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)

August 11, 1906 Saturday

August 11 Saturday – Of the selections from Twain’s A.D.’s, DeVoto selected about half of the materials not chosen before by Paine to be included in Mark Twain in Eruption (1940); among DeVoto’s choices, was commentary, dictated this day, on a newspaper clipping this day of a humorous letter Sam had written years before to Andrew Carnegie asking for money to buy a hymnbook [35]. Sam also discussed Rudyard Kipling, his reputation and his first trip to Elmira to meet him in 1889; the segment of A.D. was selected for MTE [309-310].

August 13, 1906 Monday

August 13 Monday – Sam’s A.D. of this day (untitled) declared his admiration for the work of Rudyard Kipling, especially Kim; this A.D. segment was selected for MTE [310-12].

Clemens’ A.D. this day included: Rudyard Kipling’s 1889 visit to Elmira continued—Some of his books mentioned [MTP: Autodict2].

Isabel Lyon’s journal:

August 15, 1906 Wednesday

August 15 Wednesday – Frank N. Doubleday wrote from N.Y.C. to Sam [MTP]. Note: Sam had asked Doubleday to “put away ten copies” of “What is Man?” for “special bindings some day” on July 27. Doubleday replied that he’d been out of town and didn’t receive Sam’s letter and telegram until Monday (Aug. 13).

August 17, 1906 Friday

August 17 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Today came such a drowsy little note from the King to say that the dictating is a burden to him, & so he is flying away down to Fairhaven & pretty Mrs. Harry Rogers, & the yacht, & he is so glad to have the holiday. Dublin is become an impossible place for him to live in” [MTP TS 108].

August 19, 1906 Sunday

August 19 Sunday – Frederic Chapin wrote from Oak Park, Ill. to Sam concerning existing rights of dramatization for P&P, possible claims by Daniel Frohman, and of Elisabeth Marbury’s position as Sam’s agent. Frank Pixley, a good friend of Chapin’s who wrote The Burgomaster (1901), King Dodo (1902), The Prince of Pilsen (1903), etc. was to write the play and lyrics, but objected to having to share royalties with Marbury [MTP]. Note: Frank Pixley (1867-1919), librettist, collaborated with Gustav Luders on popular musicals; he is not Frank M. Pixley, Am.

August 21, 1906 Tuesday

August 21 Tuesday – “Tuesday night [Aug. 21] there was a very bright play by a lad of 18, & it was done in exceedingly good style by a dozen lads & lassies, none them older than the author” [Aug. 28 to Mary Rogers].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Here is a day I wonder about. / Jean, 10:00 in my study” [MTP TS 109].

August 23, 1906 ca.

August 23 ca. – In Dublin, N.H., Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to Frederic Chapin’s Aug. 19 inquiries concerning P&P dramatic rights. At the top of Chapin’s letter, she wrote: “If there is any legal complication it arises out of an affair of ten years ago & Dan. Frohman knows all about it. Please apply to him, for Mr. Clemens is unable to do so.” On the back side page one of Chapin’s letter, she wrote: “Miss Marbury will be Mr.

August 24, 1906 Friday

August 24 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Dentist—a new gentile tooth. / The King returned this evening. He came in gay & jolly & darling, & full of his yachting trip to Bar Harbor & Mrs. Harry, & the joy of living. Sly, he was, & like a boy fresh from his wild oats” [MTP TS 109].

Frank N. Doubleday wrote to Sam announcing “Two copies of #11 &12 of THE BOOK go to you by express today.” He hadn’t heard back about the “fine bindings on the first 10 copies” of “What is Man?”

August 25, 1906 Saturday

August 25 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to William Dean Howells.

Dear ’Owells: / If it were my own case I should probably stand upon my innocence, & go on & publish my story “regardless”; but you are not me, & so it is different. You are better, & finer than I am, & it costs you many a pang that I escape.

August 28, 1906 Tuesday

August 28 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara in Norfolk, Conn.  

Dear Ashcat, I am glad you got things arranged to your mind with Mr. Charlton, & that your outlook is so full of promise, & your heart so full of courage. This is the spirit that succeeds.

I have been away skylarking, & by consequence have been scandalously neglectful in the matter of letters to you & Jean. I’ve depended on Miss Lyon. Yes, turn my bedroom into a billiard room—I shall be entirely satisfied.

September 1906

September – The second of two installments of “A Horse’s Tale” ran in Harper’s Monthly, and included five illustrations by Lucius Wolcott Hitchcock. Harper’s would publish both segments as a 153-page book by the same name on Oct. 24, 1907.

September 1, 1906 Saturday

September 1 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam inscribed a “Year Book” to Simon Wolf:

There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist” [MTP] Note: MTP calls this “Wolf’s th Commemorative Book of 1906.” For Wolf’s 70 birthday, his daughter, Florence Gotthold, put three books together with over 400 personal messages from famous men of the day, including Twain, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, and Oliver Wendell Holmes.  

September 3, 1906 Monday

September 3 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam sent a telegram to H.H. Rogers, in Fairhaven, Mass.: “God be thanked have found some of the things send another trunk this one leaked / Clemens.” [MTHHR 617].

Sam also wrote to an unidentified man, thanking him for his letter of Aug. 31 [MTP].

September 4, 1906 Tuesday

September 4 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara in Norfolk, Conn.

I am so glad you like the pictures, dear Ashcat, & will keep them. I like them ever so much. Mr. Paine made 7 negatives in the hope of getting one satisfactory one; & when the samples came back from the developer they were all good. It seemed to me that a progressive thought was traceable thro thru them, & after arranging the series in varying order several times I discovered what it was.