November 4 Monday – Thomas B. Doolittle wrote from Minneapolis, Minn. to Sam. “I wish that you would quit looking like me. It annoys me very much and besides, it appears by the enclosed anonymous verse that I am handsomer. / Yours truly” [MTP]. Note: clipping enclosed with Doolittle’s picture, “Inventor of Telephone Exchange Apparatus and Telephone Wire.” Also the picture of Twain on the Sunday Magazine, Record-Herald, Chicago.
November 6 Wednesday – William Dean Howells saw Sam often during the fall and early winter of 1907-08. “I am going down to see old Clemens this morning,” Howells wrote his wife on Nov. 6 [MTHL 2: 827].
Charles J. Langdon wrote enclosing a draft for $137.50 to Sam for payment of bonds from Duvall Co. Fla.
November 8 Friday – Clinton B. Fisk wrote from NYC to ask Sam when he might “confer… regarding a matter of theatrical literary return that may prove mutually to our profit” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd. Nov. 11, ‘07”
November 7 Thursday – James C. Barr wrote on Cunard Steamship Co. notepaper, while in port in NYC. Barr enclosed a letter to Clemens from John Japp, Lord Mayor of Liverpool, and though there’s been some delay in Japp getting the book Sam sent, Barr confirmed that Japp now had the book,[MTP].
Kate Douglas Riggs for the Literary Committee, Colony Club, NYC wrote to Sam not to “let anything happen to prevent your being the guest of honor at the Colony Club next Tuesday the 12th as you have agreed” [MTP].
November 9 Saturday – Captain James C. Barr sent a telegram from the SS Lucania to Sam: “Big fish landed / thanks it was. / Captain Barr” [MTP].
John Bigelow wrote from Highland Falls-on-Hudson to advise that though he was at an old age, he would be at the Educational Theatre with one of his daughters on the 19th, and please send the tickets to an address he furnished in Gramercy Park [MTP].
November 10 Sunday – Poultney Bigelow sent a postcard to Miss Lyon: “…accepts with delight for Tuesday Nov. 19th” [MTP].
John A. Joyce wrote from Washington, D.C.. Joyce broke down when reading in the NAR of Susy Clemens’ last words, because it brought the memory of his own daughter’s death 20 years before [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd. Nov. 13, ‘07”
J. Van Vechten Olcott wrote from NYC to thank Sam for letting him know what the Tribune supplement published this day [MTP].
November 11 Monday – Fatout lists a dinner speech for Sam at the Homeopathic Society, N.Y.C. but gives no particulars and none were found [MT Speaking 678].
Howard Kyle wrote on Players notepaper to ask Sam if he might bring a photo taken of Clemens in the Players Booth at the Actors Fund Fair last May, for his signature [MTP].
An unidentified person wrote to Sam (only the env. Survives; Sam wrote on it, “Invite the Laffans”) [MTP].
November 12 Tuesday – The New York Times, Nov. 13, p.9, “Reception to Mark Twain,”reported:
Reception to Mark Twain.
———
Author the Guest of Honor at the Colony Club.
The officers and members of the Colony Club gave a reception yesterday afternoon [Nov. 12] in honor of Mark Twain.
Mrs. J. Borden Harriman, the President of the club; Mrs. Richard Irving, and other club officers received.
November 14 Thursday – Sam took a walk up Fifth Ave. to 42nd Street. At 4 p.m. at the Church of the Ascension, Sam attended the wedding of Miss Marjorie Rice, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Clarence C. Rice, to Gordon Means of Boston [NY Times, Nov. 13, 1907, p. 9; Nov. 15 to Jean: Nov. 21 to Mary Rogers].
In the evening he played billiards till midnight [Nov. 15 to Jean].
November 15 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Katonah, N.Y.
November 16 Saturday – Alice Minnie Herts wrote to Miss Lyon the “final plan” for next Tuesday (19th) evening [MTP].
Julia Marlowe wrote on The Plaza, NYC notepaper to Sam. “I am eager you should see this reprint of an article by Arthur Symons which appeared in London…Do you not think it superbly written?” [MTP].
November 17 Sunday – Rudolphine Scheffer Ely wrote from NYC to Sam inviting him to the opening meeting of the Civic Forum on Wednesday, Nov. 20 [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Mr. Clemens has engagement”
H.E. Wallace, Jr. wrote from NYC a letter of appreciation for “Huck and Jim” [MTP].
C.C. White wrote from Milford, Mass. to Miss Lyon, touched by the NAR segment with the death of Susy [MTP].
November 18 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally.
November 19 Tuesday – Sam gave a curtain speech at the P&P performance by the Children’s Educational Theatre, directed by Alice Minnie Herts. The New York Times, Nov. 20, p.9, reported on the event:
UPTOWN AUDIENCE AT CHILDREN’S PLAY
Society Folk, as Mark Twain’s Guests, See “The Prince and the Pauper.”
——— ——— ———
HOST’S SPEECH CUT SHORT
Miss Herts, Founder of the Theatre, Says the Object is to Develop Latent Dramatic Talent.
November 20 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: A reporter from the Brooklyn Eagle has been here. / Frederick Boyd Stevenson. So far the best man to represent the press. Mr. Clemens was willing to see him [MTP TS 120]. Note: F.B. Stevenson (1859-1938) retired in 1930 after editing and writing a Sunday column, “Top of the News” for the Eagle. He was author of The Amalgamated Americans and a contributor to magazines of economics and political subjects. He specialized in national, international and civic affairs.
November 21 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam began a letter to Mary B. Rogers that he finished on Nov. 29.
Well, dear, you are a brilliant little rascal, & the flashes spurt up all along your sentence-wires, interval by interval, & if I had a mile-perspective on them I should think it was a trolley, blue- sparking its way down the distances——but
November 22 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote a short note to Kate D. Riggs. “It was a noble feed & a noble company, and you are a dear. Heaven bless you! / MARK” [MTP: Nora Archibald Smith, Kate Douglas Wiggin as Her Sister Knew Her, 1925 p.139]. See Rigg’s Nov. 24 reply.
November 23 Saturday – Hamilton W. Mabie’s article, “Mark Twain the Humorist,” ran in Outlook (NY), p. 648-53. Tenney: “A general, admiring discussion of the man and his works, generally uncritical though noting the ephemeral quality of some of his writing. On p. 648, full- page photograph of MT” [44].
Joseph B. Gilder for Putnam’s Monthly wrote to Miss Lyon about Sam sitting for a portrait [MTP].
November 24 Sunday – Mary L. Brady wrote to thank Sam for the P&P play; she also praised Mrs. Fry and Miss Herts [MTP].
Richard Conried wrote from NYC to ask to include Clemens’ name on the list of patrons for their Jan. 7 Benefit Entertainment, Manhattan Trade School for Girls [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Use the name”
Kate Douglas Riggs wrote a verse in reply to Sam’s thanks for the “noble feed & noble company” note of Nov. 22 [MTP]. Note: see the poem in MTJ, 21:3 (Spring, 1983).
November 25 Monday – Julia Barnett Rice for the Society of Suppression of Noise wrote to Sam: “Dear Mr. Clemens / We both thank you—the small boy and I. /Gratefully yours…” [MTP]. Note: Rice was crusading against fireworks that injured and killed many small boys each July.
November 26 Tuesday – Nelle R. Eberhart, Oscar Eberhart, Charles Wakefield Codman, and Blanche K. Knowlton wrote from Homestead Pa. to Editors of Harper’s. “We have just finished reading ‘Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven.’ / Give us more on the same plan. We have been reading advanced thought for fifteen years and rarely find much that is congenial in the magazines” [MTP].
John H. Johnston wrote to Sam.
November 27 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam sent a telegram to Frances Nunnally, at St. Timothy’s School, Catonsville, Md: “I HOPE YOUR TEAM WILL WIN FRANCESCA DEAR I COULD NOT GO TO BOSTON” / SL CLEMENS” [MTP].
Sam also sent a telegram to Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Warfield, Governor of Maryland: “BEST THANKSGIVING WISHES TO YOU ALL, BY NO MEANS FORGETTING MISS LOUISE” [MTP].
November 28 Thursday – Thanksgiving – Sam lunched at H.H. Roger’s home where he likely saw Mary B. Rogers, and thought her “very delightful” [Nov. 29 to Mary Rogers; Dec. 1 to Jean]. He dined out in the evening and returned home at 11 p.m., with a neighbor (unspecified), played billiards until 4 a.m.
Helen Campbell wrote from Camden, NJ to beg a loan of $500 from Sam [MTP].
November 29 Friday – Sam finished his Nov. 21 to Mary B. Rogers.
Mariechen, I didn’t say sins, I said it covered a multitude of charms. And it is perfectly true. I wish you wouldn’t be always misquoting me & discouraging all my attempts to learn how to be veracious. For I do so want to learn how, dear.
I don’t know where you are but I am guessing that you are in Tuxedo. You were very delightful yesterday./ Affectionately / Your Uncle Mark [MTP].
November 30 Saturday – Sam’s 72nd Birthday. The New York Times, Dec. 1, p. 1, “Mark Twain 72” reported “Hundreds of congratulatory letters and telegrams were received during the day from points all over the world. Many friends called a the house to congratulate him.”
In N.Y.C. Sam inscribed an aphorism in a copy of Eve’s Diary to an unidentified person: “With the love of the Author. November 30, 1907. Clothes make the man, but they do not improve the Woman, Truly yours, Mark Twain.” [MTP].