21 Fifth Ave - Day By Day

February 10 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  All day the King has been playing with Dorothy, & when she left this afternoon he went upstairs quite lonely, but tired too & so he slept. I was having a long interview with a Dr. Beal who is a friend of the Col. Ingersoll family and surreptitiously he is trying to interest some rich people to buy the house Mrs. Ingersoll is now living in. And the man told me how he had been the one to start the fund for Mr. Clemens when he met with his failure through the Webster Company.

February 11 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Charles D. Burrage.

February 11 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Today hasn’t been a very gay Sunday, for Mr. Clemens went off to lunch at Mrs. Henry Holt’s with the Pumpelly’s, & then he went to see Mr. & Mrs. Rogers finishing up with dinner at the Broughtons & not reaching home until nearly 10:30” [MTP TS 28-29].

February 11 Monday – In N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Calvin H. Higbie.

M . Clemens asks me to write for him & say that within a day or so you will receive a letter from his biographer M . Albert Bigelow Paine, who is planning to make a journey out to California in the early spring to collect material for his biography…. [MTP].

Paine quotes from his notebook for this day about memory: February 11, 1907. He said to-day:

February 11 Tuesday – Sam hosted his second “Doe Luncheon” at 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. [Feb. 7 to Mary Rogers; IVL TS 20].

Sam also sketched drawings to Dorothea Gilder and Helena Gilder (Mrs. Richard Watson Gilder), guests of the luncheon. To Dorothea he drew a sailboat with two figures on deck and one falling overboard, then wrote, “Ship sinking—man overboard / SLC.” To Helena he wrote a lady with an umbrella in the rain and wrote, “Lady out in the rain / SLC.” [MTP].

February 12 Sunday – Samuel E. Belt wrote from Greenwood B.C. to Sam.

“I am collecting facts about the blowing up of the ‘Saluda’ at Lexington, Mo, being a nephew of the ill-fated Captain,” Francis Thomas Belt. He didn’t simply want an autograph but asked Sam for anything he might be able to tell him about the case [MTP].

February 12 Tuesday – In N.Y.C. Sam wrote instructions for Isabel V. Lyon to reply to Rev. Dr. Henry Blanchard in Portland, Maine—thank him for confirming statements made in a letter seven years before by Rev. Mr. Wiggin when Clemens was in England; he’d lost Wiggin’s letter long before [MTP].

February 12 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to the Jan. 16 from Eden Phillpotts about Phillpotts’ proposed book dedication to Mark Twain:  

My dear friend: / Indeed there is not a single syllable to be altered. The dedication pleases me “to the limit”—it could not be improved. I am anticipating a good time in the society of that book.

February 13 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: This morning came a letter from Raffaello. He has been ill, he has lost money, and just now there is dearth of happiness in his life. / Every evening we have music. Jean plays her simple sweet music, and I play the wonderful Beethoven and Schubert. Mr. Clemens spends nearly all his day in bed, getting up only in time for dinner. Every afternoon he calls me for a game of cards [MTP: TS 40].

February 13 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to thank an unidentified person for “the newspaper slip & for your pleasant words” [MTP].

Clemens’ A.D.   for this day: Susy’s Biography continued—Cadet of Temperance—First meeting of Mr. Clemens and Miss Langdon—Miss Olivia Langdon an invalid—Dr. Newton [AMT 1: 354-359].

February 13 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Gabrilowitsch lunched—C.C.—Atlantic City [MTP TS 27].

February 13 Thursday – In the evening at 21 Fifth Ave. Clara Clemens gave a musical presentation to about 140 persons, accompanied by Miss Marie Nichols of Boston, a violinist, and Charles E. Wark, pianist The NY Times, Feb. 14, p 7, “Miss Clemens’s Musicale” lists the following 60 guests. See also Sam’s Feb. 14 to Jean.

February 13-19 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Brander Matthews.

“This came to me some time ago & I didnt reply to it—it seemed to me a most strange thing if it was sent by a sane person. And now he has called in person—L[yon] has seen him appeasable wanted to know who selected him the King president pro tem—” [MTP]. Note: a draft.

February 14 Tuesday – Harold J. Howland for The Outlook wrote to Sam, asking him to autograph one of the proofs of his photo [MTP]. Note: see also entries for Dec. 3, 1904, Feb. 21, and Feb. 26, 1905.

February 14 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to Gertrude Natkin.

February 14 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Katonah, N.Y.

I am very very glad, Jean dear, that you are having such wholesome & healthful good times & are so contented & happy. Poor little Clara isn’t so fortunate; she has been laid up with a bad throat & hoarseness, but she went to Atlantic City yesterday & will soon be in shape again she thinks.

February 14 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Greenwich, Conn.  

February 15 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Madeleine Sinsheimer.

February 15 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Chinatown” [MTP TS 29].

I.P. Moore wrote from London, England to inquire if Sam was his first cousin, since Moore’s mother was a Clemens [MTP]. Note: After Feb. 15 Sam replied that he knew nothing about his family tree before his father, who was born in Virginia in 1799; genealogical sources give Aug. 11, 1798 in Campbell Co. Va for the birthdate of John Marshall Clemens. www.accsolinc.com/familyroots/RobertClements.pdf

February 15 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Such a sweet comfort of an evening I have had with the King, after a busy & fluttering kind of a day. Mr. Rogers came in for a long talk this morning. Brio left at 12:45, leaving a baddish taste in Santa’s mouth. At 2:15 C. Teller called up asking if the King would come to the telephone, but he wouldn’t of course, & then she sent in a note asking him to go to the Brevort (where she is stopping) in order to do some work which he alone could do.

February 16 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Joe Twichell.

Dear Joe— / I knew I had in me somewhere a definite feeling about the President if I could only find the words to define it with. / Here they are, to a hair—from Leonard Jerome: “For twenty years I have loved Roosevelt the man & hated Roosevelt the statesman & politician.”

February 16 Friday – Sam gave a speech as the honorary head of The Ends of the Earth Club at the Savoy Hotel. The New York Times reported on p.9:  

ENDS OF EARTHERS FOREGATHER HERE AGAIN
And Astonish Mark Twain with Some Very Brief Reports.
——— ——— ———
HE AND OTHERS REMINISCE

The Author Tells How He Filled Cooper Union  39 Years Ago—150 Globe Trotters at Dinner.

February 16 Saturday –Witter Bynner offered box seats to Clemens on Feb. 1 for an unspecified performance for this day. No record was found of Sam’s attendance to a performance for this day or evening. Lyon made no entry in her journal for Feb. 16, so it is unlikely Sam took Bynner up on his offer.