May 17 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mr. Clemens reads poetry to Jean & me every evening. Such reading it is. There never was anyone to read so beautifully before & to charm you so & hurt you so” [MTP TS 72].
21 Fifth Ave - Day By Day
May 17 Friday – Harry Windsor Dearborn, Asst. Secretary of The Robert Fulton Monument Assoc. wrote to thank Sam for “a pleasant afternoon” and gave more information on the Sept. 23 Jamestown Expo. [MTP].
John Mead Howells wrote to Sam with bills by Harry A. Lounsbury, dated Apr. 27, May 4 and May 11, totaling $297.37 for the use of men and teams in the construction of the Redding house [MTP].
May 17 Sunday – Dorothy Sturgis wrote to Sam.
Dear Mr. Clemens.
You are indeed a most noted personage if a letter will reach you without any address on it at all. But do tell me why it went to Hartford, did you ever live there?
I saw a lovely article about you in the Transcript the other day, headed
May 18 Thursday – Sam left Boston early in the morning and traveled 64 miles to Dublin, N.H., where Katy Leary, Patrick McAleer, daughter Jean and Isabel Lyon were waiting to spend the summer with him [May 17 to Aldriches].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Today Mr. Clemens arrived.
Today the sun burst through the clouds just after the telegram came saying that he would arrive in Harrisville at 11:35.
May 18 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers. I am lying fallow here, all these days, & drowsing & resting. Life begins to stir in me at last, but I’ve no use for it yet, for my stenographer is delayed & I can’t begin work until 3 days hence.
May 18 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “C.C. returned to N.Y. and AB arrived, much talk” [MTP TS 57].
Harper’s Weekly ran a full page photo of Mark Twain in his white suit, with the caption, “Clothes and the Man” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide First Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1977 p. 334].
May 18 Monday – Dorothy Quick ended her weekend visit and left for home in the late afternoon [May 19 to Allen].
Howells & Stokes wrote to advise Sam the cost of bookcases on drawing #45 would be $267
Elizabeth Jordan wrote to Lyon (though catalogued to Clemens). She was delighted he would come if in town [MTP].
Robert Mountsier for Univ. of Michigan Students Lecture Assoc. wrote to invite Sam to lecture sometime during the coming year [MTP].
May 19 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to the May 2 from Lady Margaret Jenkins in England.
Dear Madam: / M . Clemens directs me to write for him explaining that he is not feeling well enough to do so himself, owing to the results of his great anxiety caused by the recent critical illness of his eldest daughter.
M . Clemens is not going to England this year; but he wishes me to thank you very much for your kind letter, and to convey to you his sincere regards [MTP].
May 19 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Orchestrelle put up today. / Mr. Paine & Miss Hobby are to arrive today” [MTP TS 72]. Note: the Aeolian Co. disassembled, shipped, and reassembled the Orchestrelle, from NY to Dublin, and returned it to NY after the season. The arrival of the biographer and stenographer on May 20 means Clemens did not dictate for his autobiography until Monday, May 21.
May 19 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Much talk, tea down at the club. Oh, so stupid” [MTP TS 57].
May 19 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Helen S. Allen in Hamilton, Bermuda.
I am so sorry, you dear child! You must be pretty desolate, now, with so many of your pets gone. I hope the disaster will not spoil the fancy dress dance for you.
May – Sam gave his autograph to an unidentified person: “Very Truly Yours / SL. Clemens / (Mark Twain) / May/05.” [MTP].
May – Poultney Bigelow wrote a short note to Sam from Malden, N.Y.. “Bless you—best of Sublunary Benefactors—long years to you—full years—happy years for the sake of your fellow humans” [MTP].
Human Life published “Mark Twain—Dean of Our Humorists,” by William A. Graham, p. 1- 2. Tenney: “A popular, appreciative account, chiefly of the Hartford years. Mentions conversations with MT and hearing him speak at a Thanksgiving-Day dinner at the YMCA in 1888 o 1889” [“A Reference Guide Third Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1979 p. 190].
Human Life published “Mark Twain—Dean of Our Humorists,” by William A. Graham, p. 1- 2. Tenney: “A popular, appreciative account, chiefly of the Hartford years. Mentions conversations with MT and hearing him speak at a Thanksgiving-Day dinner at the YMCA in 1888 o 1889” [“A Reference Guide Third Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1979 p. 190].
May – Edward A. Kimball’s article, “Mark Twain, Mrs. Eddy, and Christian Science,” ran in Cosmopolitan, p. 35-41. Tenney: “A reply to MT’s Christian Science by ‘a prominent Christian Science author’” [44].
May – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam inscribed a copy of LM to an unidentified person: “Mark Twain /. I published this book at my own expense, as an experiment in economy. It cost me fifty-six thousand dollars before the first copy issued from the press. / SLC / May, 1908.”
Sam discussed The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine (1737-1809) with Albert Bigelow Paine, who quotes Twain:
May 2 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Mr. Duneka, Maj. Leigh and Mr. Larkin dined here with Mr. Clemens. Mr. Clemens had a splendid working day. Mother and I dined at Cecchina’s and it was pleasant. The people were quite interesting.
Just before dinner this evening when I followed Mr. Clemens down the stairs, his head was more beautiful than ever, in its living luminous golden silver. It is a golden silver, for there is such a wondrous light in it, a light that white hair never has [MTP: TS 55].
Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: Treatment. Paid
May 2 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edith Elsie Baker about the Actors’ Fund Fair flap:
I am back from the South, & find your letter which has given me deep & unqualified pleasure.
May 2 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Headache. So ill all day, for I wept without control for hours last night, because I was exhausted, and the fact that Santa [Clara] misunderstood all my efforts, in working over the house. My anxiety over the finishings, my interest in my search for the right thing for the King’s house has all been misinterpreted, and the child says I am trying to ignore her. All my effort has been to please her, to keep her from the dreary search of hours and hours to find the right thing, or shape or color.
May 20 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara, still in N.Y.C. recovering from an appendectomy.
dear, to get a letter from you was a happy surprise; I was not expecting so dear & rich a benefaction.
May 20 Sunday – On or after this date in Dublin, N.H., Sam replied to Roi Cooper Megrue’s May 19:
May 20 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: King and I went to town on the 11:50. AB left earlier on the 8:30. King and I lunched at The Brevoort, lamb stew and beer, and such a good luncheon he found it. He dined at a David Munro Dinner at the Players for Col. Harvey who sails for England on Wednesday. In the afternoon we ran around to Martiging’s Studio to see the model for the Fulton Memorial. It is beautiful [MTP TS 57-58].
Charlotte Teller Johnson wrote on “The Broztell” stationery, NYC to Sam. In part:
Image
May 20 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y.
May 21 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Mr. Clemens spends too much time over his work. Hours & hours & hours he sits writing with a wonderful light in his eyes. The flush of a girl in his cheeks and oh the lustre of his hair. It is too terribly perishably beautiful. It is no wonder that his tread is light as a spirit’s, for the great power of his brain seems to draw him up and to give him his delicacy of step [MTP TS 59].
May 21 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam began dictating again for his Autobiography [MTHHR 607n1]. Sam’s A.D. of this day, “The Jumping Frog” gives a short history of the famous frog tale; it was selected for MTE [143-48].
Clemens’ A.D. for the day: Early experiences as an author—Publishing of “The Jumping Frog” in volume of sketches—Meeting George W. Carleton in Luzerno. His apology for having refused to publish Clemens’ book of sketches. Difficulties attending the bringing out of “The Innocents Abroad” [MTP Autodict2].
Clemens’ A.D. for the day: Early experiences as an author—Publishing of “The Jumping Frog” in volume of sketches—Meeting George W. Carleton in Luzerno. His apology for having refused to publish Clemens’ book of sketches. Difficulties attending the bringing out of “The Innocents Abroad” [MTP Autodict2].
May 21 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Today the King went to see Jean, making a day of it and came home weary at 7 o’clock. He had a talk with Dr. Sharp who said that only physicians know that the present Czar is an epileptic; people would pity him more if they knew of his terrible malady [MTP TS 58].
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