Day by Day entries are from Mark Twain, Day By Day, four volumes of books compiled by David Fears and made available on-line by the Center for Mark Twain Studies.  The entries presented here are from conversions of the PDFs provided by the Center for Mark Twain Studies and are subject to the vagaries of that process.    The PDFs, themselves, have problems with formatting and some difficulties with indexing for searching.  These are the inevitable problems resulting from converting a printed book into PDFs.  Consequently, what is provided here are copies of copies.  

I have made attempts at providing a time-line for Twain's Geography and have been dissatisfied with the results.  Fears' work provides a comprehensive solution to that problem.  Each entry from the books is titled with the full date of the entry, solving a major problem I have with the On-line site - what year is the entry for.  The entries are certainly not perfect reproductions from Fears' books, however.  Converting PDFs to text frequently results in characters, and sometimes entire sections of text,  relocating.  In the later case I have tried to amend the problem where it occurs but more often than not the relocated characters are simply omitted.  Also, I cannot vouch for the paragraph structure.  Correcting these problems would require access to the printed copies of Fears' books.  Alas, but this is beyond my reach.

This page allows the reader to search for entries based on a range of dates.  The entries are also accessible from each of the primary sections (Epochs, Episodes and Chapters) of Twain's Geography.  

Entry Date (field_entry_date)

July 27, 1905 Thursday

Submitted by scott on
July 27 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam added a PS to his July 26 to H.H. Rogers.

P. S. July 27’05

Here the letters are, at last! Clara thought she had sent them to me. I am hurrying them off to you, because I dasn’t read them again, I would blush to my heels to fill up with this unearned gratitude again, pouring out of the thankful hearts of these poor swindled people, who do not suspect you, but honestly believe I gave that money! [MTHHR 592]. Note: see July 26 to Rogers note.

July 31, 1905 Monday

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July 31 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to M.H. Crandall.

“M . Clemens directs me to write for him and say that he has so many calls upon his purse, for one cause or another, that he must decline your invitation to endow a scholarship in your university” [MTP]. Note: the university in question was Alfred University. See below entry from Crandall.

M.H. Crandall wrote on Alfred University, Alfred, NY to ask Sam to endown a “Mark Twain Scholarship” for $1,000 [MTP].

August 1, 1905 Tuesday

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August 1 Tuesday – H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam about the thankful letters from Joe and Harmony Twichell: “The letters are lovely. Don’t breathe. They are so happy! It would be a crime to let them think that you have in any-way deceived them. I can keep still. You must”[MTHHR 594-5].

Isabel Lyon’s journal:

August 2, 1905 Wednesday

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August 2 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “I walked with Miss Greene up to the top of Oak Hill” [MTP TS 83].

Helena Gilder wrote from “Four Brooks Farm,” Tyringham, Mass. to Sam, expressing it “a great pleasure to have Clara and find her like her old sweet self.” She was glad Sam and Jean liked Dublin. Her handwriting is somewhat inscrutable [MTP].

August 3, 1905 Thursday

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August 3 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Hock! Hock! dear Abott H. Thayer! Jean asked him to dine here tomorrow night with Mr. and Mrs. Pumpelly, but he said he couldn’t! He said it was so lovely to see Mr. Clemens all alone, and to hear him talk when there weren’t others around, that—Oh, he couldn’t—And that is only the borderland of it all, for if it is better to hear Mr. Clemens without an audience, then how best it is to just be near him in his beautiful silences [MTP TS 84].

August 5, 1905 Saturday

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August 5 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam responded to Roi Cooper Megrue’s request of Aug. 3.

I have your favor of Aug. the 3rd in which I understand Miss Marbury to suggest that I give Mr. Timmory an extension of one year on his contracts with me; also that I grant Mr. Timmory free choice of theatre. I beg you to say to Miss Marbury I am quite willing that she shall make these concessions for me [MTP]. Note: Gabriel Timmory, French playwright.

August 6, 1905 Sunday

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August 6 Sunday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Frederick A. Duneka.

M . Clemens directs me to say that upon thinking over the matter of auto-graphing any of the maxim postcards he has decided that to auto-graph any of them would be a distinct mistake. He is inclined to be afraid of the post card scheme even without the auto-graph, and wishes me to ask what you think of it. But don’t throw the scheme away, for M . Clemens thinks it may be a good one after he’s dead. That is Mr. Clemens’s language not mine [MTP].

August 7, 1905 Monday

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August 7 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Today Mrs. Thayer sent up some very beautiful pink poppies. Delicate, exquisite, each one a darling delight” [MTP TS 84].

Winifred Holt wrote from NYC to Sam. “Helen Keller has written an interesting article which may show you more clearly why I am brave enough to write to you again—I forward under separate cover what she has just written in the “World’s Work” [MTP].

August 8, 1905 Tuesday

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August 8 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The fallow days are still with Mr. Clemens. All day he has been very, very tired and resting. At dinner tonight the talk was of Babylon and its great, great glories” [MTP TS 84].

Frederick T. Leigh wrote to Sam that Duneka was on vacation and Sam’s post-card scheme, according to Sam’s wishes, would be “dropped for the present” [MTP].

August 9, 1905 Wednesday

Submitted by scott on
August 9 Wednesday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Frederick A. Duneka.

M . Clemens directs me to write and say that his idea of publishing the Adam’s and Eve’s Diaries, is to have them go into one volume—using the corrected form of the Adam’s Diary .

August 10, 1905 Thursday

Submitted by scott on
August 10 Thursday – Sam left Dublin for Boston and Norfolk, Conn. to visit daughter Clara. F. Kaplan adds he stopped over in Hartford. No further record of the stop was found [622].

Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Mr. Clemens went away today. Norfolk, Conn, to see Clara. It is hot and I have just discovered that the train between here and Boston stops at ever so many stations, or I’m afraid it does, and Mr. Clemens dreads, hates and remembers with horror a railway journey.

August 13, 1905 Sunday

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August 13 Sunday – Sam was in Norfolk, Conn. ailing from gout [Aug. 14 to Rogers].

In Dublin, N.H. Isabel Lyon’s Journal: “Jean has been droopy and sad all day. We took a rug and some books and went up into the woods, and I read a delightful article on Carlyle and Newman. Tonight Jean is dining with Mr. and Mrs. Sumner” [MTP TS 88].

Albert R. Halley wrote from Nashville, Tenn. to ask Sam if he would write an introduction for Halley’s book A History of the Divine Comedy [MTP]. Note: not in Gribben.

August 14, 1905 Monday

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August 14 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Roi Cooper Megrue. Lyon noted that Sam was out of town but that in June he wrote M. Worth Colwell, referring him to Elisabeth Marbury—whatever arrangements she made would satisfy him [MTP].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Choisey [her home in Conn.] is rented to Mr. Bushnell, $20 a month. There seems a chance for me to begin to get financially square with the world. Oh, world” [MTP TS 88]. Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Today word came that Mr. Clemens has gout” [MTP TS 25].

August 15, 1905 Tuesday

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August 15 Tuesday – In Norfolk, Conn. Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder.

I can say only a word. You & Johnson are the only organizers I am acquainted with: won’t you get up a Jerome petition & have all our fellow craftsmen sign it, & add “Mark Twain” to the list —in a large & legible hand?

Love to you all.

August 16, 1905 Wednesday

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August 16 Wednesday – In Norfolk, Conn. Sam wrote to Isabel V. Lyon.

I go to Fairhaven to-morrow for a day or two. Please look at Kipling’s account of his visit to me at Susy Crane’s farm, & see if Mrs. Clemens as well as Susy Clemens was present. Mrs. Laura M. Dake has not yet written. Suppose you telephone the bank & ask if that check has been collected.

August 18, 1905 Friday

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August 18 Friday – Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Koy-Lo Co. letterhead to Sam, giving him an update on the lawsuit involving the Plasmon Co. of America, and asking for an additional $150 to pay attorney Baldwin for increased legal fees to contest an appeal by their opponents [MTP]. Note: Ashcroft was Secretary and Treasurer of the Co. at this time, which is how he met Sam. He would later become Sam’s secretary and accompany him to London in 1907. Sam was still in Norfolk, Conn. On or about Aug. 31 he would direct Isabel Lyon to send the $150. See entries: Dec. 1901, Mar.

August 19, 1905 Saturday

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August 19 Saturday – In Norfolk, Conn. Sam finished his Aug. 17 to Joe Twichell:

P.S. 19th. Your letter arrived from Dublin yesterday evening. It gave me great pleasure, although it was a breach of the prohibition.

I am still in bed—it is the sixth day, but seems the 40th—& there is no immediate prospect of my getting on my feet. However, “prospects” go for nothing in gout, I may be on my feet in three days.

August 20, 1905 Sunday

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August 20 Sunday – In Norfolk, Conn. Sam began a letter to Isabel V. Lyon that he added a PS to on Aug. 21, this about the rent payment needed by Renwick on 21 Fifth Ave., since a new heating system had been installed. “If you need money, get it of Miss Harrison. Send Renwick the money, & a word hoping he is well” [MTP].