August 30 Tuesday – Barlow Brothers, book binders in Grand Rapids, Mich., wrote asking where they might find a book of his with the story of limburger cheese on a railroad car [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the back of the letter “Mr. Clemens knows the sketch, but doesn’t know the book its in—Harpers publish all & doubtless they can tell.”
August 25 Thursday – Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Plasmon Co. letterhead to Sam, now in Great Neck, Long Island at the home of Urban H. Broughton.
August 22 Monday – By this day Sam had returned to Lee, Mass. where he wrote to Susan Crane.
Susy dear, you are right: put just the dates, as you suggest—or, add “Florence, Italy” to the “June 5, 1904”— for there is a deep pathos in that far-from-home-&-friends in the simple mention of that beyond-ocean name.
August 21 Sunday – Miss Ella McMahon in NYC wrote a short letter of condolence to Sam, enclosing a typed verse, “Not Thou But I,” by blind English poet Philip Bourke Marston (1850-1887) [MTP]. File says Margaret McMahon; Ella may have been a nickname.
August 20 Saturday – In a letter of July 14 Cecilia Beaux, the famous portrait artist, wrote to her friend Dorothea Gilder (dau. Richard Watson Gilder) asking to arrive this evening “for a few days.” Beaux had met Sam in London on June 1, 1900 when traveling with the Gilders (see entry). No mention of Twain appears in correspondence between the two friends, but if Beaux did in fact visit, it’s likely Sam and Cecilia saw each other sometime during the next few days [Cecilia Beaux to Dorothea Gilder Aug.
August 19 Friday – Albert Bigelow Paine wrote to Sam. “Proofs with two extracts from your letters to Nast just came in. I enclose slip— / I think there are one or two more, later” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “These are unobjectionable”; the enclosed sheets with MT’s letter excerpts to Nast, are not dated in the text, but from the cues are: “Nast, you more than any other man have won a prodigous victory for Grant,” which is letter of Dec. 10, 1872; and “The Almanac has come,” letter of Dec. 17, 1872.
August 18 Thursday – In Great Neck, N.Y. Sam wrote to his niece, Julia Langdon Loomis (Mrs.Edward Eugene Loomis).
Julie dear, I was not able to leave town Monday afternoon in compliance with my engagement —I was worn out & broken down, so I gave up & went to bed at 8 in the evening. Next morning I reached your house by 9 or half-past, but you were gone: you, & Edward & all the dear Idas. I should have been very very glad of a glimpse.
Sour Weather in Florence – Roosevelt: “What he wants, he takes”– Butters a Fraud Mollie Clemens Dies – Dictating Autobio. – Pigs & Enunciator Wars – Donkey Attack Clara Hysterics – Livy, a Shadow – Charity Reading – Gelli’s Portrait
August 17 Wednesday – Sam returned to N.Y.C.. and signed a three-year lease with James A. Renwick for the house at 21 Fifth Avenue in N.Y.C. at $3,500 per year [Hill 97]. He checked in on Clara again at Dr. Parry’s, and learned that Jean was on crutches in Lee, Mass. He then returned to Great Neck [Aug. 18 to HHR; Aug. 18 to Loomis]. Note: the house would undergo repairs and be ready for the remaining Clemens family in November. Insert of 21 Fifth Ave.(corner; next to Brevoort House).
August 16 Tuesday – Sam stayed the night in with the Broughtons in their country place in Great Neck, Long Island, N.Y. [17 Aug. to Lyon, Aug. 18 to Loomis].