December 4 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Plasmon to Hutton. / Aldine Club—evening—no reporters. W.W. Ellsworth. / Traveling with a corpse” [NB 43 TS 30]. Note: indeed there were reporters at the Aldine Club this evening. The NY Times reported on the dinner and Sam’s speech on Dec. 15: Mark Twain at the Aldine Club
December 3 Monday – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Augustus T. Gurlitz (1843-1928), New York attorney representing Rudyard Kipling.
I thank you quite immeasurably for the Kipling set, & you must send for the Fenno lot whenever you need it, for I doubt if I get a chance in six months to study the matter….
If you didn’t get Howells to make an affidavit, he must do it. Everybody should help [MTP].
December 2 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Dinner—Mrs. Kate Douglas Riggs” [NB 43 TS 30].
December 1 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Dinner 730 Mrs. De Forest / 7 Washington Sq. / Meet Artist Zorn & wife” [NB 43 TS 30]. Note: source indicates Livy made this entry. Anders Zorn (1860-1920) Swedish painter, sculptor, and printmaker, became internationally famous. His wife, Emma Amalia Zorn (born Lamm; 1860-1942).
December – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Eduard Pötzl in Vienna that he could not “write articles for anybody but Harper’s Magazine—it’s a contract.” Sam conveyed that they thought of and spoke of him often and sent Christmas greetings [MTP].
Clara Clemens wrote of her father’s new status as a sought-after sage on almost any topic and life in the 10th Street house:
November 30 Friday – Sam’s 65th Birthday.
At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C. Sam wrote a postcard to Richard Watson Gilder, editor of Century Magazine: “I am laid up, but some time when you drop in I will tell you what Harpers said” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to an unidentified woman, likely a neighbor, who complained about noisy boys gathering on his front steps.
November 29 Thursday – Sam wrote his famous “Salutation-Speech from the 19th Century to the 20th” heading it “(For Red-Cross Watch -Night)”. After discovering that the Red Cross Society was doing advance advertising using his name he requested the piece be returned unpublished. He would then send it to the New England Anti-Imperialist League, and the New York Herald, dating it Dec. 31. It ran on Dec. 30 [Zwick, “Who Wrote the Couplet? etc.” MTJ 27.1 (Spring 1989): 34]. Note: See Dec.
November 27 Tuesday – Livy’s 55th birthday.
Owen Wister wrote to Sam. “This morning I’m much astonished and pleased by an invitation to meet you at dinner next Tuesday. I’ve thanked Mr. Ellsworth, but must also thank you most heartily. Of course I’m coming—probably incognito in order to retain your permission to call upon you at 14 West 10th Street” [MTP]. Note: William Webster Ellsworth.
November 26 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “See Col. Harvey” [NB 43 TS 30]. Note: in view of the letter below, perhaps Harvey was not available so he had to settle for a letter.
At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to George B. Harvey, President of Harper & Brothers, that “The terms proposed in your letter of recent date are satisfactory,” and also acceptable was the publication of Mark Twain’s memoirs “100 years hence” [MTP].
November 25 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Mrs. Roosevelt Robinson, lunch—meet H. Cabot Lodge. / 422 Madison Ave” [NB 43 TS 30].