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.
———
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 20 Monday – The New York Times, p. 9 reported on Sam’s health, as “No Worse”:
MARK TWAIN NO WORSE
———
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 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally.
Francesca dear
I wish you were here
And had 2 weeks to spare. Then I would pack you & Miss Lyon aboard ship & sail for Bermuda Saturday. Now you see what you are robbing her of—& she needs that trip very much. I shall take nobody but Ashcroft—yet he hasn’t any use for a voyage.
You are going to spend those ten Easter days here, aren’t you, dear? We’ll come to Catonville & fetch you.
January 22 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Andrew Carnegie.
Dear St. Andrew:
I have had to decline this mission a couple of times in the past year or two, & the most I can do now is to forward the letter—which I do, & leave it to take its chances.
That whisky came very handy. I had a very wild & exasperating cold, but a pint of the whisky tamed it in 3 minutes by the watch & I did not wake up again for ten hours.
January 22-25? Saturday – In N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Capt. Frazier.
Dear Capt Frazier
By Mr. Clemens’s direction I write to say that Mr. Chas J. Langdon is his brother in law, & he hopes that you will arrange the weather in such a way as to make it as pleasant for Mr. Langdon as possible, & when the opportunity offers, Mr. Clemens will be glad to reciprocate in kind [MTP].
January 23 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote his aphorism about honors, deserved and not deserved, to Miss Eulabee Dix [MTP]. Note: Eulabee Dix (1878-1961), American artist who painted watercolors on ivory for miniature works of art. Born in Illinois, Dix moved to NYC in 1899 and studied under various artists. She did commissions for well known persons, including Ethel Barrymore. In 1908 Dix did the last painting of Mark Twain from real life. Note the Oxford gown in insert of miniature: It is now in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institute.
January 24 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to the Jan. 16 from Elinor Sutherlin Glyn. The letter below was Sam’s protest of the publication by Glyn of a pamphlet (Mark Twain on Three Weeks) which included a purported verbatim account of a conversation between the two discussing Glyn’s novel, Three Weeks (1907), which had shocked sensibilities (and gained many sales) for it’s unabashed account of an adulterous relationship.
January 25 Saturday – Sam left for Bermuda on the Bermudian. The New York Times, Jan. 26, p. 4 noted his departure and added:
“Mr. Clemens has been ill at his home for some days, and when he arrived at the vessel went direct to his stateroom and did not emerge while the vessel was at her pier. He was ordered south by his physician because of an attack of laryngitis.”
January 26 Sunday – After traversing stormy seas, the Bermudian docked in Hamilton Harbor, Bermuda in the morning [D. Hoffman 89]. Note: The passage took 45 hours; Sam left shortly after a ten-inch snowstorm in NYC [A.D. of Feb. 12].
Woodrow Wilson, at that time President of Princeton, arrived in Bermuda on Jan. 20, and wrote his wife, Ellen Axson Wilson on Jan. 26:
January 26 to February 2, 1908
January 26 to February 2 –– Sometime during the short stay in Bermuda, Sam traveled to Somerset to see 29-year-old Upton Sinclair, who had arrived on the island on Dec. 20, 1907 for a six-month stay. In 1906 Sinclair sent a copy of his best-known book, The Jungle, to Clemens (see Gribben 644). At this time Sinclair was collaborating with fellow socialist Michael Williams on a book about health. The Royal Gazette of Feb. 8 reported on Sam’s trip to Somerset. D. Hoffman writes, quoting the Gazette:
January 27 Monday – At the Princess Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to daughter Clara .
Clara dear, we arrived early this morning, after a voyage which began in good form but soon degenerated into storm and turmoil.
January 28 Tuesday – Elisabeth Marbury wrote to bug Miss Lyon to return the contract with John W. Postgate ASAP [MTP].
January 29 Wednesday – M. Howard wrote from Richmond, Ind. to Sam, having been “very much entertained” by CS. He disagreed that Christian Science would spread over the world and mentioned past religious fanatical women whose movements failed [MTP].
Homer Saint-Gaudens wrote from Windsor, Vt. on “Estate of Augustus Saint-Gaudens” letterhead to ask Sam for any letters to his late father. He was planning a book and added:
January 30 Thursday – Capt. John W. Crawford, “The Poet Scout” (1847-1917) wrote to Sam, enclosing a poem “To Mark Twain,” and two printed sheets, one picturing Crawford in a Buffalo-Bill-like outfit, and the other “Poems and Songs of the Poet Scout.” He also enclosed two post-card sized copies of a poem “A Sunshine Boomerang,” and the following note:
January 31 Friday – Sam was in Bermuda.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Such a delightful two letters from Ashcroft about the King & his journey down to Bermuda” [MTP: IVL TS 17].
John W. Crawford wrote on Hoffman House, NY notepaper to Miss Lyon after learning Clemens was gone to Bermuda. He asked if she might make sure Sam saw his Broncho Verse and asked for an autograph [MTP].
February – Clemens signed his copy of Collected Verse of Rudyard Kipling (1907): “SL. Clemens / Feb. ’08 / from Doubleday” [Gribben 376]. Note: Sam would read from the volume in Bermuda in March.
February 1 Saturday – Sam was in Bermuda.
February 2 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Stevenson makes Gilbert in Urir falter mislon say he’d ‘had great gale of prayer upon my spirit’—& it’s a perfect expression” [MTP: IVL TS 17].
James D. Macnab wrote on Plainfield High School, NJ notepaper to ask Sam “the title of the composition and its location which contains the rhyme: ‘Punch, brother, punch, punch with care” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd. Feb. 5, ‘08”
February 3 Monday – Sam left Bermuda on the S.S. Bermudian [D. Hoffman 100].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Homer Saint-Gaudens has written to ask if the King has any of his father’s letters, & there are some” [MTP: IVL TS 17].
Gertrude W. Arnold wrote to Sam (not found at MTP).
February 4 Tuesday – William Dean Howells, in Rome, replied to Sam’s Jan. 22:
February 5 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mother & I went to see Margaret Illington [Frohman] in The Thief. She was very fine & we went to talk to the dear impulsive creature after the play. Dan Frohman tried to find a cab for us, for ours didn’t stay for us & so we had to get home by trams in a driving snow storm” [MTP: IVL TS 17].
February 6 Thursday – In the evening, the S.S. Bermudian arrived in N.Y.C. with Sam and Ashcroft [Feb. 8 to Nunnally].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The Bermudian is just slipping up along side the dock” (here at 8:15) and “the gang plank will be laid in minute” the man at the telephone at Pier 47 tells me.
February 7 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam sent a reminder invitation to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.) to attend the “Doe-Luncheon” at 1 p.m. Feb. 11 [MTP].
February 8 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally.
Francesca dear, I (and Ashcroft) got back from Bermuda night before last, after a pleasant absence of 13 days. I’ve brought you a Bermuda jewel & Miss Lyon will presently dispatch it to you when Ashcroft sends it to the house. It is decorated with an image of Bermuda’s pride, the angel-fish. It is utilitarian—this jim crack. I think it’s a hairpin, but other authorities think it’s a safety.