21 Fifth Ave - Day By Day

January 17 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to daughter Jean, whose incoming is not extant:  

Why yes, dear Jean, your character—as I saw—had indeed softened, but the other day, it seemed to have hardened (temporarily only, I think) toward Anna & the others, on account of what you regarded as unjust conduct toward you. But I did not seem to blame & reproach you, did I? I could not mean that; in my heart I have no reproaches for you, but only mournings for your unearned estate.

January 17 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Julia Langdon Loomis.

Julie dear, I wrote you a day or 2 ago, but I don’t remember what I said because I was sober at the time. But this not is to say—to-wit: The next Doe-Luncheon will happen at the above address on Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 1 p.m. You are hereby invited. Don’t fail to come, dear.

[in left margin] Not one declined before! [MTP].

Sam also wrote to the Other Depositors of the Knickerbocker Trust Co..

January 17-20 Sunday – In N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote instructions from Sam to write to an unidentified man: “Write Mauritius man & say it isn’t Mr. Clemens’ story but it couldn’t be any better if it bore his trademark” [MTP].

January 18 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Today Santissima’s beautiful black cat Bambino arrived. Katie brought it down in a cab. A patient in Santissima’s sanitarium cannot stand cats and she is to be there for a fortnight. It is Mr. Dana’s birthday” [MTP: TS 38]. Isabel Lyon’s journal# 2: “Mr. Clemens took more cold when he sat in the Study yesterday, and today he is not so well” [MTP TS 2].

January 18 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to the Jan. 3 of Margaret Christensen.

“Dear Madam: /I thank you gratefully for your welcome letter, which has deeply touched me. Nothing could be more gratifying to me than to know that my dear lost wife’s beautiful character has spoken to you from the grave & that you have treasured the message” [MTP]. Note: From Brooklyn.

January 18 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  “King is really ill today” [MTP: IVL TS 10]. Note: bronchitis.  

In the afternoon Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833-1908) died of a heart attack in his NYC apartment. He was 74 [NY Times Jan 19, 1908, p. 1, “E.C. Stedman Dies of Heart Disease.”]

At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to a reporter from the N.Y. Times, who solicited his response to the news of Stedman’s death. Sam’s dictated response ran in the Jan. 19 paper.

MARK TWAIN STUNNED.

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January 19 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave. Jean Clemens wrote for her father to Anne Sullivan.

My dear Miss Sullivan; / As Father is still ill in bed with gout he cannot write you himself and has therefor asked me to do so for him.

He was of course very much pleased to hear of your happy engagement, especially so as he once met M Macy, at Mrs. Hutton’s, I believe.

January 19 Saturday – The Hope-Jones Organ Co. was incorporated in Elmira, New York, with capital stock of $250,000 in 750 shares of 7% cumulative preferred shares and 1500 shares of common stock, all in $100 shares. The three directors: John Brand, J. Sloat Fassett, and Robert Hope-Jones. Jervis Langdon II was president and treasurer, and Hope-Jones vice- president. Jervis’ Uncle Sam Clemens subscribed to $5,000 worth, payable over time on “calls,” as did Edward E.

January 19 Sunday – In the morning Dr. Edward Quintard checked on Sam’s condition again, noting that he was “no worse” [NY Times Jan. 20, 1908, p.9 “Mark Twain No Worse”].

The New York Times, Jan. 18, 1908, ran a squib under “City Brevities” p.9:

January – In N.Y.C. Sam spent the last part of December and all of January in bed, recovering from another case of bronchitis, followed by attacks of gout in his feet [Jan. 8 Lyon to Whitmore; Jan. 25 to Crane].

Sam wrote to the International Plasmon Co., London

January – James Logan (1852-1929) mayor of Worcester, Mass (1908-1911) wrote to Sam, sending him a translation of Omar Kayyam by Eben Francis Thompson [MTP] Inscriptions: the portrait of E. F. Thompson is signed “Faithfully yours” by Thompson. Volume is inscribed: “To ‘Mark Twain’/Please accept this book as a partial payment on account for the many happy hours and hearty laughs which you have given me. With kind regards/faithfully yours/James Logan./Worcester, Mass.,/Jany. 1907.” Volume also signed: “SL. Clemens/1907.” Note: See Feb.

January – “Extract from Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven” first appeared in two installments in Harper’s Monthly for Dec. 1907 and for Jan. 1908. It was published by Harper as a book in Oct. 1909 as Extract from Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven.  Budd points out that Twain worked on various versions of the story at multiple times—in 1869, 1870, 1873, 1878, 1881, 1883, and 1893 [Budd Collected 2: 1013].

January 2 Monday Sam’s notebook: contains an aphorism circled, followed by a list of things to do lined through as if completed:

January 2 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

January 2 Thursday – The New York Times, p. 9 ran this brief squib of an upcoming gathering:

Lotos Club Dinner to Mark Twain

A jollification dinner is announced at the Lotos Club on Jan. 11. Mark Twain is to be the guest of the evening.

Isabel Lyon’s journal:  Loose jointed & weary I am in bed all day. Not doing much thinking— not doing any work but reading Daniel Deronda with greater delight than ever.

January 20 Friday – Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Koy-Lo Co.letterhead to Sam, concerning ongoing disputes with Howard E. Wright and the American Plasmon Co. “The other day, I came across the card of admission issued by Hammond to Butters in connection with the ‘freeze-out’ game. I enclose it” [MTP].

January 20 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

January 20 Monday – The New York Times, p. 9 reported on Sam’s health, as “No Worse”:

MARK TWAIN NO WORSE

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But Still In Bed Nursing His Cold—To Go to Bermuda Soon.

There was at least one sore man in the city yesterday, and he was sore in two places at once—in his chest and in his mind. The man was Samuel L. Clemens, whom almost everybody knows best as “Mark Twain.”

January 21 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Mr. Clemens got into the big grey mobile with Mr. Clinton at 12 o’clock and away they went for luncheon. The day is very lovely—just the sort for motoring, for we’re having a warm wave, too warm but good for motoring.