Day By Day Dates

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)

March 24, 1903 Tuesday

March 24 TuesdaySam’s notebook:

Every man is a slave & a slave-holder; every man is a king & a subject; no man knows any but a fictitious independence. The foreman of a squad of offal-carts possesses all the essentials of those insolent & squalid vanities, nobility & kingship. It is self-conceited man that has placed the reptile at the bottom of animated nature. It is like his presumption.

March 25, 1903 Wednesday

March 25 WednesdayMuriel M. Pears wrote from Menton, France to Sam. “Our Golden Dear Magician. Don’t please Don’t let the papers put in that sort of ‘joke’—it isn’t a joke to us, it’s the sort of thing that brings down a sudden feeling on one’s head of being chilly and forlorn…” [MTP]. Note: she didn’t specify.

March 26, 1903 Thursday

March 26 ThursdaySam’s notebook: “Hutchinson, 114 W. 32d / Ask Julie to go. 4 p.m” [NB 46 TS 13].

Laurence Hutton wrote from Phoenix, Arizona to Sam, replying to Sam’s Mar. 18; it was hard for them to think of Livy as an invalid and wanted to shout out their love for her. “Phoenix is about as cheerful a spot as is the Wailing Wall of the Jews at Jerusalem…” [MTP]. Much of Hutton’s backhand scrawl is illegible.

March 27, 1903 Friday

March 27 FridayIsabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Franklin G. Whitmore.

“Mr. Clemens wishes me to say that he is very glad to know you have the wills, and would like to have you send them to him by registered mail.

“Mrs. Clemens continues to improve a little, and sat up today for quite a while” [MTP].

March 30, 1903 Monday

March 30 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to David Rowland Francis, President of the 1904 St. Louis Fair. The letter ran in the New York Times, Mar. 31, 1903 p.9.

RACES ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

Mark Twain’s Suggestions for Repetitions at the

Fair of Old-Time Contests Between Steamboats.

April 1903

April – Mark Twain’s humorous article “Instructions in Art” first ran in Metropolitan Magazine this month and in May, 1903. In part, with some of his drawings (inserts).

April 1, 1903 Wednesday

April 1 WednesdaySam’s notebook: “Robert Collyer, who descended from the forge to the pulpit. Mr. Rogers puts a bust of him in Cooper Institute. / (C’s daughter objects to ‘Preacher…Blacksmith,’ wants the latter suppressed in the inscription” [NB 46 TS 13]. Note: Rev. Dr. Robert Collyer, pastor of Rogers’ NY Church of the Messiah; see prior entries.

April 2, 1903 Thursday

April 2 Thursday – An unspecified doctor and specialist conferred and concluded that Livy would recover fully. They “ordered” her to go to Italy for the next winter. Clara Clemens wrote a Florence friend to locate a villa nearby [Apr. 7 to MacAlister].

Sam’s notebook: “Harry Rogers [illegible number?] pm / 38 E. 38. / Mr. Rogers put up monument to Drake in the oil regions (1902)” [NB 46 TS 13].

inserts: Drake monument.

April 5, 1903 Sunday

April 5 Sunday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote two notes to Franklin G. Whitmore.

Our common everyday & absolutely unavoidable expenses are now $4,000 a month. For the Lord Jesus H. Christ’s sake sell or rent that God damned house. I would rather go to hell than own it 50 days longer. / Yours ever …

April 6, 1903 Monday

April 6 MondayMr. and Mrs. John Bergheim lunched with Sam in the Riverdale house. They would sail for England the next morning [Apr. 7 to MacAlister].

Adeline W. Sterling wrote to Sam, enclosing letters and clippings on Christian Science. After investigating “alleged cures” of the cult, Sterling decided not to join [MTP].

April 7, 1903 Tuesday

April 7 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam cabled John Y. MacAlister in London, receipt of £35 “in full payment for article entitled ‘Amended Obituaries,’ sold …to Lloyd’s Weekly” [MTP].

Sam also wrote a letter to John Y. MacAlister that he forgot to post and finished on May 8.

April 9, 1903 Thursday

April 9 ThursdaySam’s notebook : “Gave Francis Perry Elliott my Postal-Check scheme for examination, he to return the MS in a fortnight” [NB 46 TS 14]. Note: Sam later penciled in, “Returned,” Francis P. Elliott (1861-1924), author, editor, with Harper & Bros. (1898-1900), at this time managing ed. of Home Magazine.

April 10, 1903 Friday

April 10 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to John White Alexander, illustrator.

I have an engagement & must lose the pleasure of being there, but I thank you heartily for remembering me & offering me a chance to share in the good times you are going to have. We shall never have a more capable or a kinder Secretary than Mr. Gage was. When I was in Europe two years ago I asked him to pass two tons of baggage for me duty free, & I offered to divide. Not many would have done that [MTP].

April 11, 1903 Saturday

April 11 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore.

“Is the man still in the market who offered you $20,000 & a house on Gillette street? If so, take him up— then sell the Gillette street house straight off, for the best price you can get. Rid me of the Hartford house. If any man wants to pay $25,000 cash for it, let him have it” [MTP].

April 16, 1903 Thursday

April 16 ThursdayFrederick A. Duneka of Harper & Brothers wrote asking Sam if there was “any hope for a story or an article for the Christmas” issue; he suggested a couple of possible topics, and apologized for doing so, but was “striking in the air in the hope of firing your imagination” [MTP].