August 1 Wednesday – William Dean Howells wrote from Kittery Point, Maine to Sam.
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.”
August 10 Friday – Melvin L. Severy wrote from Arlington Heights, Mass. to ask if he might quote from Sam’s “King Leopold’s Soliloquy” for a publication he was preparing [MTP]. Note: The MTP catalogs Sam’s reply as “on or after 10 August.”
Clemens’ A.D. this day included: Clipping from Westminster Gazette, criticizing statement in “Diary of Eve” and calling it irreverent—Clemens replies to this—Calvin Higbie‘s MS— Clemens’s reply to him—Extract from Higbie’s essay [MTP: Autodict2].
August 10 Saturday – Saturday Evening Post ran an anonymous article, “Boswellizing Mark Twain,” p. 25. Tenney: “Samuel Johnson had his biographer, and now Albert Bigelow Paine has taken on the task with MT, who is amiable and kindly, and provides him with cigars” [MTJ Bibliographic Issue Number Four 42:1 (Spring 2004) p.9].
Elvelena W. Morford wrote from England to Sam, glad to know of his safe return; The Morfords were still touring England [MTP].
August 11 Saturday – Of the selections from Twain’s A.D.’s, DeVoto selected about half of the materials not chosen before by Paine to be included in Mark Twain in Eruption (1940); among DeVoto’s choices, was commentary, dictated this day, on a newspaper clipping this day of a humorous letter Sam had written years before to Andrew Carnegie asking for money to buy a hymnbook [35]. Sam also discussed Rudyard Kipling, his reputation and his first trip to Elmira to meet him in 1889; the segment of A.D. was selected for MTE [309-310].
August 11 Sunday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam began a letter to Dorothy Quick he finished on Aug. 15.
This isn’t a letter, Dorothy dear, yet I know I ought to write you a letter, because I would write you every time I wrote the other children, & I’ve just finished a letter to Clara. But I never could keep promises very well. However, I shall certainly write you a letter before very long. I wrote to Clara:
August 12 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
August 12 Monday – Emilie R. Rogers wrote from Fairhaven, Mass. to Sam, feeling “a little neglected.” H.H. Rogers was “in worse shape than he cared to acknowledge to anybody” and had spoken of Clemens often [MTHHR 632].
August 13 Monday – Sam’s A.D. of this day (untitled) declared his admiration for the work of Rudyard Kipling, especially Kim; this A.D. segment was selected for MTE [310-12].
Clemens’ A.D. this day included: Rudyard Kipling’s 1889 visit to Elmira continued—Some of his books mentioned [MTP: Autodict2].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
August 13 Tuesday – William F. Saunders wrote from St. Louis to Sam, offering more on the invitation to take a trip on the steamboat Alton with the party of governors [MTP].
Charles E. Wark wrote from Parker House, Boston to advise Sam of Clara’s continued improvement, weight gain of seven pounds and “great improvement” of voice. She was not overworking; no answer needed since Wark heard that Sam hated to write letters [MTP].
August 14 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote a delightful letter to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. Harry Rogers, Jr.) in Fairhaven, Mass.
August 15 Wednesday – Frank N. Doubleday wrote from N.Y.C. to Sam [MTP]. Note: Sam had asked Doubleday to “put away ten copies” of “What is Man?” for “special bindings some day” on July 27. Doubleday replied that he’d been out of town and didn’t receive Sam’s letter and telegram until Monday (Aug. 13).
August 15 Thursday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam finished his Aug.11th to Dorothy Quick in Plainfield, N.J.
August 16 Thursday – Independent Magazine published a brief, anonymous review of Eve’s Diary, p. 397. It was uncritical [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Sixth Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Spring 1982 p. 10].
August 16 Friday – Dorothy Quick wrote from the Truell Inn, Plainfield, N.J. to Sam.
August 17 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Today came such a drowsy little note from the King to say that the dictating is a burden to him, & so he is flying away down to Fairhaven & pretty Mrs. Harry Rogers, & the yacht, & he is so glad to have the holiday. Dublin is become an impossible place for him to live in” [MTP TS 108].
August 17 Saturday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam began a letter to Dorothy Quick that he added to on Aug. 18, 19, 21 and 22. For this day, he drew a sketch of an insect: