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October 27 Sunday – The Sunday Magazine of the New York
21 Fifth Ave - Day By Day
October 28 Saturday – At Redman Farm, the summer home of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, in Ponkapog, Mass. Sam wrote to Alfred T. Waite.
October 28 Sunday – Clemens was still in Tuxedo Park, spending time with Harry and Mary Rogers.
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
October 28 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally.
October 28-31 – Sometime between these dates George C. Riggs and Kate Douglas Riggs sent Sam and Clara Clemens an invitation to meet Mr. & Mrs. Forbes Robertson, Sunday, Nov. 4 at 9:15 p.m. [MTP]. Note: possibly Johnston Forbes-Robertson (1853-1937), English actor, considered the finest Hamlet of the Nineteenth Century. Robertson got his start by playing second fiddle to the great Sir Henry Irving.
October 29 Sunday – Sam likely returned to the Pearmain’s Back Bay Boston house either this day or the next. He would write Duneka from there on Oct. 31.
October 29 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Katonah, N.Y.
October 29 Tuesday – John C. Gardner wrote from Toronto. Gardner denied being a “crank” yet sent 10 pages typed double-spaced relating his life long exposure to Twain’s books and the fall from his estimation caused by the frustration of reading Sam’s Autobiography in serial form in a magazine. While trying to be humorous, Gardner became tedious (this is a rare editorial comment dedicated to Tom Tenney) [MTP].
October 3 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam finished his Oct. 1 to daughter Clara.
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 3 Thursday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam finished his Oct. 2 to Dorothy Quick.
October 30 Tuesday – In N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Ralph W. Ashcroft, in care of the advertising agent for Canadian Pacific railway, Montreal: “Mr. Clemens is indefinitely bedridden with bronchitis & has been persuaded to give up the trip to Egypt entirely” [MTP].
Note: see Nov. 7 to Mary Rogers.
October 30 Wednesday – Roi Cooper Megrue for Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam: “Can we arrange for a dramatization of your story [‘]Our Italian Guide[‘] with Mr Timmory in Paris” [MTP].
October 31 Tuesday – At the Pearmain’s house, 388 Beacon St., Boston, Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka: “I was interrupted, & didn’t half read the proof of the Horse’s Tale. Will you have it done carefully? Jean goes to New York to-morrow from Dublin—I follow in a few days” [MTP]
October 31 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam was down with a bad cold.
October 31 Thursday – Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Miss Lyon about dramatizing progress [MTP].
October 4 Wednesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara, c/o Miss Gordon, 117 W. 69th NYC. Only the envelope survives [MTP].
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 4 Friday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote a great spoof to William Dean Howells, and sent the same note to daughter Jean (perhaps the first part of the letter is lost).
Jean dear it is an outrage the way the govment is acting so I am sending following complaint to N. Y. Times with Howels name signed because it will have more weight:
P. S.
To the Editor
October 5 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
At 3 p.m. to-day I finished the fifth & last revising of “A Horse’s Tale” & am going to bed & stay there 2 weeks, for I am a free person once more. I have worked like a slave, from morning till—well, all day,—for I don’t know how many consecutive days [He began Sept. 23], & have enjoyed it ever so much—thoroughly, in fact—but I’m as tired as a dog.
At 3 p.m. to-day I finished the fifth & last revising of “A Horse’s Tale” & am going to bed & stay there 2 weeks, for I am a free person once more. I have worked like a slave, from morning till—well, all day,—for I don’t know how many consecutive days [He began Sept. 23], & have enjoyed it ever so much—thoroughly, in fact—but I’m as tired as a dog.
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 5 Saturday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon replied for Sam to the Oct. 4th from Katharine B. Clemens (Mrs. James Ross Clemens), now in N.Y.C. Yes, Sam had rec’d the photographs of Katharine’s “two charming little children”; Lyon had written her thanks, and they’d waited for them until the last train “on that Saturday.”
October 6 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara, soon to be at 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y., where Sam addressed the letter:
Why, you little rat, somebody had to be blamed, so I selected [Dr. Edward] Quintard in place of myself. I was thinking of having him hanged, but for your sake I will let him off, for the present.
So you have got at the “real cause” of your ill turn, & it was a doctor. I could have told you that much. It’s an awful trade for a Christian.
Why, you little rat, somebody had to be blamed, so I selected [Dr. Edward] Quintard in place of myself. I was thinking of having him hanged, but for your sake I will let him off, for the present.
So you have got at the “real cause” of your ill turn, & it was a doctor. I could have told you that much. It’s an awful trade for a Christian.
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 6 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: This afternoon when the Masons were here for tea and the subject of Geography came up, the King said that he had no sense of it himself, and that when they were living in the Villa Viviani, Oscar Wilde’s little wife went out to call and to ask the best way to get back to England, the King said he gave her instructions which if she had followed would have landed her in China. Chat seemed to drivel along until the King said to Mrs. Mason who is a Christian Scientist and who has been planning a debate with the King —“Well, Mrs.
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