21 Fifth Ave - Day By Day

September 29 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Harper & Brothers, asking them to send the magazine to 21 Fifth Avenue in N.Y.C. instead of to Dublin, beginning with the Nov. issue [MTP].

Lyon also replied to Robert Underwood Johnson (incoming Sept. 21) that Sam would be unable to make a meeting of the Academy of Arts & Letters as he would not be in the city until about Nov. 7 [MTP].

September 29 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

I have had to ask Mr. Clemens to come back on Monday.

September 29 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: A rainy day, and so a stop was put to the plans for entertaining Francesca and her mother. Late in the morning we assembled in the living room and played Hearts. I wonder what dear spirit put Hearts in my head yesterday, for otherwise we had been at a loss. It is hard to entertain brand new people [MTP TS 108-109].

Edward Anthony wrote from Cleveland, Ohio to Sam. “I am a boy collecting cigar bands.” Could Sam send some for his collection? [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd. Oct. 2, ‘07”

September 3 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam sent a telegram to H.H. Rogers, in Fairhaven, Mass.: “God be thanked have found some of the things send another trunk this one leaked / Clemens.” [MTHHR 617].

Sam also wrote to an unidentified man, thanking him for his letter of Aug. 31 [MTP].

September 3 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Dorothy arrived. / Such a very very nice dinner at the Sampsons. Mr. [Charles E.] Sampson is the head of that house, for even the fine beautiful table linen is exquisitely marked with his initials & the silver too, has his lettering. He was very delightful. He told me how when he was a boy he crossed from Europe on the steamer with Emerson & how dear Emerson was, waiting on his sister who was an invalid [MTP TS 99- 100].

September 30 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka of Harper & Bros.

September 30 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

September 30 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Francesca went this morning, the King went down to the station with them, and since his return he has been at work all day with the pen. He has been writing and writing and dropping the little leaves of paper from his small pad, around him on the floor. Most of the work was done with him sitting on the extreme edge of the bed.

September 4 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara in Norfolk, Conn.

I am so glad you like the pictures, dear Ashcat, & will keep them. I like them ever so much. Mr. Paine made 7 negatives in the hope of getting one satisfactory one; & when the samples came back from the developer they were all good. It seemed to me that a progressive thought was traceable thro thru them, & after arranging the series in varying order several times I discovered what it was.

September 4 Wednesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to William Webster Ellsworth.

September 5 Wednesday – Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: Items from “The Children’s Record Book,” showing their different characteristics [MTP Autodict2].

Frederic Chapin wrote from Oak Park, Ill. to Sam, enclosing Elisabeth Marbury’s Sept. 4 to him. Chapin’s long letter to Sam involved the many details, contracts, etc. regarding dramatizing P&P [MTP].

September 5 Thursday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Clara, now at the Hotel Victoria, Boston.   

I, also, should have been disappointed dearheart, at your not coming, but that I am aware that there is no occasion to expect you until you arrive. And so while I knew you might come, & was strongly hoping you would, I was not really expecting it. Paine’s conundrum fits you as well as it fits me: “Why is Mr. Clemens’s mind like a time-table?”

“Because it is subject to change without notice.”

September 6 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Alone I [illegible word] was driven through the starlight over to the Handasyd Cabots where he & Copeland & Sakaloff & Cummings played for a few people. They are four Kings of tone.

September 6 Friday – In his A.D. of Oct. 5, Sam wrote of having Dorothy Quick this week as a guest.

…we had her delightful society during seven days and nights. She is just eleven years old, and seems to be made of watch-springs and happiness. The child was never still a moment, when she wasn’t asleep, and she lit up this place like the sun. It was a tremendous week, and an uninterruptedly joyful one for us all. After she was gone, and silence and solitude had resumed their sway, we felt as if we had been through a storm in heaven.

September 7 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.

I want to send you Twichell’s letter, but it is lost—not permanently, I merely can’t find it. I was going to carry it to you when I thought I was going to Fairhaven from Norfolk, & so I must have put it away too carefully. I will find it between now & next time I see you.

I do not get entirely over my lameness, & the gout has never kept up its threatenings so long before. Certainly the righteous do have a rough time of it in this world, I wish I was like Rice.

September 7 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam sent a telegram to Henry Campbell- Bannerman, English Prime Minister.

Congratulations, not condolences. Before 70 we are merely respected, at best, & we have to behave all the time or we lose that asset; but after 70 we are respected, esteemed, admired, revered, & don’t have to behave unless we want to. When I first knew you, one of us was hardly even respected.

September 7 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Dinner at the Deacons, and it was very lovely. I sat between Mr. Deacon and Mr. Condert, the latter is very interesting, and we bored each other to a nicety. But Mr. Deacon always has some good prosy interesting thing to talk about. He was telling me about Vernon Lee, and her extreme plainness and her delightfulness; and about her half brother Mr. Hamilton. He met them in Florence years ago, at a time when Hamilton was a great invalid; so great an invalid that the doctors could do no more for him.

September 8 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote instructions for Isabel Lyon to reply to Minnie Maddern Fiske. “Write to M . Fisk. & say it has been suggested that the people in Spain If they together ask that the book be dedicated to the Queen of Spain. It isn’t the least likely that it can be done—but we think that you will not be afraid to try” [MTP].

Lyon wrote again for Sam to George B. Harvey, but this, another attempt to “give him abuse” also unfinished:

HORSES TALE

September 8 Sunday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote his june-bug…bird of paradise aphorism to Dorothy Quick [MTP].