September 16 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Jean, 10:30—porch. 2 weeks & 2 days.
A dreadful kind of day, for Jean would not let me out of her sight. We tried to walk a little but she was not equal to it. Then I dressed up in a clown costume to cheer her up & then she began to read “Kim” aloud to me. But it was a dreadful kind of a day, for she couldn’t keep it up [MTP TS 120].
September 17 Monday – Sam, likely in Fairhaven, Mass., inscribed a picture of a house to an unidentified person. “No, it is too stylish, it is not my birthplace” [MTP: MS facsimile: Paine’s 1912 Mark Twain: A Biography].
September 18 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
AB came back today, came back tired & brought me “Madame Butterfly”. He’s a thoughtful creature. I was so glad to see him—so very glad for when the King is away the loneliness of this place can be screaming, because I’m not alone. I can endure myself. It’s the rest of the world that chokes me so—a certain spirit world that is disastrous to me [MTP TS 120-121].
September 19 Wednesday – Sam left Fairhaven, Mass. on the Kanawha for New York City. On board he read 10,000 words of Charlotte Teller Johnson’s play [Sept. 20 to Lyon].
In the evening Sam spoke at the Associated Press Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in N.Y.C. The NewYork Times, Sept. 20, p. 4 reported on the event:
SPELLING AND PICTURES AND TWAIN AT DINNER
The Associated Press Men Hear a Plea for Phonetic Forms.
September 20 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Isabel V. Lyon in Dublin, N.H.
Clara & I have just come in from dinner at the Grosvenor, & I am gone to bed.
Day before yesterday I told Mrs. Johnson frankly & in detail our judgment of the Joan play, & she took it in good part.
Yesterday on the yacht I read 10,000 words of the story, & to-day I read 10,000 more—both batches with great admiration & continuous & strong interest.
September 21 Friday – In N.Y.C. Sam began a letter to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.) that he added to after reaching Norfolk, Conn. Sept. 22, where he finished it on Sept. 23. Daughter Clara was to make her American debut as a concert singer in Norfolk on Sept. 22.
[first page of letter written between typewritten lines of letter to SLC from W. M. Vanderweyde:]
September 22 Saturday – At 3 p.m. in Norfolk, Conn. Sam added to his Sept. 21 to Mary B. Rogers. Norfolk, 3 p.m., 22
I have gone to bed—as usual. It is to be hope that you are in bed, too, & that last night’s hilarious late hours & this morning’s murderously early ones have not broken you down utterly & condemned you to Norfolk again. I had a marvelously narrow escape from death coming up in the train.
===
September 23 Sunday – In Norfolk, Conn. at midnight, Sam added to his Sept. 21 and 22 letter to Mary B. Rogers.
Midnight. It’s over!,
Sack, it was a distinct triumph!—an unqualified triumph—a triumph without any alloying doubts hanging about it—a beautiful, & blood-stirring, & spirit-satisfying triumph; & I would rather have lost one of my ear than missed it, & I would have contributed the other one to have you there.
September 24 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Charlotte Teller Johnson.
September 25 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Isabel V. Lyon, with a humorous end note to daughter Jean, in Dublin, N.H.
About 10 last night Clara took the alarm & fled to the sanitarium in 69 street. It was because the tearing up of the avenue made such a pounding racket. I hope she will stay there—for two reasons. Miss Gordon is good company for her, & there’s none here; & up there she is close to Luckstone.
September 26 Wednesday – NYC: Sam inscribed a photograph of himself sitting up in bed to Katy Leary: “It is your human environment that makes the climate. To Katy Leary, with the affectionate regards of her friend. / Mark Twain / Sept 26/06” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Petit mal all day. / I got up to lie out in the sunshine with a piteously aching & suffering & quivering spine. AB came out with the mail & he took a lot of it away to dictate answers to Miss Hobby” [MTP TS 122].
September 27 Thursday – In the evening at 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Ralph W. Ashcroft.
The Colonel [Harvey] has just gone. I expected he would not be willing that any but Harpers should issue the brochure, & he wasn’t.
He wants to put the 7 [photographs on being good] in the Xmas Weekly—a huge & elaborate number—& says he can print them perfectly; so I told him to go ahead. Miss Lyon is suffering a severe nervous collapse [MTP].
September 28 Friday – About this day Sam went to Fairhaven, Mass. for the weekend. His Oct. 2 to Clara reveals he left Fairhaven for Dublin on Oct. 1.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Jean, 1:30 and 6:00 on porch.
September 29 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
I have had to ask Mr. Clemens to come back on Monday.
September 30 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
October – Sam inscribed an aphorism in a copy of P&P to an unidentified person: “On the whole it is better to deserve honors & not have them, than have them & not deserve them. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / Oct/06” [MTP].
Sam also sent a signed aphorism on an octavo sheet to an unidentified person: “Taking the pledge will not make bad liquor good, but will improve it” [MTP].
October 1 Monday – Sam left Fairhaven, Mass. and returned to Dublin, N.H. at 8 p.m. He replied to the Sept. 30 of Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
October 2 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam began a letter to daughter Clara that he finished Oct. 3.
Clara dear, perhaps you thought I couldn’t leave my niece, Mary Rogers, but I did it. I came away from Fairhaven yesterday. Everything is going well here, except that Miss Lyon is still feeble & has to go carefully & not over-exert herself. But she is up & around, comes to meals, chats, laughs, plays the orchestrelle a little, & signs checks. I believe she will soon be quite well.
October 3 Wednesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam finished his Oct. 3 to daughter Clara, in care of John Walker, 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. 6, a.m., Wednesday.
Take my bedroom—you will never hear a hoof-click there. And keep it, permanently, if your own room is big enough for a billiard room. I hope it is, & I feel sure it is. I think I know it is.
I must telegraph you this to-day, dear [MTP].
Sam also replied to the Sept. 27 from Brander Matthews.
October 4 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to the Sept. 27 from Anne W. Stockbridge.
Dear Miss Stockbridge (if she really exists):
257 Benefit Street (if there is any such place)
Yes, I should like a copy of that other letter. This whole fake is delightful, & I tremble with fear that you are a fake yourself & that I am your guileless prey. (But never mind, it isn’t any matter) Now as to publication. I shall be going home to New York 8 days hence— 21 Fifth Avenue
October 5 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to the Oct. 3 from (Harold) Witter Bynner, supporting Bynner’s decision to devote himself to poetry.
Dear Poet: / You have certainly done right—for several good reasons; at least, of them, I can name two: 1. With your reputation you can have your freedom & yet earn your living: if you fall short of succeeding to your wish, your reputation will provide you another job. And so, in high approval I suppress the scolding & give you the saintly & fatherly pat instead.
October 6 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
All day, wind & rain.
With the afternoon mail came a letter from AB to the King—a love letter & the most beautiful love letter ever written. The King was deeply moved as he read it & when he called me in from my study his voice was shaking as he said, “Superb, superb! and worth waiting 70 years for.” He gave me the letter to read & it made me weep, even as he had wept. I didn’t know A.B. could write so exquisitely.
October 7 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
It’s night now & I’ve just come to my room. The King called a minute ago & when I went to my door to see what he wanted, he stood in his own doorway & with gritting teeth said, “I wish you’d gather together my bobtailed flannel night shirts & burn them! I wish they were all in hell! I hate them so!”
He has been giving us a lovely evening, for he has been reading poetry for more than an hour— the old English ballads, & war poems
October 8 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
The King is filled with the idea of defying conventionalities & wearing his suitable white clothes all winter, so he has bidden me order 5 new suits from his tailor; the suits to be ready against the time we arrive in N.Y. He was a creature of inspiration today even to his toe tips. He was a lambent spirit, & the dictating was beautiful. I sat in the study, writing some, but listening most; & drawing checks.
October 9 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara, in care of John Walker,
Clara dear I hope you are sleeping well, now, & without the help of drugs. Certainly broken sleep is a bad thing. I have suffered from it several times lately. Twice it has cost me my day’s work. This morning it took me half an hour to dictate a dozen sentences—then I gave it up. A day or two ago I had the like experience.