November 3 Saturday – Either this day or the next Sam took a train trip of an hour-plus and visited daughter Jean in her Katonah, N.Y. sanitarium [Nov. 5 to Emilie Rogers].

Andrew Carnegie wrote to Sam. “So glad to learn that you are yourself again, back in town running about able ‘to take sustenance’ . Delighted to attend at dinner. / I hope we are going to snow under that Reprobate Hearst—His article upon Gilder roused my ire. / Yours Ever…” [MTP]. Note: see Carnegie’s Nov. 2 “invitation.”

November 4 Sunday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote from Ponkapog, Mass. to Lyon & Sam that he had no plans except Sam’s for Friday night, and intended to leave Boston by morning train Nov. 9 [MTP].

November 5 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Emilie R. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers).

The billiard table is better than the doctors. It is driving out the heartburn in a most promising way. I have a billiardist on the premises, & I walk not less than ten miles every day with the cue in my hand. And the walking is not the whole of the exercise, nor the most health-giving part of it, I think. Through the multitude of the positions & attitudes it brings into play every muscle in the body & exercises them all.

November 6 Tuesday – Rev. William Fitz-Simon of St. Mary’s Rectory, NYC wrote to Sam.

It was so kind, and doubtless characteristic of you to remember the clergy. The crown jewels reached me through Rushmore[‘]s hands and you have my sincere gratitude.

November 7 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote his “pal,” Mary B. Rogers:

Dear pal, there are many nieces in the world, but you are the most patient one there is, & in my opinion the only perfect one.

November 8 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean.

It is a gray morning, Jean dear, and I have awakened prematurely.

I have been coughing only 8 or 9 days, yet I am already more than half tired of it. This is because it’s not sentimental or sympathetic, but is a dry bark like tan-bark. I do not go out of the house yet; I go down stairs, but not frequent

[segment about the Nov. 7 dinner party]

November 9 Friday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich arrived at 21 Fifth Ave. for a weekend stay with Twain. He left on Sunday, Nov. 11 [Lyon to H. Whitmore Nov. 12].

November 10 Saturday – Sam  wrote of  playing billiards until 1:15 a.m.: “I got but poor sleep afterwards & was pretty tired next day. I stayed home at night [Nov. 10] & did not go to the Alden feed. Those who went to it did not reach their beds until 4 a.m.—Howells & Paine included—but Aldrich got here at 2 a.m.” [Nov. 13 to Jean].   

Isabel Lyon’s journal:

T.B. Aldrich is so disappointing in appearance & in qualities of all kinds that go to make up the literary man bearing a high reputation.

November 11 Sunday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich left 21 Fifth Ave. after a weekend stay with Twain. He [Lyon to H. Whitmore Nov. 12].

November 12 Monday – In N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote to Harriet E. Whitmore.

The darling wonderful White King isn’t out of the house yet. It wasn’t a bad bronchitis, but it housed him well & on Saturday when Thomas Bailey Aldrich was here—(he came Friday & left Sunday) the King hopped around without many clothes on & so added to his bronchial condition which finished with heavy coughing again. But again he is better.

November 13 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean , in Katonah, N.Y. “Jean dear, since I wrote the other day, conditions have not changed—at least for the better. They stopped me from playing billiards & I have been in bed ever since.” Sam then told of his “Stag dinner party” of Nov. 9, and of being tired on Nov. 10 from playing billiards until the wee hours, and of not going to Henry M. Alden’s dinner party celebrating his 70 . He was ordered to bed by Dr. Halsey. He finished with:

November 14 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Ill on this day” [MTP TS 146].

Fanny Flint Conradson wrote from Franklin, Pa. to Sam. She, like many others, had read in the NY Herald of his bronchitis. She was a lifelong fan of his books since IA. Now she was a “twisted cripple” but owed much to his books for lightening her load.

November 15 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal noted she was still ill [MTP TS 146].

J.G. Babb Secretary for University of Missouri wrote to Sam requesting his portrait, though it must be “approved by a committee competent to pass on its artistic merit” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “No answer – the terms of the letter being uncourteous to the verge of brutality.”

November 16 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

C.C. walks out of my room in her blue wrapper & says, “Damn the profession, I don’t like anything about it!”

Today I went downstairs in the afternoon. The King was playing billiards with AB. C.C. went to sing down in the bowery, & the King & I dined alone; later I played the Lohengrin Wedding March for him twice [MTP TS 147].

Chapters from “My Autobiography—VI” ran in the N.A.R. p.961-70.

November 17 Saturday – Roi Cooper Megrue wrote to Isabel Lyon enclosing Ernest Hendrie’s reply to Elisabeth Marbury’s Oct. 29 about dramatization rights for “The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg.” Lyon wrote on Megrue’s letter sometime after Nov. 17:

Katherine telephoned

M . Timory can have the right to dramatize The Interviewer M . Hendrie be may be right, but r M . Clemens doesn’t remember. wrote Mr. Hendrie—Mr.H needn’t be surprised that M . Clemens has forgotten, for he always forgets everything of that nature.

November 19 Monday – In the morning at 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.), enclosing his latest photograph for her opinion; he wanted to put it in a locket for Clara. He revealed his creative method for catching up on mail, since Isabel Lyon was ill.

November 20 Tuesday – Sam wrote thanks from 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. to McClure, Phillips & Co., publishers of: The Viper of Milan (1906) by Gabrielle Margaret Vere Long (Campbell; 1888-1952), pseud. “Marjorie Bowen” (see Gribben p. 418).

November 21 Wednesday – Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: Father Hawley, and the meeting at which he presided in Hartford, 30 years ago—showing the ill effects of having too many orators when trying to raise money by public speaking [MTP Autodict2].

Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote to Lyon asking about his spectacles left there during his visit [MTP].

November 22 Thursday – Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: The international copyright bills before Congress in ’86—Clemens supported the Chase bill—The young physician (now very old) who by drawing quaint pictures and writing original poems persuaded his little patients to take his odious mixtures, & who afterwards had these published in book form & is still living on income from his book, as he is a citizen of an honest country, Germany— Clemens will be 71 next week—His copyrights will soon begin to expire, therefore he must continue writing [MTP Autodict2].

November 23  Friday – The Charlton Public Library banned Eve’s Diary, and the New York Times reported the story on page one, Nov. 24:

BAR MARK TWAIN’S BOOK.

———

A Massachusetts Librarian Draws the Line at “Eve’s Diary.”

Special to The New York Times.

November 24 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Came to Hfd. —Allyn House” [MTP TS 148]. Note: she had been ill since Nov. 14.

Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: More about international copyright—Congresses & Parliaments made up of men who know nothing about the matter—Clemens disputes with Lord Thring his statement that there is no property in ideas [MTP Autodict2]. The segment was selected for MTE [372-80].

Andrew Carnegie wrote to Sam.

November 25 Sunday – In N.Y.C. Sam inscribed his “bad liquor good” aphorism in a copy of HF to Isabel Lyon’s journal (in Hartford): “Quietly in bed I stayed. Hattie came in in the morning. I saw Leila in the afternoon” [MTP TS 148]. Note: see letter to Clemens below. Garth W. Cate [MTP].  

Isabel V. Lyon wrote a note to Sam.

November 26 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Andrew Carnegie at 2 E. 91 St., N.Y.C..

Dear St. Andrew:— / I should be delighted to be able to attend that dinner of yours, and would endeavor to come in a proper frame of mind, if the people who are trying to doctor me would let me come at all; but I have had many warnings from them, and from other sources, which convince me that I must stay in the house, hereafter, at night. If I were allowed to go any place after dark, it would be to your dinner [MTP].

November 27 Tuesday – George Chainey wrote a long rambling letter from Williams Bay, Wisc. to Sam, enclosing a flyer on “The Unsealed Bible,” volume 1 of 30 planned [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Crank Letter / Auto”

Elizabeth L. Howard wrote from Anoka, Minn. to wish Sam birthday greetings as her birthday was the same. Her husband was an 80 year old disabled veteran of the Civil War from Michigan [MTP].

November 28 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal (in Hartford): “Today I came out here to beloved Harriet Enders. The children are wonderful. John, Bunny, Ostrom, and Elira—yes, they are wonderful” [MTP TS 148].