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)

September 15, 1905 Friday

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September 15 Friday – Dublin, N.H.: Sam wrote to Clara Clemens. Clärchen dear, I have just written the [Hotel] Touraine that you & Miss Alling may possibly arrive Tuesday the 19th ; & to take care of you. I have told Katy you are going to New York the 20th; you will see her there.

September 16, 1905 Saturday

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September 16 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to Lilian W. Aldrich’s Sept. 15:

Dear Mrs. T.B.: / You don’t need the secretary. Mr. Rogers does not see very many of the business letters that go to 26 Broadway, but he sees & reads all the personal letters that go there addressed to him.

I am going to hope with all my might that I can go from another friend’s house in Boston about the 27th or the 28th of October & have a day with you; but I’ll have to excuse Jean—she would be too much responsibility for me.

September 17, 1905 Sunday

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September 17 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: This afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Learned came in for a dish of tea, and then Mr. Pearmain and Mr. Montague came in too later—and the 3 of them sat and talked in front of the open fire, and they smoked. Jean went off to the Henderson’s and Mr. Clemens read an article to me that he has been working on lately. Oh its about the Interpretation of the Deity, so wonderful and strong, and true like every bit of that wonderful brain of his [MTP TS 98, 100].

September 18, 1905 Monday

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September 18 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote a sketch unpublished until 2009: “The Privilege of the Grave” [Who Is Mark Twain? xxvi, 55-60].

In Dublin, N.H. Sam also replied to the ca. Sept. 15 from Mrs. Minnie Maddern Fiske (1865-1932), born Marie Augusta Davey in New Orleans, leading actress from childhood on, and also a playwright and activist for artistic freedom.

September 19, 1905 Tuesday

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September 19 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Lyon sent Sam’s biographical sketch by Moffett to the Knickerbocker Publishing Co. Sam’s letter with enclosure is not extant but referred to in the Publisher’s Sept. 20 letter [MTP].

September 21, 1905 Thursday

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September 21 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to George B. Harvey

“Dear Colonel— / All right, bang away, go ahead. Yes it will be a ‘red-letter day,’ & a red-headed day, too, for Old Age will take the scalp of Belated Youth that day—mine, to-wit” [MTP]. Note: likely a go-ahead for Harvey’s plans to honor Mark Twain’s 70th birthday.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: All the days are sprinkled with pin cushions. They’re pretty little creatures, and best of all they sell. Teresa calls them my boys. George MacDonald is dead at 83

September 22, 1905 Friday

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September 22 Friday – At 9 a.m. in Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Thomas S. Barbour of the Congo Reform Assoc., Boston, that he was “sending something which you should stop the press & add if humanly possible.” Mounted on another page was the following:

KING LEOPOLD’S SOLILOQUY

THE PUBLISHERS DESIRE TO STATE THAT MR. CLEMENS DECLINES TO ACCEPT
ANY PECUNIARY RETURN FROM THIS BOOKLET, AS IT IS HIS WISH THAT ALL
PROCEEDS OF SALES ABOVE THE COST OF PUBLICATION SHALL BE USED IN

September 23, 1905 Saturday

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September 23 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Thomas S. Barbour of the Congo Reform Assoc. in Boston.

M . Clemens directs me to write for him saying that he has been considering whether he could be made an honorary president, or a second president, so that he could be connected with the Congo Reform Association without doing any work, but could be of service by giving the use of his name. Will you kindly tell M . Clemens what you think of it? [MTP].

September 25, 1905 Monday

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September 25 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka (letter not extant but referred to in Duneka’s Sept. 26) [MTP].

Isabel Lyon’s journal:“Some youngsters here for dinner and a romp. Jean in a turmoil and a nest of tempers because those young guests didn’t assemble in invited sequence. The two Henderson children, Gerald and Hildegarde, didn’t talk a bit—but listened spellbound to every word that fell from Mr. Clemens’s lips” [MTP TS 102].

September 26, 1905 Tuesday

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September 26 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Tonight Mr. Clemens read 70 pages of the new story he has been working upon for the last 4 or 5 days. (“A Horse’s Tale”)

A letter from Santa C. [Clara] tells that she had a nasal operation last week, and is weak and tired and discouraged, but she’s better now than she was [MTP TS 102].

September 28, 1905 Thursday

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September 28 Thursday – Sam’s essay: King Leopold’s Soliloquy: A Defense of His Congo Rule, was published as a pamphlet for the American branch of the Congo Reform Assoc. by The P.R. Warren Co., Boston. Budd: “At least three further printings followed soon afterward, and a ‘Second Edition,’ with additional supplementary material, was issued late in 1905 or early in 1906” [Collected 2: 1010]. Note: Hawkins points out that the pamphlet, by Twain’s suggestion, “contained several photographs of mutilated Congolese.

September 29, 1905 Friday

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September 29 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Harper & Brothers, asking them to send the magazine to 21 Fifth Avenue in N.Y.C. instead of to Dublin, beginning with the Nov. issue [MTP].

Lyon also replied to Robert Underwood Johnson (incoming Sept. 21) that Sam would be unable to make a meeting of the Academy of Arts & Letters as he would not be in the city until about Nov. 7 [MTP].

October 1905

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October – Sam sent an aphorism to an unknown person: “Taking the pledge will not make bad liquor good, but it will improve it.” [MTP].

Current Literature published a photograph (no credit given) of Mark Twain, facing p. 353 [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Third Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1979 p. 190].

Sam inscribed his copy of Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, by Sir Samuel Dill (1844-1924): “SL. Clemens / October 1905” [Gribben 193].

October 2, 1905 Monday

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October 2 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka of Harper’s.

I have just finished a short story which I “greatly admire,” & so will you—“A Horse’s Tale”— about 15,000 words, at a rough guess. It has good fun in it, & several characters, & is lively. I shall finish revising & re-revising it & re-revising it in a few days or more, then Jean will type

Don’t you think you can get it into the Jan. & Feb. numbers & issue it as a dollar booklet just after the middle of Jan when you issue the Feb. number?

October 5, 1905 Thursday

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October 5 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

At 3 p.m. to-day I finished the fifth & last revising of “A Horse’s Tale” & am going to bed & stay there 2 weeks, for I am a free person once more. I have worked like a slave, from morning till—well, all day,—for I don’t know how many consecutive days [He began Sept. 23], & have enjoyed it ever so much—thoroughly, in fact—but I’m as tired as a dog.

October 6, 1905 Friday

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October 6 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara, soon to be at 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y., where Sam addressed the letter:

Why, you little rat, somebody had to be blamed, so I selected [Dr. Edward] Quintard in place of myself. I was thinking of having him hanged, but for your sake I will let him off, for the present.

So you have got at the “real cause” of your ill turn, & it was a doctor. I could have told you that much. It’s an awful trade for a Christian.

October 7, 1905 Saturday

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October 7 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote a long letter to Frederick A. Duneka about “A Horse’s Tale.” Proofs sent to me here before October 17 or to 21 Fifth Avenue, after November 3, will get immediate attention…I’ve made a poor guess as to the number of words. I think there must be 20,000. My usual page of MS. Contains about 130 words; but when I am deeply interested in my work and dead to everything else, my hand-write shrinks and shrinks until there’s a great deal more than 130 on a page…this tale is written in that small hand.