October 18 Tuesday – Sam wrote at least three letters which survive and carry this date’s postmark. The first, to daughter Jean and Isabel V. Lyon in Lee Mass.: “All right, Jean, you shall bring the mongrel cat” [MTP].
The second letter to Mary H. Hitchcock (Mrs. Roswell D. Hitchcock), President Entertainment Club, N.Y.C. declining an invitation to read [MTP].
The third to Isabel V. Lyon, enclosing Dr. G.W. Kirch’s bill and letter from the doctor’s attorney [MTP].
October 19 Wednesday – Edumund D. Morel wrote from the Union Club, NYC to Sam. “Not a single N.Y. daily newspaper has published my open letter to Cardinal Gibbons.” Much of this letter is illegible [MTP]. Note: James Gibbons (1834-1921), of Baltimore, American cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Best known for his support of labor unions, in his later years he became the face of Catholicism in America.
October 20 Thursday – About this day Sam replied to Cécile Freese’s Oct. 18. Sam wrote on the bottom of Freese’s letter: “Here is Madame Freese’s address. Miss Lyon can now return the photo to her” [MTP].
October 23 Sunday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Susan Crane. I have been telephoning the Hoffman, dearest Susy dear (as’su), & the Stanchfields are there— so I am going up, right after dinner, to see them. Clara Stanchfield says she has made the journey from Elmira especially to see our Clara, & it is too bad, for the doctor put her under the strictest seclusion & captivity yesterday evening, & now I, with all others, am shut out for the coming months. It is best so. She will not get well on any less stringent terms.
October 24 Monday – In N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Ralph W. Ashcroft c/o The Koy-lo Co., 11 Broadway, N.Y.C. “These are the original telegrams. / S.L. Clemens” [MTP]. Note: possibly telegrams to and from John Hays Hammond (Sept. 15 and others) regarding dissension over seating Plasmon Co. new board of directors. Sam’s notebook: “All royalties & nobilities are conscious fictions & artificialities. They privately laugh at themselves; knowing that, alive they are no better than their valets; & that, dead, their meat is inferior to pork” [NB 47 TS 17].
October 25 Tuesday – In N.Y.C. Sam inscribed a copy of A Dog’s Tale to an unidentified person: “With the kindest regards of the Author, Oct. 25, 1904” [MTP: Samuel T. Freeman & Co. catalogs, 3 May 1932, Item 105].
October 27 Thursday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to daughter Jean.
Dear Jean: / Let Miss Lyon tell them your registered-letter address “will be as above for the next few weeks while the dwelling at 21 Fifth avenue is undergoing repairs.” Don’t let them return the certificates to Lee. Sign in ink, Jean, wherever I have written your name in pencil. Let the witness sign where the penciled cross is.
This has been an awful secretarial job. My brains are absolutely caked with its perplexities. I haven’t sworn so much in three days.
October 28 Friday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Joe Twichell.
It is good & relieving news that you send me about Joe. Now, then, let him make a sacrifice for his mother’s sake & call Jean’s hand: * [at bottom margin: * Ecclesiastical poker term] Jean has given up horse-back riding, for my sake. I shall try to make it up to her some way.
October 29 Saturday – Sam inscribed each of the 23 volumes of the new Hillcrest Edition of his works, using a different aphorism (most from “Pudd’nhead Wilsons New Caledar” in FE) just out by Harper & Brothers, to William R. Coe, H.H. Rogers’ son-in-law. Volume one is not extant and only five is dated.
To Will R. Coe with the kindest regards of The Author. October 29, 1904.”
October 31 Monday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Charles Erskine Scott Wood. Dear Wood: / I have read “A Masque of Love” with strong pleasure. It is a beautiful poem & wise & deep. What Alp shall you subdue next? You were an able instructor of West Point lads in the science of war; then you took up the law & distinguished yourself in that profession; & now you have proven that you are a poet. Well, go on, old time friend; the more triumphs you achieve the better will be pleased [MTP].
November – W.L. Alden’s article, “Mark Twain; Samuel L. Clemens,” ran in English Illustrated Magazine p. 182-4. Tenney: “‘Mark Twain is essentially an enthusiast, and his enthusiasm is always for the things that are noble, and heroic, and right.’ Photo of MT by Walter Barnett, and bibliography of his works and secondary material concerning him” [39].
Michael Monahan’s article, “Saint Mark,” ran in The Papyrus: A Magazine of Individuality [Gribben 525].
November 1 Tuesday – The Earl of Norbury (William Graham-Toler) wrote from London to Sam. I cannot tell you how pleased I was to get your kind and fiery letter, and to hear that your powerful pen will be wielded in the cause of humanity. Certainly the Congo Reform agitation is going ahead well now. I was aware of the very great loss you had sustained, but feared to reopen the wound by any allusion to it, but as you have yourself referred to Mrs Clemens’ death, I feel that I may be allowed to express my very great and sincere sympathy… [MTP]. Note: on the env. Sam wrote: “For my tin box.
November 2 Wednesday – Harper & Brothers sent a small notice of a check enclosed, amount not given [MTP].
November 3 Thursday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Andrew Carnegie.
In our sad circumstances I am not privileged to be present Nov. 22d , but I greatly want to renew the acquaintanceship with Mr. Morley, & I would like to come some time—in the day or in the evening—& see him & the Carnegie’s when there is an absence of formal company.
Does such a time happen—in your house?
November 4 Friday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Joe Twichell.
November 5 Saturday – Charlotte Graham Toler wrote from London to Sam. She had seen the letter Clemens wrote her brother, and was “infinitely touched” by his reference to her sister and herself. She offered condolences and expressed gratitude he was taking up the Congo matter, since Roger Casement, who had prepared the Congo report, was “a great friend of ours” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “My tin box / sisters of.”
November 6 Sunday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Susan Crane.
November 7 Monday – Clara Clemens was back in N.Y.C. at Dr. Parry’s on 69 Street. The doctor had ordered complete isolation for her for one year, all except the nurse and doctor. Sam went to say a long goodbye [Nov. 9 to MacAlister; Nov. 10 or 11 to Doubleday].
Yuran writes of Clara’s removal to Norfolk, Conn. and gives us a letter dated Nov. 7, 1904 to her father. “In a letter with the heading ‘Clara goes into vanishment’… there is a handwritten note documenting that it was ‘written on the way to Norfolk, CT where Clara went for a rest cure.’ She wrote to her father:”
November 8 Tuesday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam inscribed a copy of A Dog’s Tale to The Guild of St. Elizabeth: “To / The Guild of St. Elizabeth / from a friend. / Mark Twain / We cannot all be as good & sweet & lovely as a good dog, but we can all try. / M.T. / Nov. 8, 1904” [MTP].
November 9 Wednesday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister in London, sharing his plans for him and his staff to occupy the remodeled house on Fifth Avenue, and offhandedly mentioning what the Plasmon Co. had cost him: It is very good news you give me (along with the £350) about Plasmon. The American Co got my $32,500—the whole of it. Let it go. Davis sails for England a fortnight hence. He will tell you all about the sharp game that was played, & the result of it.
November 10 Thursday – On this day or Nov. 11 at the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Frank N. Doubleday.
I did not know you were going to England: I would have freighted you with such messages of homage & affection to Kipling. And I would have pressed his hand, through you, for his sympathy with me in my crushing loss, as expressed by him in his letter to Gilder. You know my feeling for Kipling & that it antedates that expression.
November 11 Friday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Robert Reid and the Players Club.
To Robert Reid & the others— /well-beloved:
Surely those lovely verses went to Prince Charlie’s heart, if he had one, & certainly they have gone to mine. I shall be glad & proud to come back again, after such a moving & beautiful compliment as this from comrades whom I have loved so long. I hope you can poll the necessary vote; I know you will try, at any rate.
November 12 Saturday – Henry W. Fisher (Fischer) wrote to Sam, enclosing a clipping (in German) that he felt “shows that the people of Vienna have not forgotten you.” Did he get the books sent on Apr. 12 on William II? Private Lives of William II and his Consort and Secret History of the Court of Berlin by Henry W. Fischer, (pseud. Ursula, Countess von Eppinghoven) [MTP; Gribben 231].
November 13 Sunday – Margaret Jenkins wrote from London a delayed message of condolence to Sam, delayed only by lack of an address. She added, “Norbury is going to American this week, & hopes to have the pleasure of seeing you” [MTP]. Note: William Brabazon Lindsay Graham-Toler, 4th Earl of Norbury
November 15 Tuesday – Edwin Frost for the Society of Sons of Steerage wrote from Providence, R.I., to announce a dinner in honor of Thomas Nelson Page , on Nov. 21 at 10 p.m. “The unusually late hour has been selected in order to allow Mr. F. Hopkinson Smith, who is engaged earlier in the evening, to be present” [MTP].
Charles J. Langdon wrote a short note to Sam, enclosing some article of praise for Mark Twain (not in the file, but written at the top “Estimates of M.T.” [MTP].