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)

October 1906

October – Sam inscribed an aphorism in a copy of P&P to an unidentified person: “On the whole it is better to deserve honors & not have them, than have them & not deserve them. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / Oct/06” [MTP].

Sam also sent a signed aphorism on an octavo sheet to an unidentified person: “Taking the pledge will not make bad liquor good, but will improve it” [MTP].

October 2, 1906 Tuesday

October 2 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam began a letter to daughter Clara that he finished Oct. 3.

Clara dear, perhaps you thought I couldn’t leave my niece, Mary Rogers, but I did it. I came away from Fairhaven yesterday. Everything is going well here, except that Miss Lyon is still feeble & has to go carefully & not over-exert herself. But she is up & around, comes to meals, chats, laughs, plays the orchestrelle a little, & signs checks. I believe she will soon be quite well.

October 3, 1906 Wednesday

October 3 Wednesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam finished his Oct. 3 to daughter Clara, in care of John Walker, 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C.   6, a.m., Wednesday.

Take my bedroom—you will never hear a hoof-click there. And keep it, permanently, if your own room is big enough for a billiard room. I hope it is, & I feel sure it is. I think I know it is.

I must telegraph you this to-day, dear [MTP].

Sam also replied to the Sept. 27 from Brander Matthews.

October 4, 1906 Thursday

October 4 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to the Sept. 27 from Anne W. Stockbridge.

Dear Miss Stockbridge (if she really exists):

257 Benefit Street (if there is any such place)

Yes, I should like a copy of that other letter. This whole fake is delightful, & I tremble with fear that you are a fake yourself & that I am your guileless prey. (But never mind, it isn’t any matter) Now as to publication. I shall be going home to New York 8 days hence— 21 Fifth Avenue

October 5, 1906 Friday

October 5 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to the Oct. 3 from (Harold) Witter Bynner, supporting Bynner’s decision to devote himself to poetry.

Dear Poet: / You have certainly done right—for several good reasons; at least, of them, I can name two: 1. With your reputation you can have your freedom & yet earn your living: if you fall short of succeeding to your wish, your reputation will provide you another job. And so, in high approval I suppress the scolding & give you the saintly & fatherly pat instead.

October 6, 1906 Saturday

October 6 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

All day, wind & rain.

With the afternoon mail came a letter from AB to the King—a love letter & the most beautiful love letter ever written. The King was deeply moved as he read it & when he called me in from my study his voice was shaking as he said, “Superb, superb! and worth waiting 70 years for.” He gave me the letter to read & it made me weep, even as he had wept. I didn’t know A.B. could write so exquisitely.

October 7, 1906 Sunday

October 7 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

It’s night now & I’ve just come to my room. The King called a minute ago & when I went to my door to see what he wanted, he stood in his own doorway & with gritting teeth said, “I wish you’d gather together my bobtailed flannel night shirts & burn them! I wish they were all in hell! I hate them so!”

He has been giving us a lovely evening, for he has been reading poetry for more than an hour— the old English ballads, & war poems

October 8, 1906 Monday

October 8 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

The King is filled with the idea of defying conventionalities & wearing his suitable white clothes all winter, so he has bidden me order 5 new suits from his tailor; the suits to be ready against the time we arrive in N.Y. He was a creature of inspiration today even to his toe tips. He was a lambent spirit, & the dictating was beautiful. I sat in the study, writing some, but listening most; & drawing checks.

October 9, 1906 Tuesday

October 9 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara, in care of John Walker,

Clara dear I hope you are sleeping well, now, & without the help of drugs. Certainly broken sleep is a bad thing. I have suffered from it several times lately. Twice it has cost me my day’s work. This morning it took me half an hour to dictate a dozen sentences—then I gave it up. A day or two ago I had the like experience.

October 10-16, 1906 Tuesday

October 10-16 Tuesday – Sam wrote two aphorisms to Henry Darracott Allison, of saving work for tomorrows, and of being better to deserve but not receive credit than the other way around [MTP: from Allison’s Dublin Days Old and New: New Hampshire Fact and Fancy (1952) ].


 

October 11, 1906 Thursday

October 11 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam began a letter to Mary B. Rogers that he added to on Oct. 12, 13, and 16.

Thursday. 6 pm

Dublin, Oct. 12/06.

It isn’t right to pelt you with a letter so soon, dear pal, but there’s been a cloud-lift today & I’ve got to jubilate with somebody or expire with satisfaction. Next, I will write Clara, & between you two I expect to quiet down & become rational again.

October 12, 1906 Friday

October 12 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam added to his Oct. 11 to Mary B. Rogers.

Next Day, 11a.m.—Friday.

What a useful creature you are, Saccharin! When I’ve lost my sleep & can’t dictate coherently & have to quit trying, I can turn for relief to you—I can entertain myself with scribbling incoherently to you, & you have to put up with it. Clara likewise.

October 13, 1906 Saturday

October 13 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam added to his Oct. 11 and 12 to Mary B. Rogers.

9.30 a.m. Saturday

I have been editing this letter with the scissors—for I had put into it the very dismal news which I had spared you in that recent note. I went to that dinner-party at the MacVeagh’s palace last night—in white clothes. All the others of both sexes—in their noblest evening costumery. (But I know all those people familiarly.)

It is a time of surprises.

October 14, 1906 Sunday

October 14 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Mrs. William Cabot came out this afternoon for a quiet talk with me, recalling still more of the great depths of Gerry’s nature. Then Mrs. Pumpelly came in with Mrs. H. Cabot. The Pumpellys are leaving next week & expect to sail on Nov. 3rd for Italy. Thence they go down to Egypt for 6 weeks, then stop at Athens on their way back to Italy, where they expect to spend the rest of the winter in Capri.

October 15, 1906 Monday

October 15 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Jean, 8 a.m. / The King dictated today & I went over to Keene & dentistry” [MTP TS 136].

Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: Item from Susy’s biography about Sour Mash & the flies —Livy Clemens’ experiment for destroying the flies in the Hartford house—Soap-bubble item from Susy’s biography; Clemens’s comments—Clemens’ experience in learing to ride-high bicycle—Letters regarding his fiftieth birthday [MTP Autodict2].

October 16, 1906 Tuesday

October 16 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam finished his Oct. 11, 12, 13 to Mary B. Rogers.

Tuesday

You hope you will come out of it “a better woman.” You don’t need it, Mary. You have the clean mind & the right heart, & this is a condition which is not really betterable. It is going to carry you far out of Harry’s reach & mine. But I believe—I truly believe—we shall be allowed to call, sometimes, as the aeons drift by on their long course. St. Peter will sniff & say—

October 17, 1906 Wednesday

October 17 Wednesday – Sam took “The long railway journey from Dublin” N.H. to N.Y.C. which he later wrote, “destroyed me for 7 whole days!” [Oct. 24 to Emilie Rogers].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “This morning the King left early for Boston & he was in a dear mood. / Jean left by way of Keene. I took her over & put her on the train” [MTP TS 137].

October 18, 1906 Thursday

October 18 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Sack-Cloth & Ashes   will have a good home with a Mr. Fisher—a clerk in Mr. Allison’s shop. The dear little cats have been distraught for 2 days now, for they sense the coming of something.

October 19, 1906 Friday

October 19 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “19th Oct. ’06. This is what Katy is celebrating as her ‘anniversary.’ We also celebrate it, cordially. She has been with us 26 years” [NB 48 TS 5].

Agnes L. Brown wrote from Ottawa, Ontario Canada to Sam appreciating his article on Howells. She sent Sam two books, The Cape Breton Giant by “Mr. Gillis” and another unnamed [MTP]. Note: Gillis not in Gribben.

October 21, 1906 Sunday

October 21 Sunday – In N.Y.C. Sam went “Sabbath-breaking” to Urban H. Broughton’s, and beat him five out of seven games at billiards [Oct. 22 to Mary Rogers].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “All day it has rained hard & Mr. Clemens went out to the Broughtons to play billiards. He is restless & finds a great emptiness in life. He doesn’t like this house & finds no comfort outside of his own room. My own little six sided room is the only place I care for—that & the King’s room” [MTP TS 137-138].

October 23, 1906 Tuesday

October 23 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dihdwo Twe, a Liberian who visited Sam several times and was deeply interested in the Congo reform movement. Sam dictated the letter for Twe to use as an introduction to a pamphet calling on the world to help the Congo. Basically, Sam wrote, the human race is made up of humbugs; he felt Twe should deal with the human race as it is, not as he wished it to be—it had “no desire for uncomfortable truths, no appetite for them…” etc. [MTP].