• September 21, 1905 Thursday

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    September 21 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to George B. Harvey

    “Dear Colonel— / All right, bang away, go ahead. Yes it will be a ‘red-letter day,’ & a red-headed day, too, for Old Age will take the scalp of Belated Youth that day—mine, to-wit” [MTP]. Note: likely a go-ahead for Harvey’s plans to honor Mark Twain’s 70th birthday.

    Isabel Lyon’s journal: All the days are sprinkled with pin cushions. They’re pretty little creatures, and best of all they sell. Teresa calls them my boys. George MacDonald is dead at 83

  • September 22, 1905 Friday

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    September 22 Friday – At 9 a.m. in Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Thomas S. Barbour of the Congo Reform Assoc., Boston, that he was “sending something which you should stop the press & add if humanly possible.” Mounted on another page was the following:

    KING LEOPOLD’S SOLILOQUY

    THE PUBLISHERS DESIRE TO STATE THAT MR. CLEMENS DECLINES TO ACCEPT
    ANY PECUNIARY RETURN FROM THIS BOOKLET, AS IT IS HIS WISH THAT ALL
    PROCEEDS OF SALES ABOVE THE COST OF PUBLICATION SHALL BE USED IN

  • September 23, 1905 Saturday

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    September 23 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Thomas S. Barbour of the Congo Reform Assoc. in Boston.

    M . Clemens directs me to write for him saying that he has been considering whether he could be made an honorary president, or a second president, so that he could be connected with the Congo Reform Association without doing any work, but could be of service by giving the use of his name. Will you kindly tell M . Clemens what you think of it? [MTP].

  • September 25, 1905 Monday

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    September 25 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka (letter not extant but referred to in Duneka’s Sept. 26) [MTP].

    Isabel Lyon’s journal:“Some youngsters here for dinner and a romp. Jean in a turmoil and a nest of tempers because those young guests didn’t assemble in invited sequence. The two Henderson children, Gerald and Hildegarde, didn’t talk a bit—but listened spellbound to every word that fell from Mr. Clemens’s lips” [MTP TS 102].

  • September 26, 1905 Tuesday

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    September 26 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

    Tonight Mr. Clemens read 70 pages of the new story he has been working upon for the last 4 or 5 days. (“A Horse’s Tale”)

    A letter from Santa C. [Clara] tells that she had a nasal operation last week, and is weak and tired and discouraged, but she’s better now than she was [MTP TS 102].

  • September 28, 1905 Thursday

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    September 28 Thursday – Sam’s essay: King Leopold’s Soliloquy: A Defense of His Congo Rule, was published as a pamphlet for the American branch of the Congo Reform Assoc. by The P.R. Warren Co., Boston. Budd: “At least three further printings followed soon afterward, and a ‘Second Edition,’ with additional supplementary material, was issued late in 1905 or early in 1906” [Collected 2: 1010]. Note: Hawkins points out that the pamphlet, by Twain’s suggestion, “contained several photographs of mutilated Congolese.

  • September 29, 1905 Friday

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    September 29 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Harper & Brothers, asking them to send the magazine to 21 Fifth Avenue in N.Y.C. instead of to Dublin, beginning with the Nov. issue [MTP].

    Lyon also replied to Robert Underwood Johnson (incoming Sept. 21) that Sam would be unable to make a meeting of the Academy of Arts & Letters as he would not be in the city until about Nov. 7 [MTP].

  • October 1905

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    October – Sam sent an aphorism to an unknown person: “Taking the pledge will not make bad liquor good, but it will improve it.” [MTP].

    Current Literature published a photograph (no credit given) of Mark Twain, facing p. 353 [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Third Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1979 p. 190].

    Sam inscribed his copy of Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, by Sir Samuel Dill (1844-1924): “SL. Clemens / October 1905” [Gribben 193].

  • October 2, 1905 Monday

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    October 2 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka of Harper’s.

    I have just finished a short story which I “greatly admire,” & so will you—“A Horse’s Tale”— about 15,000 words, at a rough guess. It has good fun in it, & several characters, & is lively. I shall finish revising & re-revising it & re-revising it in a few days or more, then Jean will type

    Don’t you think you can get it into the Jan. & Feb. numbers & issue it as a dollar booklet just after the middle of Jan when you issue the Feb. number?

  • October 5, 1905 Thursday

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    October 5 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

    At 3 p.m. to-day I finished the fifth & last revising of “A Horse’s Tale” & am going to bed & stay there 2 weeks, for I am a free person once more. I have worked like a slave, from morning till—well, all day,—for I don’t know how many consecutive days [He began Sept. 23], & have enjoyed it ever so much—thoroughly, in fact—but I’m as tired as a dog.

  • October 6, 1905 Friday

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    October 6 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara, soon to be at 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y., where Sam addressed the letter:

    Why, you little rat, somebody had to be blamed, so I selected [Dr. Edward] Quintard in place of myself. I was thinking of having him hanged, but for your sake I will let him off, for the present.

    So you have got at the “real cause” of your ill turn, & it was a doctor. I could have told you that much. It’s an awful trade for a Christian.

  • October 7, 1905 Saturday

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    October 7 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote a long letter to Frederick A. Duneka about “A Horse’s Tale.” Proofs sent to me here before October 17 or to 21 Fifth Avenue, after November 3, will get immediate attention…I’ve made a poor guess as to the number of words. I think there must be 20,000. My usual page of MS. Contains about 130 words; but when I am deeply interested in my work and dead to everything else, my hand-write shrinks and shrinks until there’s a great deal more than 130 on a page…this tale is written in that small hand.

  • October 9, 1905 Monday

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    October 9 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote two letters to Frederick A. Duneka of Harper’s.

    The easiest way for me to furnish the details you ask for . . . is handy for you too; for you can at your pleasure talk the details to any journalist that come to you or print my letter on slips & hand them to as many of the boys as will accept . . .

    …As to other matters here are the details.

    Yes, I have tried a number of summer homes, here & in Europe together.

  • October 10, 1905 Tuesday

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    October 10 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

    Today Mr. Clemens and Jean lunched with the Catlins—but before Mr. Clemens went away I played all his favorites on the Aeolion, and the Largo I played four times. The Aeolion is going away today and the voice—one of the voices of Dublin will go too. This wonderful summer is sighing so gently away. It has been the Queen of all my summers. Today Mr. Clemens said that as a masseur refreshes the body, so the Aeolion is his spiritual massage—it soothes and rests him.

  • October 11, 1905 Wednesday

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    October 11 Wednesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara in N.Y.C.

    Clara, you little rascal, sometimes I have regretted that we took a house so far down, but how lucky it was! It would too bad for you to have to travel from the Central Park region clear down to 12th street. I am very glad we have the Musical Institute at our elbow. I hope you are at home by this time, snug & comfortable & happy./ With great love & a kiss / Father [MTP].

    Sam also wrote to Muriel M. Pears in Scotland.

  • October 13, 1905 Friday

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    October 13 Friday – United Cigar Stores Co. in the Flatiron building, N.Y.C. wrote asking for permission to use Sam’s letter endorsing the La Tunita cigars. On or just after this day Isabel V. Lyon responded for Sam: “Mr. Clemens would like to do so—but the request comes so frequently that he has had to decline them all” [MTP].

  • October 14, 1905 Saturday

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    October 14 Saturday – Thomas S. Barbour, of the Congo Reform Assoc., Boston, wrote to Sam, asking for a “few minutes at your place of entertainment” the following week when Sam planned to be in Boston [MTP]. Notes: MTP gives “on or after 14 October” for Lyon’s response for Sam. Oct. 14 is reasonable for a post to reach Dublin from Boston. The response: “Perhaps it would be better to call up Mr. Clemens at Pearmains address private”. Sumner Bass Pearmain and Alice Whittemore Upton Pearmain were active in Boston society, educational and social work.
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