October 15, 1901 Tuesday

October 15 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to George Washington Cable.

Your book came three days ago, your note [not extant] this morning. I finished reading the story night before last. From start to finish it kept me electrically a-tingle with its rush & go, & charmed with its brilliances of phrasing & its other manifold fascinations. Thank you cordially! [MTP]. Note: See Gribben 123. Cable’s book referred to was The Cavalier (1901)

October 14, 1901 Monday

October 14 MondayWilliam Dean Howells wrote to Sam [MTHL 2: 730]. Note: letter dated Oct. 15; postmarked Oct. 14; Howells was likely confused as to the date.

Michael P. O’Riley wrote from NY to Sam. He was a policeman and had read Sam’s interview in this day’s Herald. He wanted Sam to know that policemen were with Seth Low almost to the man, and wished Sam success in his canvass for votes for Low [MTP].

October 13, 1901 Sunday

October 13 Sunday – In the evening Sam finished reading The Cavalier, George Washington Cable’s new book [Oct. 15 to Cable].

Sam inscribed a flyleaf of Russell Alexander Alger’s (1836-1907) The Spanish American War (1901): “S.L. Clemens, Riverdale-on-Hudson, Oct. 13, 1901” [Gribben 20].

October 11, 1901 Friday

October 11 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Robert Underwood Johnson.

“I have been cogitating for 24 hours, & have evolved a scheme. It is quite different from yours, but I believe it promises well. Will you run up here (25 minutes by rail) some day between now & October 30…” [MTP].

The New York Times ran a report of burglaries in Riverdale, quoting Mark Twain:

BURGLARIES ALARM RIVERDALE RESIDENTS

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October 9, 1901 Wednesday

October 9 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to George B. Harvey, president of Harpers and the North American Review: “If you are going to issue the North American several days before election day (Nov. 5) I’d like to have a few pages of space in it—otherwise, if it can’t be, I won’t waste my article but go to a political meeting & deliver it as a speech” [MTP].

October 8, 1901 Tuesday

October 8 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edmund Clarence Stedman in Bronxville, N.Y.

Mr. Dodge gave me the valued accommodation of a lift up the hill the other day, & although he wouldn’t come in at that time he promised that he & his family would come & see us later—we hope the contract will be made good. Yes, I am here for peace & repose…we are not of those who desire the peace & repose of the hermit or the convict.

Wave Hill House

William Lewis Morris and his wife Mary Elizabeth Babcock acquired land in Riverdale in 1836, and built what we know as Wave Hill House in the early 1840s. ... The internationally known publisher William Henry Appleton bought Wave Hill in 1866. By then, the areas was easily accessible to New York City by rail, and had become a fashionable location for summer houses. The Appletons transformed the house into a Victorian villa, calling it Holbrook Hall. ... Between 1893 and 1911 George W. Perkins acquired several pieces of property in Riverdale, including Wave Hill House in 1903.

October 7, 1901 Monday

October 7 MondayR.G. Newbegin wrote to Sam that Thomas Reed had called his attention to the fact that a letter had been sent in their company name “reported to have been signed by you.” Newbegin blamed W.I. Squire, another agent in Toledo, Ohio; he understood Sam’s indignation, was sorry that the matter occurred, and would do their best to see it didn’t happen again. He confided Reed’s assertion that the act was “forgery in the third degree” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env.

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