August 18 Friday – Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Koy-Lo Co. letterhead to Sam, giving him an update on the lawsuit involving the Plasmon Co. of America, and asking for an additional $150 to pay attorney Baldwin for increased legal fees to contest an appeal by their opponents [MTP]. Note: Ashcroft was Secretary and Treasurer of the Co. at this time, which is how he met Sam. He would later become Sam’s secretary and accompany him to London in 1907. Sam was still in Norfolk, Conn. On or about Aug. 31 he would direct Isabel Lyon to send the $150. See entries: Dec. 1901, Mar.
August 17 Thursday – In Norfolk, Conn. Sam started a letter marked Private to Joe Twichell that he finished on Feb. 19:
August 16 Wednesday – In Norfolk, Conn. Sam wrote to Isabel V. Lyon.
I go to Fairhaven to-morrow for a day or two. Please look at Kipling’s account of his visit to me at Susy Crane’s farm, & see if Mrs. Clemens as well as Susy Clemens was present. Mrs. Laura M. Dake has not yet written. Suppose you telephone the bank & ask if that check has been collected.
August 15 Tuesday – In Norfolk, Conn. Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder.
I can say only a word. You & Johnson are the only organizers I am acquainted with: won’t you get up a Jerome petition & have all our fellow craftsmen sign it, & add “Mark Twain” to the list —in a large & legible hand?
Love to you all.
Norfolk is perhaps best known as the site of the Yale Summer School of Music—Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, which hosts an annual chamber music concert series in "the Music Shed", a performance hall located on the Ellen Battell Stoeckel estate to the west of the village green.
August 14 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Roi Cooper Megrue. Lyon noted that Sam was out of town but that in June he wrote M. Worth Colwell, referring him to Elisabeth Marbury—whatever arrangements she made would satisfy him [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Choisey [her home in Conn.] is rented to Mr. Bushnell, $20 a month. There seems a chance for me to begin to get financially square with the world. Oh, world” [MTP TS 88]. Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Today word came that Mr. Clemens has gout” [MTP TS 25].
August 13 Sunday – Sam was in Norfolk, Conn. ailing from gout [Aug. 14 to Rogers].
In Dublin, N.H. Isabel Lyon’s Journal: “Jean has been droopy and sad all day. We took a rug and some books and went up into the woods, and I read a delightful article on Carlyle and Newman. Tonight Jean is dining with Mr. and Mrs. Sumner” [MTP TS 88].
Albert R. Halley wrote from Nashville, Tenn. to ask Sam if he would write an introduction for Halley’s book A History of the Divine Comedy [MTP]. Note: not in Gribben.
August 12 Saturday – In Norfolk, Conn. Sam was ailing from gout [NY Times, Aug. 20, p.7, “Mark Twain Ill of Gout”] Note: Source puts onset of attack to this day.
August 10 Thursday – Sam left Dublin for Boston and Norfolk, Conn. to visit daughter Clara. F. Kaplan adds he stopped over in Hartford. No further record of the stop was found [622].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Mr. Clemens went away today. Norfolk, Conn, to see Clara. It is hot and I have just discovered that the train between here and Boston stops at ever so many stations, or I’m afraid it does, and Mr. Clemens dreads, hates and remembers with horror a railway journey.
August 9 Wednesday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Frederick A. Duneka.
M . Clemens directs me to write and say that his idea of publishing the Adam’s and Eve’s Diaries, is to have them go into one volume—using the corrected form of the Adam’s Diary .
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