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)

August 19, 1908 Wednesday

Submitted by scott on

August 19 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  “Mr. Lounsbury is ill, a fistula caused by a strain in moving Santa’s piano. AB and his nice old father came up for billiards. I entertained his nice old father and gave him tea on the loggia. He called the dear little cedar trees ‘volunteers’” [MTP: IVL TS 60]. Note: Paine’s father is shown as Samuel E. Paine in the Aug. 24 original guestbook entry.

August 20, 1908 Thursday

Submitted by scott on

August 20 Thursday – In Redding, Conn., Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Katharine B. Clemens.

Mr. Clemens asks me to thank you for the photograph which he is very glad to have, & also for your note containing the very pleasant news that you will probably be able to spend a Sunday here.

Mr. Clemens is better, & asks me to convey his love to you” [MTP].

Sam’s new guestbook:

Name Address Date Remarks

Jervis Langdon Elmira, N.Y. August 20 (My nephew).

August 21, 1908 Friday

Submitted by scott on

August 21 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The day was a placid one. We played Hearts, and then more Hearts” [MTP: IVL TS 61].

Charles W. Birge wrote from the Fitch Home for Soldiers in Noroton Heights, Conn. to ask Sam if he’d be some help to him in securing a cheap pair of spectacles to help him read; he could get a pair for $2 in Stamford. At age 72, Birge had a shaky hand [MTP]. Note: IVL: “No ans.”

Joe Goodman wrote from Alameda, Calif. about locating old letters from Clemens.

August 22, 1908 Saturday

Submitted by scott on

August 22 Saturday – Sam’s new guestbook:  

Name Address Date Remarks

Z. S. Freeman New York City       “ [August] 22-24 [Zoheth S. Freeman]

      Note: not in the original guestbook.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “I went to N.Y. on the 8:15. Back on the 1:27 and Zoe Freeman came too. It was torrenting when I went to the station, and the flood gates [sentence unfinished] [MTP: IVL TS 61].

August 24, 1908 Monday

Submitted by scott on

August 24 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  Zoe and Margery left today. The King seems to improve with every day. Paine who came up for billiards remarked that the King doesn’t play as good a game as he did. But that is clearly understandable, for the King has been teaching the game to young strong men, who now are playing as well as he does, and better, for many of them have had instruction from experts in “draw shots” and “English” etc. and have no more wit than to come here and to tell the King how to make his shots.

August 26, 1908 Wednesday

Submitted by scott on

August 26 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The King watches Tammany’s kittens by the enchanted half hour. We get them into the library after dinner. They carry on like beautiful wild monkeys” [MTP: IVL TS 62].  

Jeannette Cholmeley-Jones wrote from Redding Ridge to Sam. “I hardly know how to express to you how much I enjoyed our all too short visit at ‘Stormfield.’” She thought it a “great privilege” and “one of the greatest treats” she’d ever had, and she was still reflecting on what he talked about [MTP].

August 27, 1908 Thursday

Submitted by scott on

August 27 Thursday – Anna Goldschmidt wrote from Hamburg, Germany to Sam about “A Dog’s Tale,” and the great pleasure she had translating it. Since this was the first translation she’d attempted she sent a copy for his review, hoping he would give permission for her to publish [MTP].

August 28, 1908 Friday

Submitted by scott on

August 28 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam replied to the Aug. 25 of  Fred V. Christ: 

Dear Sir: / You say: “I often owe my best sermons to a suggestion received in reading” . . . and let us add, “or from other exterior sources.”

Your remark is not quite in accordance with the facts. We must change it to “I owe all my thoughts, sermons & ideas to suggestions received from sources outside of myself.”

The simplified English of this proposition is—

August 30, 1908 Sunday

Submitted by scott on

August 30 Sunday – In his Sept. 3 to Dorothy Quick, Sam related, “We had a kind of house- warming three or four days ago, & the people of the countryside came, about 300, young & old, & boys & girls, & we had a very pleasant afternoon.” The gathering was likely this day, and included the guestbook entries below; these guests were residents of the surrounding area, which Sam gave no addresses for.

Sam’s New guestbook:  

Name Address Date Remarks

August 31, 1908 Monday

Submitted by scott on

August 31 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “John and Isabel Wayland came today” [MTP: IVL TS 62].

James Ross Clemens wrote to Sam, having arrived in South Dartmouth, Mass. and finding Sam’s invitation for him and his wife to visit Stormfield. Unfortunately only he could come and wanted to look in the following Sunday. He would stay overnight [MTP].

September 1908

Submitted by scott on

September – Sam inscribed a photograph of himself in his white suit sitting in a chair and holding a book, to Isabel S. Wayland (Mrs. John Elton Wayland): “Mrs. John Wayland, with the affectionate regards of Mark Twain, Sept/08”[Sotheby’s auction June 19, 2003, Lot 127]. The Waylands were logged into Sam’s guest book for the period Aug. 31 to Sept 2, giving their home as “Little Pumpkin Island.”  

September 1, 1908 Tuesday

Submitted by scott on

September 1 Tuesday – Sam had Mr. & Mrs. Albert Bigelow Paine, and daughter Louise to luncheon [Sept. 3 to Quick]. Note: he did not enter this visit into his new guestbook.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Lou and David arrived to visit mother, but I couldn’t meet them, for I was full of the King’s reception today” [MTP: IVL TS 62].

Bruno Frede wrote from Altona a.d. Elbe, Germany to ask for Mark Twain’s autograph. He included some verses in German [MTP].

September 3, 1908 Thursday

Submitted by scott on

September 3 Thursday– In Redding, Conn. Sam replied to the Aug. 31 from James R. Clemens by sending a telegram:  “Shall be very happy to see you on Sunday but am very sorry you not both come. / S. L. Clemens” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Dorothy Quick in Plainfield, N.J.

September 5, 1908 Saturday

Submitted by scott on

September 5 Saturday – Sam’s new guestbook:  

Name Address Date Remarks

Harriet Enders Pittsfield, Mass September 5-6

John O. Enders “               “ “              “

John Howells New York City “              “ [Illegible notes]

September 7, 1908 Monday

Submitted by scott on

September 7 Monday – James Ross Clemens was a guest at the Redding house [new guestbook]. Also stopping by for a visit were the following Redding neighbors. Sam’s new guestbook:

    Name Address Date Remarks

Annie R. Banks ——————————— ———————————

Fannie Sanford Shaw From over September 7 [Fanny]

Emma Shaw Reid on the Ridge

Marshal E. Driggs ——————————— ———————————

September 8, 1908 Tuesday

Submitted by scott on

September 8 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “There is a row about the red ms. trunk with Mrs. Paine who insulted the King and Benares and me over the telephone” [MTP: IVL TS 64].

James Ross Clemens ended his visit at the Redding house [new guestbook]. Sam’s guestbook shows another two-day stay by a Member of the Aquarium, or Angelfish.

Name Address Date Remarks

Marjorie S. Breckenridge, M.A. From down the glen. September 6-8

September 9, 1908 Wednesday

Submitted by scott on

September 9 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “We met Santa today at the Cunard pier.

Paine came in pale, and I begged him not to quarrel there. He had no intention of that though. Santa came right up here to Redding and finds it very beautiful” [MTP: IVL TS 64].

September 10, 1908 Thursday

Submitted by scott on

September 10 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Will [Charles Wark] came up this morning. / At early breakfast came 2 letters from Paine. Benares and I were in the loggia at breakfast and I had to have him read them, for since the day when Paine wrote a letter that must have been terrible, for he forestalled my reading of it.”

Contact Us