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)

May 8, 1906 Tuesday

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May 8 Tuesday – Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote to John B. Stanchfield with a copy to Sam. “Wright called at my office to-day. He said he has been out to the Coast recently. He said also that Butters had now plenty of money; was largely interested in the Realty Bonding & Finance Company, of Oakland; was actively connected with some new traction syndicates building trolleys in Northern California; and that some of his Oakland property has doubled in value recently.” He gave an address for Wright in E. Orange, N.J. [MTP].

May 9, 1906 Wednesday

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May 9 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “I think it was this day that Mr. Clemens gave the gospel ms. to Mr. Frank Doubleday to take & start in on the publishing of 250 copies to be printed on the DeVinne press. Not to be published in Mr. Clemens’s name, not even to be copyrighted in his name” [MTP TS 70]. Note: clearly added at on later day. See under 1906 year entry a letter to Doubleday on this subject. 8; MTP].

May 10, 1906 Thursday

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May 10 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to Gertrude Natkin’s May 5-8:

Hail & Aùfwiedersehen, Marjorie dear! & thank you for the blots—which I duplicate. Indeed it has been a troublesome captivity, but the end is near by, now, for if the weather permits, I am to leave my room day after to-morrow (or at furthest Monday) & break for the woods & freedom —that is to say, Dublin, N.H.

May 11, 1906 Friday

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May 11 Friday – William Dean Howells wrote from N.Y.C. to Sam. “I wont take advantage of a delicate convalescent; so when I come next, we’ll talk, not read and listen. There’s talk enough left in us, I hope. / Yours ever, / W.D. Howells / This is final” [MTHL 2: 806].

Poultney Bigelow typed a postcard to Sam. Mbr>

May 12, 1906 Saturday

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May 12 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Paine[,] Underwood & Johnson get up a game on copyright / Here’s this old [illegible word] Clemens over 70—in 5 years or more his copyrights will begin to perish, & they are the main support of his children—That should start the ball. Saturday, May 12, 1906, Dublin” [MTP TS 70].

The Saturday Evening Post published “Mark Twain’s Solo.” This issue sold on eBay in Feb. 2009, but no such article is listed in the index of the magazine, so perhaps it was a cartoon.

May 14, 1906 Monday

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May 14 Monday – Carl Schurz, statesman, reformer, and Secretary of the Interior under Rutherford B. Hayes, died in N.Y.C.

At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam sent his sympathies to the Carl Schurz family.

May 17, 1906 Thursday

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May 17 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mr. Clemens reads poetry to Jean & me every evening. Such reading it is. There never was anyone to read so beautifully before & to charm you so & hurt you so” [MTP TS 72].

May 18, 1906 Friday

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May 18 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers. I am lying fallow here, all these days, & drowsing & resting. Life begins to stir in me at last, but I’ve no use for it yet, for my stenographer is delayed & I can’t begin work until 3 days hence.

May 19, 1906 Saturday

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May 19 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Orchestrelle put up today. / Mr. Paine & Miss Hobby are to arrive today” [MTP TS 72]. Note: the Aeolian Co. disassembled, shipped, and reassembled the Orchestrelle, from NY to Dublin, and returned it to NY after the season. The arrival of the biographer and stenographer on May 20 means Clemens did not dictate for his autobiography until Monday, May 21.

May 21, 1906 Monday

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May 21 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam began dictating again for his Autobiography [MTHHR 607n1]. Sam’s A.D. of this day, “The Jumping Frog” gives a short history of the famous frog tale; it was selected for MTE [143-48].

Clemens’ A.D. for the day: Early experiences as an author—Publishing of “The Jumping Frog” in volume of sketches—Meeting George W. Carleton in Luzerno. His apology for having refused to publish Clemens’ book of sketches. Difficulties attending the bringing out of “The Innocents Abroad” [MTP Autodict2].

May 22, 1906 Tuesday

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May 22 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mr. Clemens is sitting down stairs in the hall revising the auto-ms. & chuckling with delight over the account of the speech he made 20 years ago at the Whittier dinner. “Oh, it will do to go into print before I die.” —and the couch shakes with him & his laughter He sits in his white clothes—so beautiful he is—so pure—and he calls out that he must begin at once to read it aloud to me” [MTP TS 72-73].

May 23, 1906 Wednesday

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May 23 Wednesday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Frank N. Doubleday.

The Gospel is going to be a fine book. Keep the 250 copies safe & secure. Your share of the swag is 20% whenever we sell a copy—which will not happen for a good while yet; nor until the edition is rare & people are illing to pay $300. a copy for it. That is the price, or we hold on & wait ten years—you & my daughters. … [MTP].  

May 24, 1906 Thursday

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May 24 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

The Gospel proof [“What is Man?”] comes along in batches from Mr. Doubleday & it is so beautifully printed to begin with & so absorbingly interesting that once you begin a galley you can’t stop until you’ve read all the batch. And Mr. Clemens does like it so much! It is his pet book and absolutely true. That & the Rubiyat ought to stand together [MTP TS 73].  

In N.Y.C. William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.

May 25, 1906 Friday

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May 25 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Frank N. Doubleday.

Y.M. This is too much! I think it is not right to jest about such things.

O.M. I am not jesting, I am merely reflecting a plain & simple truth—& without uncharitableness. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot. It is my belief that this position is not assailable.

May 26, 1906 Saturday

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May 26 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

This afternoon when Mr. Clemens picked up the Times & noticed the date, he said, “This is one of my anniversaries—48 years ago I said goodbye to my little sweetheart”. He told me then how he had said that he wouldn’t see her for years—2 or 3—& she had given him a little gold ring & then he went away. Laura Wright was her name & she was very young. In all these 48 years he had never seen her. There weren’t many romances in his life. There were 2 early ones, Laura Wright and Laura Hawkins [MTP TS 73-74].

May 28, 1906 Monday

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May 28 Monday – Clemens’ A.D. for the day: Clemens calls on General Ulysses Grant just as he is about to sign contract with Century Co. for publication of his Memoirs on 10% royalty.

Clemens dissuades him, and finally decides to publish them himself. Terms upon which they were published [MTP Autodict2].

Frank N. Doubleday for Doubleday, Page & Co. wrote to Sam.

Summer 1906

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Summer 1906 – Sometime during his 1906 stay in Dublin (May 18 to Oct. 18, excluding a few trips), Sam met Ethel Barrymore, who was spending the summer at the artists’ colony in Cornish, N.H., where she posed for several paintings. The colony, active between 1895 and 1925, was spread out over Windsor, Vt., Plainfield, and Cornish. During its time nearly 100 artists, sculpors, writers, designers, and well-known politicians chose to live there, either for the full year or during summertimes. Barrymore would become a famous actress.