Monday

June 12 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: After dinner tonight I spoke of one or two things mentioned in his brother’s manuscript, about how he, Mr. C., had shocked his mother by dancing the Schottisch until a late hour on board the boat of which he was pilot. He was taking his mother on a trip down to New Orleans. Then Mr.

June 10, 1905 Saturday

June 10 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Mr. Clemens has introduced a delightful character into the microbe book—“Katherine of Arragon”—She is so sweet and so foolish and so innocent, and so profane and so sympathetic that she’s exactly right. Mr. Clemens is enjoying the writing of the book so much too. He doesn’t know that Katherine is anywhere around when in she pipes with a remark that staggers that dear cholera germ. Oh, it is so interesting, and its positively holy to hear Mr. Clemens read it [MTP TS 64-65].

June 9, 1905 Friday

June 9 Friday – Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Robert E. Park, Secretary of the Congo Reform Association of America, in reference to John R. Gow’s June 6 inquiry. Some time ago Sam had instructed Harpers to forward “King Leopold’s Soliloquy” to them; he inquired on June 8 about the matter and they apologized that they’d been unable to find their address.

June 7, 1905 Wednesday

June 7 Wednesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper: “Please hand to bearer & charge to me, paper copy of your ‘Rudiments of Manners,’ also paper copy of your ‘How to Conceal Mental Vacancy & Seem Intelligent’” [MTP]. Note: Hill points out this sarcasm as one of Sam’s “savage moods” and “disbelief in the Harper integrity” [112].

June 6, 1905 Tuesday

June 6 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Wrote Mr. Duneka not to trouble Mr. Howells about the book or Mark Twain letters. C.C. & J.L.C. want to collect & compile the letters” [MTP TS 20].

writes of Clemens’ attempt to persuade Howells to take on his biography:

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