Day By Day Dates

February 6 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote to Harriet E. Whitmore (Mrs. Franklin G. Whitmore).

This is just a hasty little note to tell you that Katie is planning to run up to Hartford on Thursday of this week to look after and bring away the boxes in the Safety Deposit vaults. If you have the keys will you kindly give them to M . Whitmore so that Katie can get them from his office?

February 7 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Mr. Reeves was here this morning to talk over the renting of the house in Vermont” [MTP TS 4].

William Evarts Benjamin wrote to Sam, enclosing a check for $1,000 from Title, Guarantee & Trust Co., on the Tarrytown property matters, and thought the prospects bright for getting back another $500 [MTP]. Note: monies were held in escrow to insure clear title; notably, removal of the Trolley Co.’s encroachment.

February 8 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam replied to a not extant from David A. Munro, possibly the galley sheets mentioned below in Lyons journal #2 entry.

February 9 Thursday – Lucy Page Whitehead wrote to Sam on a small black-bordered card. “Don’t you think it would do you good to come to Washington for the Inauguration?” [MTP].

On or after this day at 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C., Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to Lucy Page Whitehead. Sam declined to go to Washington for the inauguration, pleading slow recovery to his two-month long illness [MTP].

Isabel also wrote to Harriet E. Whitmore.

February 10 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s Journal: “…Mr. Clemens is writing another soliloquy, King Leopold’s—who is gloating over and excusing to himself the Congo atrocities” [MTP: TS 39; Hill 100] Note: See Feb. 21 Lyon entry.

February 11 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Charles D. Burrage.

February 12 Sunday – Samuel E. Belt wrote from Greenwood B.C. to Sam.

“I am collecting facts about the blowing up of the ‘Saluda’ at Lexington, Mo, being a nephew of the ill-fated Captain,” Francis Thomas Belt. He didn’t simply want an autograph but asked Sam for anything he might be able to tell him about the case [MTP].

February 13 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: This morning came a letter from Raffaello. He has been ill, he has lost money, and just now there is dearth of happiness in his life. / Every evening we have music. Jean plays her simple sweet music, and I play the wonderful Beethoven and Schubert. Mr. Clemens spends nearly all his day in bed, getting up only in time for dinner. Every afternoon he calls me for a game of cards [MTP: TS 40].

February 14 Tuesday – Harold J. Howland for The Outlook wrote to Sam, asking him to autograph one of the proofs of his photo [MTP]. Note: see also entries for Dec. 3, 1904, Feb. 21, and Feb. 26, 1905.

February 15 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Madeleine Sinsheimer.

February 16 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Joe Twichell.

Dear Joe— / I knew I had in me somewhere a definite feeling about the President if I could only find the words to define it with. / Here they are, to a hair—from Leonard Jerome: “For twenty years I have loved Roosevelt the man & hated Roosevelt the statesman & politician.”

February 17 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal recorded a visit from Muriel Pears of Scotland:

February 19 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Father Raffaello Stiattesi.

Dear Padre: / It was most kind of you to remember me, & I thank you very much. From what you say I comprehend that the fragrant countess [Massiglia] from the divorce-courts of Philadelphia has been destroying my character. It is all right (as we say), it does not disturb me. The character that she could destroy is not worth saving.

February 18 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Muriel M. Pears.

It was delightful to have you here; even the idiot butler wasn’t able to spoil it. (Wait—this doesn’t mean that I am entirely placated yet, but only partly, only largely; I am not forgetting that you did not let me know at once when you arrived.) A week lost. I wouldn’t have served you like that.

February 20 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister.

February 21 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam inscribed a portrait drawing of himself to Susan Crane: “Feb. 21/05 / To Susy Crane / the dearly beloved—from / ‘The Holy Samuel.’” [MTP].

February 22 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal #2: “Dr. Quintard called & talked with Mr. Clemens. Mrs. Crane & Jean lunched with Mrs. Day / After Mr. Clemens came home he finished reading the Joan of Arc play” [MTP TS 5-6]. Note: George Porter’s play, The Maid, A Drama in Five Acts (1904) [Gribben 554].

February 23 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Abbott Handerson Thayer:

“Dear Mr. Thayer— / If this should ever reach you, please let me know, for I want to ask about summer-house chances, in Dublin. / Sincerely Yours / SL. Clemens / It is Alice Day who tells me she thinks this may find you” [Archives of American Art, Thayer family papers online image 35456, accessed Mar. 2, 2010]. Note: Dublin, N.H.

February 23? – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C., Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to Erving Winslow’s Feb. 21 that he was recovering from a long illness and had no objection to being named as vice president of the Anti-Imperialist League if it wouldn’t “entail active support on his part” [MTP].

February 24 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

This morning Mrs. Crane went home, leaving behind her a blank. Someone spoke of her sweet inward peace, and she radiates it. Mr. Clemens calls her “the well beloved”, and she is all of that.

Pity it is that Mr. Clemens cannot look down a flight of stairs and see the beauty of his head as he stands in a red hall with a searching incandescent light revealing and caressing the wondrous glow of his hair [MTP: TS 41].

February 25 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Abbott H. Thayer sent a telegram to Sam: “This very great joy to us plenty houses visit us immediately and choose one / A H Thayer.” On the backside of the telegram Sam wrote in pencil what appears to be a response telegram, “Too ill to travel will send representative Shall you be there to see her—Please wire” [MTP]. Note: Henry Copley Greene’s Dublin house, “Lone Tree Hill” on the slope of Mt. Monadnock was chosen. Greene (1871-1951) was an author from an old New England family.

February 26 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Kate Rogers Nowell.

“Dear Mrs Nowell: / Indeed the portrait is fine. I have said it before but the thought is brought up in my mind again by the Outlook’s reproductions—just received the other day—that they are fine also, one can see at a glance” [MTP]. Note: An artist from Mass. was employed, Kate Roger Nowell for The Outlook. No bio. information was found.

February 27 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

“Mr. Clemens was very, very interesting for during and after dinner he discussed the famous Beecher trial. Mr. Clemens had said at the time, and he still says that guilty or not, Beecher should have publicly denied the charge the day after it appeared in the press, for the honor of the woman, he should have done it” [MTP: TS 41].

Isabel Lyon’s journal #2: “Telegraphed Mr. Thayer. Wrote to Mr. H.C. Greene about Dublin house mentioned by Mr. Dana” [MTP TS 6]. Note: Henry Copley Greene: Abbott H. Thayer.

February 28 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon replied to Odoardo Luchini‘s Feb. 14.

Dear Senator Luchini: / M . Clemens wishes me to write for him and thank you for your very interesting letter. He is much pleased with it.  He wishes me to tell you that he is still in his bed and hopes to remain there for a few years yet; for, undisturbed, he can read and smoke and write all he wants to, and so he is having a good time.

March – Sam’s essay, “The Czar’s Soliloquy” first ran in the Mar. issue of North American Review. It was not collected in any publication during his lifetime [Budd, Collected 2: 1009].