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 12, 1909 Thursday

August 12 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to George B. Harvey.

Dear Colonel: / It was lovely of Mrs. Harvey & Dorothy & Jessica to come & see me, & it would be lovely if you & Dunneka or the Major would do the same. I can shelter two of you any week-end, or week-middle.

August 13, 1909 Friday

August 13 FridayEdward Eugene Loomis for the Delaware, Lackawanna Railroad wrote to Sam.

“I return herewith the 300 shares of Plasmon Milk Products Company stock you left with me sometime since, also correct Power of Attorney I have just succeeded in getting, authorizing me to sign for the other shares of the stock of this company that are due you” [MTP].

August 16, 1909 Monday

August 16 Monday — Paine writes of Sam’s reading and of events in the evening:

August 16. He is reading Suetonius, which he already knows by heart — so full of the cruelties and licentiousness of imperial Rome.

This afternoon he began talking about Claudius,

August 19, 1909 Thursday

August 19 ThursdayDavid Rutherford wrote from London, offering to illustrate for nothing:

Dear Sir, / In the “Idler” of February 1898 there appeared an article by Robert Barr in which he exposed a “system” advised by you for those in want of work and which had been acted upon very successfully in a number of instances by those who applied it. [...]

August 25, 1909 Wednesday

August 25 WednesdayWilliam Dean Howells wrote from Carlsbad, Austria to Sam.

Dear Clemens: / Your friendly letter of prevention found me already taking quarts of cure, here. I hated abominably to come, but doctors and dear ones of all ages and sexes joined in thrusting me away. Surgeons suggested prying me open with cutlasses, and painted the process in glowing colors. But the next time I have bilious colic that ties me up in a double bow-knot I will get an osteopath to untangle me.

August 31, 1909 Tuesday

August 31 Tuesday

August 31? Tuesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam replied to David Rutherford’s offer of Aug. 19 to illustrate Sam’s next book for nothing, thereby applying what he perceived to be Mark Twain’s “system” of rising in business. Sam wrote on Rutherford’s letter:

September 1909

September — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Marjorie Breckenridge.

I can’t, Marjorie dear, my activities are pretty definitely suspended. I can’t drive, I can’t walk, I am a prisoner. I am as well as anybody—as long as I keep still; but the least little exertion gives me such a bitter pain in the chest that I could enjoy it more than anything in the world if somebody else had it.

You must look in on me, Marjorie, & if I get over this before you go away, I’ll pay back. /Affectionately / [MTP; MTAq 265].

September 5, 1909 Sunday

September 5 SundaySam’s new guestbook:

NameAddressDateRemarks
Harriet C.J. SpragueSharon, ConnecticutSept 5,1909 
Frank J. SpragueThe Saints [?] in the SummerNo later — 

Frances Nunnally sent Sam a picture postcard of West Main St., Waterbury, Conn.

Dear Mr. Clemens

September 10, 1909 Friday

September 10 Friday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Helen Schuyler Allen in Franklin, N.Y. Text is not available [MTP].

Sam also wrote a postcard to Dorothy Quick.
I am glad to hear you are enjoying yourself. I am still a prisoner in the house these past 3 months, with no prospect of getting out for a long time to come. But I guess it’s all right. Infirmities & disabilities are quite proper to old age, Have a good time while you are young, dear! /With lots of love / ...[MTP; MTAq 264].

September 13, 1909 Monday

September 13 Monday — The New York Times, p.8, reported a resolution to the Clemens-Ashcroft conflict and law suits:

MARK TWAIN SUITS ALL OFF.

All Litigation Between Him and the Ashcrofts is Finally Dropped

The differences between Mark Twain and his daughter, Miss Clara Clemens, on the one side, and his former secretary Mrs. Ralph Ashcroft, and her husband have been settled without an appeal to the courts. All criticism of the conduct of Mrs. Ashcroft has been withdrawn and all suits have been dropped.

September 14, 1909 Tuesday

September 14 Tuesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Melville E. Stone.

Dear Stone: / I have been a sick man for several months, & shut up in the house by the doctors, & you go & choose this time to have a banquet, when I can’t come! I am sorry. But I don't blame you—you couldn’t help it.