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 6, 1906 Friday

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July 6 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to Elizabeth Jordan. “I am here for a day, & your note of July 2 has just reached me. I shall be eager to get those first chapters, & shall hope they will inspire me to do the boy” [MTP]. Note: Jordan was ramrodding a collaborative story for Harper’s Bazaar. Clemens was chosen to do the boy chapter. Sam ultimately could not interest his pen in the story.

Isabel Lyon’s journal (in Dublin, N.H.):

July 7, 1906 Saturday

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July 7 Saturday – N.Y.C.: Sam was spending his days in Rogers’ Standard Oil office or the lawyer’s office, and his nights aboard the Kanawha, which they anchored “about ten miles” out [July 10 to Jean]. Note: Harper’s lawyer and Sam’s lawyer Edward Lauterbach were negotiating to settle the dispute about the “unauthorized” Library of Humor reissue. See July 10 to Lyon.

July 8, 1906 Sunday

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July 8 Sunday – Samuel E. Moffett wrote to Sam. “My dear Uncle, / I was in Washington last week, and took advantage of the opportunity to copy off one of those copyright lists.” Moffett included lists of 134 copyrights renewed for 1903 [MTP]. Note: evidently Clemens had requested the lists for his work on the copyright cause.


 

July 12, 1906 Thursday

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July 12 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote his plans to Isabel V. Lyon in Dublin, N.H.

Checks received & banked.

We sail at 9 a.m. to-morrow, for over-Sunday. [to Fairhaven]

I resume business here on Monday, when Col. Harvey arrives. I shall expect to be here all the week [MTP]. Note: in her July 13 journal entry, Lyon calls this “a note not so big as a post scriptum.”

July 13, 1906 Friday

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July 13 Friday – In the a.m. Sam and H.H. Rogers sailed again for Fairhaven on the Kanawha [July 12 to Lyon].

Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):

Zarathustra” has arrived!

July 14, 1906 Saturday

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July 14 Saturday – Sam was at the Rogers’ residence in Fairhaven, Mass. for a weekend stay [July 12 and July 16 to Lyon].

Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):

Here am I reading “Thus spoke Zarathrustra” & I do not pretend to be qualified to say how wonderful I find it.  …

July 15, 1906 Sunday

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July 15 Sunday – Sam was at the Rogers’ residence in Fairhaven, Mass. for a weekend stay [July 12 and July 16 to Lyon].

Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.): “I am alone today;—wonderfully alone! / All the morning I had a rich solitude here in my room, reading Nietzche & theosophy… / A solitary luncheon—more reading—& then at 4.30 lovely Gladys Thayer came, & we had tea & talk together. I played for her the Tannhauser Overture & Grieg & Träumerer, before she left to hurry home” [MTP TS 96-97].

July 16, 1906 Monday

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July 16 Monday – N.Y.C. 10 a.m. Sam wrote to Isabel V. Lyon in Dublin, N.H. 

I have just arrived. Please thank my nephew Sam Moffett for me, & say I wonder at his sending a valuable letter to ‘Redding,’ a place I have no recollection of ever having heard of in my life. Preserve his statistics. / With love to Jean” [MTP].


 

July 18, 1906 Wednesday

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July 18 Wednesday – Sam was in NYC. Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):

What will this day bring?

The grass is down! It was so ripe, so ready, and willing, to be slain. (3 men have been working at it all the morning.) It began to be so tired; & when the scythe swept through it, it lay so still, as if glad and full of rest—like other deaths.

July 19, 1906 Thursday

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July 19 Thursday – Sam was in NYC. Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.): “Today we climbed Monadnock—starting before nine o’clock we slowly wound our way up those mighty slopes. I cannot write of the wonder of the mountain—the wonder of the day. It was too great. It was a mighty stroke out of the great drama of eternity. Oh the great soul of that eternal mountain” [MTP TS 98-99].

 

July 20, 1906 Friday

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July 20 Friday – John T. Lewis, hero of Elmira, died on the way to the hospital [Sue Crane to Sam July 23, 1906].

Sam was in NYC. Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.): “Today we read Orion Clemens letters. Some of them written back in 1862. Mr. Paine is [many illegible cancelled words]. Oh, the wonder of life” [MTP TS 99].


 

July 21, 1906 Saturday

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July 21 Saturday – Sam was in NYC. Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.): “These are such beautiful days. The mountain has brought life to me. Who could have thought within the month there could be an awakening such as mine—an awakening out of black poisoned misery into the meaning of the mountain & the meaning & sacredness of life, whether in solitude or not” [MTP TS 99].

July 22, 1906 Sunday

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July 22 Sunday – Sam was in NYC. He signed and inscribed a photograph of himself in his three-piece white suit in a rocking chair, to Mai Rogers (Mrs. William R. Coe): “A happy voyage to you dear Mrs. Coe & a speedy return! Sincerely yours, S.L. Clemens July 22, 1906.” On the back he wrote, “Shall I learn to be good? ….I will sit here & think it over” [Skinner Auctioneers Nov. 19, 2006, Sale 2341, Lot 27].  

July 23, 1906 Monday

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July 23 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.): “Jean, 9.20 very severe, but cleared up well after” [MTP TS 100].

Susan Crane wrote to Sam, who included it in his A.D. of Aug. 11, 1906. She told of John T. Lewis’ dying requests and of his decline and death on July 20 [MTP].


 

July 24, 1906 Tuesday

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July 24 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.): “Today we read Orion letters down under the apple tree in the field. It was very sweet down there. The Orion letters are monotonous—but they are not either [MTP TS 100].

July 25, 1906 Wednesday

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July 25 Wednesday – Sam left Fairhaven, Mass. and arrived back in Dublin, N.H. [July 31 to Teller; IVL journal July 25].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Today the King came home. His hair is shorter than I have ever seen it, and he is a rejuvenated [sic] man. Yes—he is in a new world” [MTP TS 100].

Herbert Shearer for Farm, Field & Fireside (“The Great Farm Weekly”), Chicago, wrote to ask Sam if he would confirm a photograph they’d rec’d of his birthplace [MTP].

July 26, 1906 Thursday

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July 26 Thursday – Jean Clemens’ 26 birthday.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “This morning Jean called Mr. Clemens an old sinner & he said, ‘Yes, Adam & I go out every Sunday morning with a basket & gather all the apples we can find!’” [MTP TS 100].

Donchian Brothers, Importers of Oriental rugs, NYC wrote to Sam with a quote of $381.50 for repairing the rugs from his Fifth Ave. house [MTP].

July 27, 1906 Friday

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July 27 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara in Norfolk, Conn.

It’s a darling lovely letter, you dear child, & not even Howells can surpass it for charm & grace & expression. I’m having typed copies made for Howells & Joe.

Poor Lewis is dead, & I am so glad he is set free from a world that has certain ungrateful imitation human beings in it.

July 28, 1906 Saturday

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July 28 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Jean, 10:45, violent. 6:40, long, violent. Petit mal all day.

The King is singing the Marseillaise in lusty tones as he is drawing a bath for himself. When the King sings very hard it means a perturbation of spirit; it means that something is not quite in key, it never stands for happiness.

July 30, 1906 Monday

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July 30 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to the June 28 from Charles Orr, librarian, Case Library, Cleveland.

I cannot thank you enough for sending me copies of John Hay’s delicious notes to M . Gunn. In the matter of humor, what an unsurpassable touch John Hay had! I may have known Alexander r Gunn in those ancient days, but the name does not sound familiar to me.