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)

June 11, 1908 Thursday

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June 11 Thursday – Dorothy Quick wrote to Sam.

My dear Mr Clemens

      I received your letter just before I left I’m so sorry you could not have come out to commencement but I must confess I felt very much disappointed I wanted to show you my school and all my friends. Claire took the rabbits I think I can trust her

June 12, 1908 Friday

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June 12 Friday – Charles Hinckley Baker (b. 1864) wrote to Sam, sending his new book Life and Character of William Taylor Baker, President of the World’s Columbian Exposition and of the Chicago Board of Trade, by His Son (1908). Baker inscribed the book: “To Mr. Samuel L. Clemens / ‘Mark Twain’ / with the compliments and good / wishes of the author / Charles H. Baker / June 12th 1908.” Sam wrote on the front pastedown endpaper, “A valuable book, & capably constructed. A tribute from a son to his father which does honor to both. SLC June/08” [Gribben 40; MTP].

June 14, 1908 Sunday

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June 14 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to daughter Jean (incoming not extant) at Eastern Point in Gloucester, Mass. He was planning a visit to Gloucester.  

The time is drawing near, dear Jean, & I shall be glad to start. Miss Lyon has been hard at work up there among the workman for the past 3 days, & it is now almost definitely settled that next Thursday is my date for moving into the house. There has been a whole world of work to do, but I have escaped it all from the start (a year ago) to the finish.

June 16, 1908 Tuesday

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June 16 Tuesday – Ferris Greenslet for the Aldrich Memorial Museum wrote to Sam about his train connections from Boston to Portsmouth on June 30—even the 10 o’clock train would suffice [MTP].

June 17, 1908 Wednesday

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June 17 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam inscribed a copy of LM to Commander Daniel Dow (1860-1931): “Very truly yours / Mark Twain / To Commander Dow, R.N.R. / June 17/08” [MTP]. Note: this from a message board posted by Dow’s grandson, Michael Dow, in 2004:

June 18, 1908 Thursday

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June 18 Thursday – The History of Redding website notes that Sam arrived at the West Redding Train Station shortly before 6 p.m on the Berkshire Express out of New York. The train made a special stop for Twain and thereafter continued the stop for his many visitors.

June 19, 1908 Friday

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June 19 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick:

Oh, this will never do! You are having altogether too good a time, you little rascal (because I am not in it.) Still, I’m glad. I mustn’t break into it now, but I’ll have to do it before long; you & your mother will have to pay me a visit here. I want you; & I want my other angel-fishes. I must have a couple of them under this roof all the time, from now until January. There will be 2 under it to-morrow, to stay a week, I hope.

June 21, 1908 Sunday

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June 21 Sunday – The photograph of Clemens playing cards with Dorothy Harvey and her friend Pauline Martin, and Louise Paine was likely taken this day, the day after their arrival at Stormfield [MT Journal Spring/Fall 2006 p. 25].

The New York Times, p. C2 under “Nearly 10,000 Guests Bidden to Windsor,” ran a final paragraph about Clara Clemens:

June 22, 1908 Monday

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June 22 Monday – In Redding, Conn., Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Dorothy Quick.

Dear Dorothy: / Mr. Clemens has just left for town, & he asks me to invite your mother & you to come up here on Thursday the second leaving N. Y. Central on the 4:15 train M for Redding. Mr. Clemens & Mr. Paine will be on the same train. Please do not disappoint Mr. Clemens. He sends you much love, & to your mother too. / Yours Ever / I. V. Lyon [MTP].

June 23, 1908 Tuesday

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June 23 Tuesday – John J. McCowan for the Actors Society of America wrote from NYC. He planned to enter vaudeville dressed up as Mark Twain, if Clemens had no objection [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Answd / June 29, 08; Please refer him to Miss Elizabeth Marbury 1430 Broadway”

Mr. & Mrs. Whitelaw Reid sent an engraved invitation to the wedding of his daughter Jean Reid to John Hubert Ward on June 23 at Dorchester House [MTP].

June 24, 1908 Wednesday

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June 24 Wednesday – In Princeton, N.J.. ex-president Grover Cleveland succumbed to a heart attack. His last words were, “I tried so hard to do right.” Sam consistenly held the man in high esteem, and wrote condolences to Cleveland’s widow on June 25.

Alice Minnie Herts for the Children’s Educational Theatre wrote to Sam announcing their move and asking for “a good picture of yourself” [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Answd/ June 29, 08 / Say, yes. For her to get the photo & Mr. Clemens will present it. Mr. C. is in his country home”

June 25, 1908 Thursday

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June 25 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Frances F. Cleveland (Mrs. Grover Cleveland) in Princeton, N.J..: “Your husband was a man I knew and loved and honored for twenty-five years. I mourn with you. S.L. Clemens” [MTP]. Note: for some reason the NY Times reported this as June 26 [June 27, p.2, “From Mark Twain to Mrs. Cleveland”].  

June 26, 1908 Friday

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June 26 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

Dear Mr. Rogers: / Will you & Mrs. Rogers come & pay me a visit? I hope you can, & that you will give me that pleasure. I have been in the house a week, now, & am nearly wonted. I am sending this note to New York, as you were still there & making preparations for Bermuda when I last heard of you, which was a week ago.

June 28, 1908 Sunday

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June 28 Sunday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick.

Dorothy dear, bring with you a doll about 8 inches long—Paine’s little daughter Frances will fetch a doll when she comes up the hill to visit you, & you and she can have a fine domestic time together./ With lots of love” [MTP; MTAq 181]. Note: Frances Paine was a younger sister to Louise Paine.

June 29, 1908 Monday

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June 29 Monday – Sam and Albert Bigelow Paine left Redding and traveled to Boston, where they took rooms at the Touraine Hotel. Before they left,  Paine wrote a letter for Sam to Dorothy Quick, then followed it with a telegram and another letter. The first letter:

June 30, 1908 Tuesday

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June 30 Tuesday – In the morning, Sam and Paine traveled to Portsmouth, N.H. for the dedication of the Thomas Bailey Aldrich Memorial Museum, an event staged by Lillian Aldrich.

The New York Times, July 1, p. 16 covered the event:

MEMORIAL TO T. B. ALDRICH

———

Notable Speakers at Opening of Poet’s Home as Museum.

July 1908

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July – Sometime during the month a lawn party was held by the Mark Twain Library Association at Harry A. Lounsbury’s home. Another party at the same location was held in August [MT Library minutes copied by Tenney, Nov. 15, 1981].

Amo Umbstaetter and Elizabeth Atwood wrote from Lovell, Maine to thank Sam for his letter and autographs. Signed, “Your little friends” [MTP].


 

July 1, 1908 Wednesday

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July 1 Wednesday – Sam and Albert B. Paine were still in Boston at the Hotel Touraine, staying the third night there [July 5 to Sturgis]. According to Paine:

Clemens did not wish to hurry in the summer heat, and we remained another day quietly sight- seeing, and driving around and around Commonwealth Avenue in a victoria in the cool of the evening. Once, remembering Aldrich, he said: