January 6 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Virginia F. Boyle, “Poet Laureate of the Confederacy” that he was unable to thank her in verse but “in the heartiest of prose” did so [MTP]. Note: see Feb. 14, 1901.
January 5 Sunday – Sam’s notebook:
Diving for mussels—found a great pearl in one, got it yet—quarrel. Huck: “they eat ‘em guts & all!” Work it in. & in “50 Years Later.” That cheat of a wood-cutter who cut the cat’s tail off.
Chipping old mortar from bricks at so much a brick [NB 45 TS 2]. Note: story ideas for putting Huck & Tom back in Hannibal 50 years later—a story never finished. Hill claims the MS “is one of the very few that, in his entire life, Mark Twain actually may have destroyed” [43].
January 4 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Joe Twichell, that, having declined five public functions pleading he did not go outside of the city, he could not very well accept Twichell’s to come to Hartford “upon any invitation to a function there.” Therefore, he would not let Twichell know if he was coming and if it got into the newspapers that he was, he would stay home.
January 3 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka, asking for a Christmas Harper’s, which he’d lost. He disclosed he’d written two articles for the Weekly but had put both in the fire, then wished Duneka a Happy New Year [MTP].
Sam also wrote to W.R. Dunn Photographers in England, thanking them for another set of photographs taken at Dollis Hill [MTP: Sotheby’s, London catalog: Dec. 17, 1998, Item 128i; MTP].
January 2 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Horace N. Allen, American Minister to Korea:
“It is a beautiful box, & I cannot tell you how much I prize it and thank you for it.
With my kindest regards to you & the boys…” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers.
Jaccaci, of McClure’s came up yesterday, and said Miss Tarbell would be only too glad to have both sides, and I told him she could have free access to the Standard Oil’s archives.
January – Sam inscribed a copy of Songs of Nature (1901) by John Burroughs (1837-1921): “S.L. Clemens, Riverdale, Jan. 1902” [Gribben 117]. Note: Burroughs was a naturalist and essayist important to the movement of conservation in the U.S. His books were enormously popular in his day. He was voted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1905.
December 31 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “The Players—Midnight Speech. Joe Jefferson to introduce me & flatter the Club, I to respond & refute” [NB 44 TS 19].
In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Chester Sanders Lord for the Lotos Club.
December 30 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, wishing they could come to Boston but “must put the temptation by; that seductive holiday is not for slaves.” Sam related the blissful state of his work—he was having “a noble good time,” with all his days his own, taking “no engagement outside the city & not more than 2 per month in it.”
December 28 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Write Wm. E. Dodge—or call at his house if I should go to town” [NB 44 TS 19]. Note: William E. Dodge, Jr. was a Riverdale neighbor.
Theodore Roosevelt wrote to Sam:
Praise from Sir Hubert, my dear Doctor! (Loomis Nelson tells me you resent, since our Yale experience, the failure to give you your proper title). [Doctor]
December 27 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Leave 7.27 arr. 7.55, Mr. Rockefeller will meet me. Read 2 stories Mrs. Clemens has an engagement” [NB 44 TS 19]. Note: Sam’s reading at Mr. Rockefeller’s monthly Bible class was postponed until Jan. 28. See entry.
In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.