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)

August 25, 1906 Saturday

Submitted by scott on

August 25 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to William Dean Howells.

Dear ’Owells: / If it were my own case I should probably stand upon my innocence, & go on & publish my story “regardless”; but you are not me, & so it is different. You are better, & finer than I am, & it costs you many a pang that I escape.

August 28, 1906 Tuesday

Submitted by scott on

August 28 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara in Norfolk, Conn.  

Dear Ashcat, I am glad you got things arranged to your mind with Mr. Charlton, & that your outlook is so full of promise, & your heart so full of courage. This is the spirit that succeeds.

I have been away skylarking, & by consequence have been scandalously neglectful in the matter of letters to you & Jean. I’ve depended on Miss Lyon. Yes, turn my bedroom into a billiard room—I shall be entirely satisfied.

August 30, 1906 Thursday

Submitted by scott on

August 30 Thursday – Sam wrote “My Literary Shipyard.” It was published posthumously in Harper’s Monthly Aug. 1922 [Camfield’s bibliog.]. Note: Sam added to the piece and titled it “When a Book Gets Tired.”

September 1906

Submitted by scott on

September – The second of two installments of “A Horse’s Tale” ran in Harper’s Monthly, and included five illustrations by Lucius Wolcott Hitchcock. Harper’s would publish both segments as a 153-page book by the same name on Oct. 24, 1907.

September 1, 1906 Saturday

Submitted by scott on

September 1 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam inscribed a “Year Book” to Simon Wolf:

There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist” [MTP] Note: MTP calls this “Wolf’s th Commemorative Book of 1906.” For Wolf’s 70 birthday, his daughter, Florence Gotthold, put three books together with over 400 personal messages from famous men of the day, including Twain, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, and Oliver Wendell Holmes.  

September 3, 1906 Monday

Submitted by scott on

September 3 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam sent a telegram to H.H. Rogers, in Fairhaven, Mass.: “God be thanked have found some of the things send another trunk this one leaked / Clemens.” [MTHHR 617].

Sam also wrote to an unidentified man, thanking him for his letter of Aug. 31 [MTP].

September 4, 1906 Tuesday

Submitted by scott on

September 4 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara in Norfolk, Conn.

I am so glad you like the pictures, dear Ashcat, & will keep them. I like them ever so much. Mr. Paine made 7 negatives in the hope of getting one satisfactory one; & when the samples came back from the developer they were all good. It seemed to me that a progressive thought was traceable thro thru them, & after arranging the series in varying order several times I discovered what it was.

September 5, 1906 Wednesday

Submitted by scott on

September 5 Wednesday – Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: Items from “The Children’s Record Book,” showing their different characteristics [MTP Autodict2].

Frederic Chapin wrote from Oak Park, Ill. to Sam, enclosing Elisabeth Marbury’s Sept. 4 to him. Chapin’s long letter to Sam involved the many details, contracts, etc. regarding dramatizing P&P [MTP].

September 6, 1906 Thursday

Submitted by scott on

September 6 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Alone I [illegible word] was driven through the starlight over to the Handasyd Cabots where he & Copeland & Sakaloff & Cummings played for a few people. They are four Kings of tone.

September 7, 1906 Friday

Submitted by scott on

September 7 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam sent a telegram to Henry Campbell- Bannerman, English Prime Minister.

Congratulations, not condolences. Before 70 we are merely respected, at best, & we have to behave all the time or we lose that asset; but after 70 we are respected, esteemed, admired, revered, & don’t have to behave unless we want to. When I first knew you, one of us was hardly even respected.

September 8, 1906 Saturday

Submitted by scott on

September 8 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote instructions for Isabel Lyon to reply to Minnie Maddern Fiske. “Write to M . Fisk. & say it has been suggested that the people in Spain If they together ask that the book be dedicated to the Queen of Spain. It isn’t the least likely that it can be done—but we think that you will not be afraid to try” [MTP].

Lyon wrote again for Sam to George B. Harvey, but this, another attempt to “give him abuse” also unfinished:

HORSES TALE

September 10, 1906 Monday

Submitted by scott on

September 10 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Last night we sat out on the porch for a long time to watch the stars. The King & Jean & I. They were very wonderful. It seemed that almost never before were there so many & we couldn’t tear ourselves away.

September 11, 1906 Tuesday

Submitted by scott on

September 11 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers. Only the envelope survives [MTP].

Sam also sent a night telegram to Frederic Chapin in Oak Park, Ill. relative to Chapin’s Aug. 19 concern about producing a play of P&P there: “My contract is in the Safe deposit New York. I do not remember the terms—My secretary goes down tomorrow—Wednesday— empowered to examine it & decide definitely with Miss Marbury” [MTP].

September 12, 1906 Wednesday

Submitted by scott on

September 12 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “On the train between Boston & New York somewhere. Mrs. George Harvey & Dorothy are in the 2nd parlor coach ahead. I’ve been in to see them” [MTP TS 119]. Note: judging by this and her Sept. 14 entry, Clemens did not go on this trip, the purpose of which is not stated.

September 14, 1906 Friday

Submitted by scott on

September 14 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to the (not extant) Sept. 12 letter of  Joe Twichell in Blue Ridge, N.Y.

It’s all right about the Westminster, I am hoping to get converted, & I don’t wish to leave any promising bait unswallowed. I see that you wish me to help you deceive the guide into believing that you enjoy the distinction of being acquainted with me, & so, out of the weakness of inherent good-nature I consent, though I’m damned if I think it is good morals.

September 16, 1906 Sunday

Submitted by scott on

September 16 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Jean, 10:30—porch. 2 weeks & 2 days.

A dreadful kind of day, for Jean would not let me out of her sight. We tried to walk a little but she was not equal to it. Then I dressed up in a clown costume to cheer her up & then she began to read “Kim” aloud to me. But it was a dreadful kind of a day, for she couldn’t keep it up [MTP TS 120].

September 17, 1906 Monday

Submitted by scott on

September 17 Monday – Sam, likely in Fairhaven, Mass., inscribed a picture of a house to an unidentified person. “No, it is too stylish, it is not my birthplace” [MTP: MS facsimile: Paine’s 1912 Mark Twain: A Biography].


 

September 18, 1906 Tuesday

Submitted by scott on

September 18 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

AB came back today, came back tired & brought me “Madame Butterfly”. He’s a thoughtful creature. I was so glad to see him—so very glad for when the King is away the loneliness of this place can be screaming, because I’m not alone. I can endure myself. It’s the rest of the world that chokes me so—a certain spirit world that is disastrous to me [MTP TS 120-121].