Day By Day Dates

May 23 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to James R. Clemens.

Insert: Planters House Hotel, St. Louis

I am thanking the both of you (& Muriel) very much, & am accepting for June 5th, 6 p.m., & next day & maybe day after. With many thanks.

May 24 Saturday – Livy’s diary: “Mr & Mrs Frederick Goddard here for luncheon” [MTP: DV161].

Mary A. Geisse wrote from Phila. to Sam, thanking him for “his prompt reply, also for your opinion of my work” (poems) [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “I tried to make this fool understand (without saying the naked brutal words) that she has neither talent nor genius with this damned result.”

May 25 Sunday – Sam read the last half of George Iles’ 1900 book, Flame, Electricity and the Camera [May 26 to Iles].

Nathaniel Pasternak wrote from N.Y.C. to Sam, that he would “be on hand any time you call me up. The boys were disappointed—badly—on receipt of that previous letter and are now reassured. Membership has now swelled to about fifty—you can guess the reason—and no more are admitted for the present. We hope your trip turns out to be a very successful and agreeable one” [MTP].

May 26 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to George Iles. “Yesterday I read the last half of your book on flame, electricity & the camera again. And I thank you again. It is an enchanting book, & the style & phrasing are worthy of the great subjects. I am leaving for the West, to return the middle of June; but I am leaving the ancient hymn-books behind, in a safe place” [MTP].

May 27 Tuesday – Sam left N.Y.C. on the N.Y. Central RR at 9:20 p.m. headed for St. Louis [May 23 to James R. Clemens]. Note: according to his June 10 to James, it was a 30 hour trip from N.Y.C. to St. Louis, putting him in St. Louis at about 7:30 the morning of May 29. His NB entry gives 9.45 p.m. as departure time, with fare of $24.25 and a room $22; paid $46.25 [NB 45 TS 14].

Livy’s diary: “Sue [Crane] came in the evening: Mr Clemens went to Columbia, Missouri to receive a degree from the University of Missouri” [MTP: DV161].

May 28 Wednesday – Sam was on the train en route to St. Louis, sleeping well the second night [May 23 to James R. Clemens].

John B. Briggs wrote from New London, Mo. to Sam. “Dear ‘Mark’:– / I see by the St. Louis Republican where you are to be in Hannibal, Mo., in the course of a few days, and if I am well enough would like to see you…and talk over old boyhood days” [MTP].

May 29 Thursday – Sam arrived in St. Louis around 7:30 a.m. He had planned to meet James Ross Clemens at the Planters House, but James and his cousin Lamotte Cates met him at the station and took him to Planters. (Note: Paine writes Horace Bixby also met him at the station MTB p. 1167).

May 30 Friday – It was a full first day In Hannibal, Mo. Sam gave an autograph to Minnie Dawson. Sometime during his stay in Hannibal (May 30 to June 9) he also gave an autograph on St. Louis Country Club letterhead in Clayton, Mo. to Sophie Sloan. Sam stayed up till after midnite into May 31, when he wrote Livy about the day .

May 31 Saturday – In the wee hours of May 31 in Hannibal, Mo. Sam wrote of the trip and the previous full day to Livy. See May 29 entry.

Later in the day Sam attended a reception for the 1901 Hannibal High School graduating class in the Windsor Hotel and told of his boyhood attempt to get measles. They gave Sam a spoon engraved with an image of his old home on Hill Street [Sorrentino 21]. Note: see MTCI p.447.

Sam’s notebook: “7.30 p.m., hotel. Meet class of 1900, High School. / 8.30 Reception” [NB 45 TS 15].

June – Sometime during the month Sam inscribed two photographs to Katharine Boland Clemens:“with the love of her cousin,” and “with the love and affection of her cousin” [MTP]. Note: Katharine married Sam’s cousin James Ross Clemens.

Sam also wrote an inscription to John Garth. “In reverent memory of John Garth, and in unbroken friendship of 55 years, June, 1902” [MTP].

June 1 Sunday – In Hannibal, Mo. Sam wrote to Dr. Everett Gill of Hannibal.

I find it too formidable! I should not be able to sit in the pulpit on Sunday & feel that I was doing a right & decorous thing; I should be under my own censure all the time. Therefore I shall sit where any sinner may sit without offence, & where all sinners are welcome. I shall be comfortable there, & free of self-reproaches [MTP].

June 2 Monday – In Hannibal, Mo. Sam had breakfast at the home of Colonel and Mrs. Hatch [Sorrentino 21].

Sam’s notebook: “Miss Lakenan, 10 a.m. will call with a carriage. / Mr. Crookshank’s house—reading. / Wister will call at 5.30 / Supper before at George Clayton’s / The girl was lost in the cave—they only find bones, —sweetheart of Bates” [NB 45 TS 15]. Note: the last a story idea.

As in the above NB entry, Fatout lists Sam’s giving remarks at Mr. Crookshank’s (Cruickshank) home in Hannibal for some 300-400 people [MT Speaking 670; Sorrentino 21].

June 3 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Guest of E.W. Stephens. / Publish ‘Herald’ / Walter Williams, Editor ./ Columbia, Mo. / James Thayer Girauld, Secy P.B.K. will elect me honorary member” [NB 45 TS 16]. Note: P.B.K. =Phi Beta Kappa. Paine gives E.W. Stevens [MTB 1172]..

Livy’s diary: “The Misses Dodge here for tea” [MTP: DV161].

June 4 Wednesday – In Columbia, Mo., The University of Missouri conferred an honorary Doctor of Law degree, LL.D., upon Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Paine writes of the ceremony:

June 5 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “J. Ross Clemens / 110 N. 8th st. St Louis / smoker. / Rochambeau reception./ Mayor Wells. / The stolen watermelon. & skiff” [NB 45 TS 16].

Livy’s diary: “Mrs Orton Bradley & Mildred Holden here for tea, beside Mrs Whitmore” [MTP: DV161].

In Columbia, Mo. Sam wrote to Charles E. Still. “I remember you very well, & I wish I could accept your kind invitation, but my time is filled up & I am obliged to deny myself the pleasure” [MTP].

June 6 Friday – Paine writes of Sam’s appearances in St. Louis:

June 7 Saturday [estimated date location as label was in a dangling PDF box]

Sam’s notebook: contains a reference to a song, “When I am Gone,” and his intention to use the song in his next Tom and Huck story [Gribben 759; NB 45 TS 16]. Note: In London in 1897, Sam had recalled this song when thinking of Susy’s death [NB 39 TS 58].

Livy’s diary: “Julie & Ida came & spent the night—, dined with us & breakfasted Sat. morning” [MTP: DV161].

June 8 Sunday – Clara Clemens’ 28th birthday.

June 9 Monday – Sam arrived home in Riverdale at 6 p.m. after a 30 hour trip from St. Louis [June 10 to James R. Clemens].

T. Shaw Hall, N.Y.C. paper dealer, wrote to Sam, recalling his “Golden Arm” story in Chickering Hall, which made a fat lady shoot “a foot and a half into the air” when he got to the punch-scare line. He enclosed a copy of an advertisement (booklet) and asked if Sam “possibly had some old jokes” he might offer for next year’s advertisement [MTP].

June 10 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to James R. Clemens in St. Louis.

I arrived unfatigued at 6 p.m yesterday, 30 hours out from St Louis.

I am enclosing $25, & you must tell me if I owe more. It may be that you paid for the ticket they gave me at Litchfield—in which case I owe you for that.

June 11 Wednesday – Paul Kester wrote to Sam from Accotink, Va. Kester had heard that Charles Frohman no longer controlled the dramatic rights for TS; Kester had made such a play—would Sam allow him to place it elsewhere? [MTP].

June 12 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Minnie Dawson of Hannibal, daughter of his old schoolteacher, J.D. Dawson.

“I thank you for the Mississippi pearl, which is beautiful & does the river great honor. Always when I have claimed that we used to get pearls out of the mussels, my family have doubted me; but by grace of your evidence my character stands better now” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to C. Edwin Hutchings.

June 13 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dr. James Ross Clemens in St. Louis, asking specifics on gout treatment for Livy:

Can Mrs. Clemens take her usual 5 p.m. tea (to whom she is a slave) on condition that she drink a glass of hot water an hour before or after it?

She eats cream wheat for breakfast. Can she continue that?

She never eats bacon.

Can she eat fruits in their season?

We leave here June 23d for our summer home which is York Harbor, Maine.

June 14 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam and Livy replied to Franklin G. Whitmore’s June 13, principally about the sale of the Farmington Ave. house, which had not yet sold but was actively being shown. Livy added that “of course you will not get your price $75,000,” but she’d hoped he might get $60,000. Sam announced they were breaking up housekeeping getting ready for a June 23 move to York Harbor, Maine [MTP].

June 15 Sunday – Sam’s notebook listed more snippets of boyhood memories/ideas for the 50 years after story: “ ‘Haunting’ a house—like Va City—so we can use it for Gang headquarters. / Sign on it T.S.’ s Gang. / Pic-nic—name the girls. / Candy-pull & Jim Wolf. / Eat’m guts & all. 50 yr after. / The mossy marbles rest / On the lips that we have pressed / In their bloom / And the names we loved to hear / Have been carved for many a year / On their tomb” [NB 45 TS 18].