July 10 Wednesday – Ashcroft’s notes: “Went to Liverpool with Tay Pay. Attended banquet in the Town Hall in the evening” [MTB 1399]. Note: “Tay Pay” was T.P. O’Connor.
Insert Cartoon. Caption: “Mark Twain and the Jumping John Bull Frog have been having a good time together” [The Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury, July 9, 1907, p. 9].
The Evening Standard and London St. James’s Gazette reported on Sam’s departure for Liverpool.
MARK TWAIN
July 11 Thursday – Ashcroft’s notes: “Returned to London with Tay Pay. Calls in the afternoon” [MTB 1399].
In Liverpool, England Sam sent a telegram to Henry Rawcliffe Kirkland in West Kirby, England:
“Very very sorry not to have seen you please accept my cordial thanks for your kind letter and my hearty wish for renewed health and strength for you / Mark Twain” [MTP].
July 12 Friday – At Brown’s Hotel in London Sam wrote to daughter Clara, a letter which reveals his activities this final day in England:
Clärchen dear, we sail tomorrow in the Minnetonka (I think.) We are due to arrive in 8 or 9 days.
I have been most mannerly & etiquetical. I have returned every call—card-calls by card, delivered by myself; personal calls in person.
July 13 Saturday – The Pall Mall Gazette, announced the leaving of Mark Twain.
July 14 Sunday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka. This from a Mark Twain dispatch to the NY Times from London, July 17: “Left the Channel Sunday at 1:50 in doubtful weather and sighted the Scilly Islands ten miles off. At 6 o’clock ran into a dense fog, which broke into patches during the night” [July 18, p.4, “From Twain by Wireless”].
Harry E. Brittain wrote from Westminster to send Sam a photo that appeared in the Sphere; he asked Ashcroft if he could obtain Sam’s autograph on the photo [MTP].
July 15 Monday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka. The ship struck a small French bark, the Sterling on this day. New York Tribune, July 20, p.7:
Steamer Minnetonka, at sea, July 20.
July 16 Tuesday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka.
Cooley writes of the time aboard ship and of a new acquaintance made with one of the younger of 129 passengers during the voyage, likely early on:
July 17 Wednesday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka. Sam came down with another case of bronchitis on this day [July 29 to Rogers].
John Briggs, Hannibal boyhood pal, died near New London, Mo. (1837-1907) see entries Vol 1.
July 18 Thursday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka. Sam inscribed a first English edition copy of AC: “Truly Yours / SL. Clemens / (Mark Twain) / July 18/07” [Christie’s London, 1 June 2009, Lot 203, Sale 5822]. Note: at an angle under Sam’s inscription are three more signatures: Mrs. J. Ian Ansdsale, Josephine Watts, and Herbert Percy, likely shipmates on the voyage over.
July 19 Friday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka.
July 20 Saturday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka. The traditional last night at sea benefit program was held for the Seaman’s fund, though when it fell on a Sunday such programs were likely moved to Saturday. Fatout gives this day for the program and concert and writes that Sam spoke for an hour, including the “sock-hunting” story [MT Speaking 678]. Dorothy Quick had given her “permission” as Mark Twain’s “business manager” for him to take part (see July 16 from Cooley).
July 21 Sunday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka.
London Evening World sent a telegram to Sam: “How do you feel approaching the land of the free after your pleasant experience with royalty and the nobility please answer our expense” [MTP].
Sydney Layland wrote from the S.S. Minnetonka at sea to thank Sam for his book and program with signature [MTP].
July 22 Monday – On the S.S. Minnetonka en route to New York City, Sam wrote an aphorism for Robert M. Curtis: “Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economise it. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / July 22/07.” [MTP].
The Minnetonka reached New York in the afternoon. The New York Times reported his arrival:
MARK TWAIN HOME IN GOOD HUMOR
Had Dinner with the King and Is Sure That the King Enjoyed It.
——— ——— ———
HE’S DR. CLEMENS, PLEASE
July 23 Tuesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Butes at the Hotel Webster.
Your letter has arrived to night. Tried to telephone you but you are out. To-day mailed letter to you in New Hampshire. I have engagement here tomorrow or would go and see you. Please telephone me here first thing in the morning. Call 113 Tuxedo. I am unspeakably sorry you are going without seeing you. If I had known you were in town I would have called last night [MTAq 46].
July 24 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: The King is lonely and so we make calls in the afternoons, but mostly people are out. We did see Mrs. Davies and Mrs. Ogden who gave us iced coffee and the King sat on their beautiful terrace and told about the Punch Dinner and the King’s Garden Party, and those 2 ladies were very sweet and worshipful, Mrs. Davies was a little flustered when she glanced up at her window to see her undershirt hung on some kind of a wire and swinging cheerfully at us [MTP 86].
July 25 Thursday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote a note on a small card to Dorothy Butes, who was sailing: “Miss Dorothy BUTES / Steamer CELTIC. / Goodbye you dear child, and a happy voyage.” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the verso, “The King was heart sick to have Dorothy sail away for England.” In her journal entry below, Lyon referred to the above message to Butes as a “wireless.” Likely this card survives but the telegram does not.
July 26 Friday – Jean Clemens’ 27th birthday. Clemens A.D. for this day is listed by MTP.
Dr. Edward C. Rushmore attended to Sam; his bronchitis had worsened the day before upon reaching Tuxedo Park.
In Tuxedo Park, N.Y., Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Charles M. Fairbanks and Pauline M. Fairbanks in Brooklyn. Sam was home now and was “overwhelmed with mail,” and asked Isabel to write thanks for their message of welcome home [MTP].
July 27 Saturday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Clara at the Hotel Victoria, Boston.
Clara dear, Clara very dear, I am in bed with a bronchitis caught in mid-ocean, but am not going to stay in bed after to-day. Nein, I will get up & sail for Bermuda next Thursday, & take Colonel Harvey along for courier, if I can’t shake off the cough in the meantime.
July 28 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Tino [ABP]. King is bed with bronchitis and cancelling a luncheon with Mrs. Wolfe and tea with Mrs. Kane. AB and I worked over old letters, until we were limp. Long after midnight there was a thundering rumble of the King’s voice and a slam of a door and some good swears and there hadn’t been a thing in the King’s room. “No whiskey, no towels, no soap, no water.” and it was fine to hear him swear around and wake up everybody in the house. Oh, he’s a darling King.
July 29 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to George Parsons, Mayor of Cairo, Illinois.
I thank you heartily for the high compliment of the invitation, & I would accept it at once if I could make the trip in a ship, but as that is not possible I am obliged to decline it. To me a land journey is the perfection of discomfort, & I am not expecting to try another one until I go in a hearse. A hearse with rubber tires, too, or I cancel the excursion. I hope you will have a good time: indeed I am able to predict that you will [MTP].
July 30 Tuesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y., Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote for Sam to Bowring & Co., N.Y.C., asking for $80 for the unused portion of the steamship Rosalind tickets by Clara Clemens and Isabel Lyon on the recently aborted trip to St. John [MTP]. Note: See July 1 entry.
July 31 Wednesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam sent a telegram to Miss Dorothy Quick at the Turell Inn, Plainfield, N.J.: “Letter for you at your Inn I sent it several days ago. / S.L. Clemens” [MTP].
Dorothy Quick wrote from the Truell Inn, Plainfield, N.J. to Sam.
Late July and August – Sam’s A.D. sessions continued weekdays, for two or more hours each day. During this time, after his return from England, his dictations dealt almost exclusively with his time in England and Oxford [MTE 320-46].
August – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote his aphorism about honors deserved to E.M. Bowney [MTP: Philip C. Duschnes catalogs, No. 183, Item 98].
On a Wednesday of this month in Tuxedo Park, N.Y., Sam wrote to daughter Clara. “Oh, Clara dear, I am so sorry your surgery isn’t over, & so glad its is imminently next-door to it. I hope you will soon be complete & perfect. We are paying fine tribute when we spare Maggie to you, but we do it with love & without a pang. / With hugs & kisses & plenty of them / Father” [MTP].
August 1 Thursday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam replied to the July 15 of Joy Agnew, daughter of Phillip L. Agnew, editor in chief of Punch.
Unto you greeting & salutation & worship, you dear sweet little right-named Joy! I can see you now almost as vividly as I saw you that night when you sat flashing & beaming upon those sombre swallow-tails.
“Fair as a star when only one
Is shining in the sky.”