October 23 Wednesday – The fourth and last day of Yale’s Bicentennial Celebration in New Haven, Conn. saw commemoration exercises and conferring of honorary degrees in the Hyperion Theater to more than sixty eminent men. The Doctors of Literature degrees numbered eight: Thomas Bailey Aldrich, George W. Cable, Mark Twain, Richard Watson Gilder, William Dean Howells, Thomas Nelson Page, Woodrow Wilson, and Brander Matthews.

October 22 Tuesday – In New Haven, Conn. sometime after noon, Sam wrote to Livy of missing events of the previous day:

October 20 Sunday – In N.Y.C. Sam wrote on “Order of Acorns” letterhead to Joseph Johnson, Jr.

“Dear Mr. Johnson: / I forgot to say don’t do anything with the article without first giving me a chance to read the proof” [MTP].

October 19 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “I go up Hudson by boat from Yonkers at 9.45” [NB 44 TS 15].

In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Rose Hawthorne Lathrop (1851-1926), youngest daughter of the famous author Nathaniel Hawthorne.

October 18 Friday – William Dean Howells wrote to Sam about accommodations in the upcoming Yale Bi-Centennial Celebration:

October 17 Thursday – The New York Sun, Oct. 18, p.3, reported Sam’s anti-Tammany talk for policemen in front of his Riverdale house, followed by a trip downtown for his speech at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for the Order of Acorns, a group of independent voters organized to defeat Tammany candidates and elect Seth Low mayor. The New York Times Oct. 18, p.5 reported only on the hotel speech:

MARK TWAIN MAKES A SPEECH.

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October 16 Wednesday – William Dean Howells replied to Sam that he would “gladly come to your feast of acorns tomorrow evening,” but was concerned they might “poke” him out without an invitation. He also poked Sam about the upcoming Yale event publicity:

“In the notice of the Yale guests, as I noted with my usual grouch where you are concerned, your name came first, with some laudatory type round it, and mine followed with the “and others,” and nothing attached to it. So I think there is some mistake” [MTHL 2: 731].

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 Monday – William 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 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].