October 30 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Margery H. Clinton.

Dear Miss Margery: / Good, you’re coming! Well, I am glad. Even dern glad, as Pontius Pilate used to say. I think it was Pontius; at any rate it was the one that wrote Paradise Lost & was eventually burned by the Church for falling down the mountain & breaking the tables of stone. I never cared for him, although an ancestor. He ought to have known he was in no condition to carry things down a mountain & everybody looking at him. / With love & thanks … [MTP].

October 31 Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam finished his Oct. 24, 26, 27, 28, 29 to Frances Nunnally.

[written in the side margin of page 1:] Oct. 31. I haven’t finished this letter yet, but Ashcroft wants to play billiards; so I will start it along & finish it another time. With very much love. SLC

[caption on an enclosed photograph] Affectionate greetings from this triangle, or trilogy, or whatever its right name is.

[caption on an enclosed photograph] Posing—for admiration. SLC

November 1908 [not defined by Fears as November]

Harper’s Weekly published an article, “From Hawaii to Mark Twain’s Billiard-Room,” p. 27. Tenney: “Photograph of a koa-wood mantelpiece donated by friends in Hawail, for his home in Redding, Connecticut” [Tenney, ALR Second Annual Supplement to the Reference Guide (Autumn, 1980) 175]. Note: the mantel piece was a gift from Franz (“Frank”) Nickolous Otremba, woodcarver in Hawaii. See insert; & discussion of in Nov. 30 entry.

November 1 Sunday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Margaret Blackmer.

You sweet Margaret, I have been trying to get Ashcroft shot & I went to Police Commissioner General Bingham about it, but he was full of objections & lame excuses & said it would make too much talk. I have known Bingham ever since he was our military attache at the German Court 18 years ago, & yet the very first time I ask a little favor of him he hunts up excuses.

November 2 Monday – Gribben gives us a nugget from Sam’s A.D. for the day regarding George Bernard Shaw: “Mark Twain was aghast that Shaw’s biographer ‘wildly imagined a lot of resemblances’ between Shaw’s philosophy and Twain’s ‘What is Man?’ (2 November  1908 AD, MTP)” [638].  

November 3 Tuesday – On or about Nov. 3 Sam sent the library notice with receipt for $1 to Mai Rogers Coe (Mrs. William R. Coe) [MTP]. Note: see Sam’s new guestbook below:  

Name Address Date Remarks

Wm. R. Coe

L. Lanier Winslow

Mrs. Mai Rogers Coe )  New York City November 3

Clemens acquired another case of Queen Anne whisky [L-A MS]. Note: see June 8, 1907 for the full list of acquisition dates of whisky , intended as ammunition against Isabel Lyon.

November 4 Wednesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Berlin, Germany.  

November 5 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam sent a telegram to President of the Pilgrims, N.Y. chapter.

President of the Pilgrims:

New York

November 6 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to the Redding Court. “This is to certify that I have examined & identified as my property the silver taken from my house by force in the early morning of September 18, 1908. / Respectfully submitted to the honorable Court” /… [MTP].

Sam also wrote to an unidentified man.

Dear Sir: / I note this passage in the letter sent you by Mr. Ashley:

November 7 Saturday – In Redding, Conn. on this day or Nov. 8 Sam sent another receipt on his library notice to Frederick A. Duneka for $1 [MTP].

Sam’s new guestbook:  

Name Address Date Remarks

Mrs. Lillian Duneka     Also her husband   Of Harper & Brothers  November 7-8

November 8 Sunday – Charles Este wrote to ask Sam if he would “drop a word” to Mrs. Catherine Starbuck a 90 year old friend of his in Nantucket, Mass. He enclosed a note from the lady wondering if Clemens had decided not to finish his Autobiography [MTP]. Note: “Ans. Dec. 11 MLH” [his address on note paper 4111 Baltimore Ave. City is not given; such an address exists in Phila., Kansas City, Mo. & others].

Friedrich Henke wrote from Berlin, another letter in German to Sam [MTP]. Note: Not translated.

November 9 Monday – Arthur J. Burdick for Gateway Gazette wrote from Beaumont, Calif., having heard the rumor that Clemens contemplated living in California. He promoted the city and wrote he was sending “a paper telling something of Beaumont” [MTP]. Note: “Ans. Nov. 17 MLH”

Frederick A. Duneka wrote from NYC to Sam. “It was very beautiful—our visit—just the happiest kind of times….even the cats seem to be dressed up for the occasion and to join in the welcome…. I am looking into the Mark Twain Spring Water scheme” [MTP].

November 10 Tuesday –  Sam attended the Danbury, Conn. trial of the two burglars, Charles Hoffman and Henry Williams. The New York Times, Nov. 11, 1908, p. 5 reported on the trial:

TWAIN’S BURGLARS ON TRIAL.

———

Author on Witness Stand Identifies Silverware They Stole from Him.

November 11 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  “More trial—a weary day in court. Benar stayed to go with me, and be with me. Paine came for billiards with the King. At dinner I went to pieces” [MTP: IVL TS 79].

The New York Times, p. 4, reported on the sentencing of Mark Twain’s burglars:

TWAIN BURGLARS SENTENCED.

———

Men Who Broke Into Samuel L. Clemens’s Home Get Prison Terms.

November 12 Thursday – Sam’s A.D. for this date focused again on the two burglars at Stormfield [Hill 209]. Note: Sam also dictated on the burglary on Oct. 6 and Dec. 8.  

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “In bed all day, worn out. Paine came and dined with the King” [MTP: IVL TS 79].

Frank N. Doubleday wrote to Lyon (though catalogued to Clemens) [MTP].

November 13 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Benar came back to us, but still I am ill. My forces are very much scattered” [MTP: IVL TS 79].

American Geographical Soc., NYC Per Chandler Robbins sent Sam a printed list of officers with dues of ten dollars [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Many thanks but he is resigning from clubs & societies rather than joining them. And has retired to the country to reside”; and “Ans. Nov. 25 MLH”

November 14 Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote a poem and a note to Margaret Blackmer.

BE GOOD, BE GOOD. A Poem.

November 15 Sunday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Champ Clark (James Beauchamp Clark) (1850-1921), prominent democrat politician, speaker of the House of Representatives (1911-1919), at this time a Congressman from Missouri.

When you come East won’t you run up here (an hour & a half from New York), & stay a day or two with me & talk copyright extension?

I’ve got a new scheme. This time there ought to be no objectors, for my plan advantages

Private.

Dear Mr. Clark:

November 16 Monday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Zoheth S. Freeman, who had just been chosen as vice president of Liberty National Bank, N.Y.C.

Dear Freeman:

I thank you ever so much for accepting that trust. There is no one in the world I would prefer to you for that friendly office.

November 17 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Benares came back” [MTP: IVL TS 79].

Frank Bohrer, “a poor boy afflicted with locomotor ataxia which caused blindness” wrote from Sherrill, NY to ask Sam for a signed picture postcard [MTP]. Note: “Autogr. Sent Dec 7. 08. MLH”

Elva Fernald wrote from Topeka, Kans. to Sam, about to give a talk on Mark Twain, and thinking “a few words directly from” his pen “would add greatly to the enjoyment…”  [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Unable to grant request”

November 18 Wednesday – Sam’s new guestbook   (and Lyon’s journal TS 80):

Name Address Date Remarks

Frank Nelson Doubleday )

Neltje D.G. Doubleday ) 11 East 16th st.  New York Nov. 18-19  -> The perfect pair  [D.G. = De Graff]

 Note: Neltje de Graff Doubleday (Mrs. Frank N. Doubleday) (1865-1918)

November 19 Thursday – Sam’s new guestbook:  

Name Address Date Remarks

Judge Wm Scoville Case ) Danbury Nov. 19 Judge & state’s attorney

Stiles Judson )      who tried the burglars

Note: in the original guestbook one additional name is listed, Bettye D.G. Doubleday, Mill Neck, L.I.  

November 20 Friday – Sam’s new guestbook:  

Name Address Date Remarks

Lord Northcliffe ) London ) Nov. 20-21

Col. George Harvey ) New York

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Very bad headache. / Lord Northcliffe and Col. Harvey came up for the night” [MTP: IVL TS 80].

November 21 Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam inscribed a copy of Eve’s Diary to Mary Elizabeth Milner Harmsworth (Mrs. Alfred Harmsworth); Baroness Northcliffe; 1868- 1963): “To Lady Northcliffe with the compliments of the Author. / Adam at Eve’s Grave: / ‘Wheresoever she was, There was Eden’ (page 109)./ Nov 21/08” [MTP].  

Sam’s new guestbook:  

  Name Address Date Remarks

Commodore D. Dow, R.N.R. R.M.S. “Caronia” Nov. 21-24

November 22 Sunday – In Redding, Conn., Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Helen Keller.

Dear Miss Keller: