August 5 Sunday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam added a few lines to his Aug. 4 to Mary B. Rogers:
Sunday. / P.S.
No, gentle pal, return it to me, in the enclosed envelop. I will go over it again (aloud, this time, which is the only sure test), before I ship it to Harvey. (Don’t let any outsider see it, it is dangersome.) / SLC [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Joe Twichell.
August 5 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote the aphorism about improving bad liquor to Mr. Martin [MTP]. See index for other aphorisms or maxims.
Sam also replied to the July 30 from W.J. Phelps, by writing instructions to Lyon on the bottom and right margin of Phelps’ letter.
August 6 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam inscribed the first photo of himself in the series “Progress of a Moral Purpose” to daughter Jean: “To Jean Clemens / with the deep love of her / Father / Aug. ’06. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain” [MTP].
Sam also replied to the July 31 from Dr. Benjamin E. Smith of the Century Co., N.Y.
August 6 Tuesday – Dorothy Quick was visiting Sam in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. being brave not to be homesick.
Pardon B. Gifford wrote from New Bedford, Mass. to ask Sam “to express some little sentiment about our old city to assist us in booming old home week” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Answd. Aug 9, ‘07”
August 7 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
“Training is everything” he said, “The Gospel is right” & if he controls himself now, it is due to the training of his age, his old age. Such a sweet old age it is. Of course, he bursts out sometimes into savage blasphemies. It wouldn’t be he if he didn’t. Early this morning, before 7, I heard a big gutteral God damn from his room & then quietness. Later I learned he was mad at the green shade which had stuck & stuck [MTP TS 103-105]. Note: see the rest of the Aug. 7 entry at the end of Aug. 6.
August 7 Wednesday – Dorothy Quick was visiting Sam in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
Katherine Gregory wrote to Miss Lyon; this is miscatalogued as to Clemens [MTP].
Adelaide M. Lee (Mrs. Bruce B. Lee) wrote from Sacramento remembering Sam’s lectures in Sacramento and also her late husband’s lectures. She wished he would come to California for the National Irrigation Congress on Sept. 2-7 [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Answd. Aug 20, ‘07”
August 8 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The fallow days are still with Mr. Clemens. All day he has been very, very tired and resting. At dinner tonight the talk was of Babylon and its great, great glories” [MTP TS 84].
Frederick T. Leigh wrote to Sam that Duneka was on vacation and Sam’s post-card scheme, according to Sam’s wishes, would be “dropped for the present” [MTP].
August 8 Wednesday – In N.Y.C. H.H. Rogers replied to the Aug. 5 from Sam, confessing that the letter he was to copy and send to Twichell about the Virgin Mary being 47 and black had been sent along without copying due to the “disordered condition” of his desk on Monday night. Rogers disagreed with Sam on his conclusions about Mary’s age and color; he felt sure he’d get a reply from Twichell, which would be his “duty to send it to your address.” He related that George B.
August 8 Thursday – Dorothy Quick was visiting Sam in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
Howells & Stokes wrote to Sam, advising that arresting work at the Redding house at this time would “make you liable for between ten and fifteen thousand dollars,” and enclosed a letter from Mr. Carter of Carter & Haskell attys. [MTP].
August 9 Thursday – Sam wrote to Frank N. Doubleday about “What is Man?” and a proposed special binding for ten copies:
If I understand McClure’s tentative offer I know Harvey would not consider it. When he was here the other day he said he had told McC that the price offered must be a very stiff one. Thank you very cordially for the pains you have taken with the matter.
Good. Now if Mr. Bothwell will keep that letter-form “standing” it will come in handy in case of future distributions.
August 9 Friday – In the evening at Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Miss Dorothy Quick in Plainfield, N.J. some five hours after she’d departed from her Aug. 5 to 9 visit.
Dorothy dear, one of these days I am going to write you a letter the first time I write my other children, but not now, now I haven’t time, because I haven’t anything to do, & I can’t write letters except when I am rushed.
August – The first of two installments of “The Horse’s Tale” ran in Harper’s Monthly for August. The second ran in Sept. issue; it would be published by Harper’s as a 153 page book on Oct. 24, 1907.
Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers: “Dear Mr. Rogers: I’m accepting…tell me if you can go & if it will pay you to go. S.L.C.” [MTP: Anderson Galleries catalog, 4-5 April 1934, No. 4098, Item 116].
Paine Hired, Dictations Begin – Retired from Congo – Auto Show – Pleas for Tuskegee Gridiron Club – Swapping Lies with Joe Cannon – Tea at Columbia U. Blots from “Marjorie” – Pallbearer for McAleer – MT Fans Mob Majestic – Putzel Daily with Charlotte – “A” Clubbers – Gorky & Scandal – Speaks for Blind Upstaging Billiardists – Kissing Vassar Girls – Pleas for S.F. Quake Victims – Bronchitis Lying Fallow in Dublin – Harper Treacheries – Eve’s Diary – Poor Old Friend is Free Harvey Picks A.D. segments for N.A.R.
Christian Science Published, Flying Trips to Bermuda – Katonah Visits – Clara Tours - Damned Human Race Club – Suppression of Noises – Lease Tuxedo Park House - Aldrich Dies – Redding Plans – Last Trip to Elmira – 1 Angelfish – Jamestown - Saturday A.M. Club Reunion – Lost at Sea! – “Oxford Would Confer…”– Annapolis - Actors Fund Fair – Meets “Charlie”– Stevedores Shout – G.B. Shaw - Hectic Schedules – Postpones Funeral – Ascot Cup Stolen!
December 1 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s diary: “This afternoon Mr. Clemens was restless and after he talked business with me, and after he played through The last rose of summer and Wagner’s Wedding March on the orchestrelle, we sat down to play 500 again. We played until tea time, and then after tea time we played until 6:45….We played 500 until eleven o’clock. Mr. Clemens won 14 games [Hill 98; TS 29, MTP]. Note: “Wedding March” from Wagner’s Lohengrin.
December 1 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote a short note to Marcella Sembrich, opera star. “Dear Madame Sembrich— / It was lovely of you to send me so eloquent & so beautiful aremembrance, & I thank you out of my heart” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Will Larrymore Smedley in Chataqua-on-Chataqua, N.Y.: “To you, & to all my other known & unknown friends who have lightened the weight of my seventieth birthday with kind words & good wishes I offer my most grateful thanks, & beg leave to sign myself” [MTP].
December 1 Saturday – In NYC Albert Paine wrote for Sam to Thomas Bailey Aldrich in Boston.
December 1 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to the Nov. 30 from Miss Florence Benson.
Dear Florence:
Thank you for your nice note.—
(Private.) I have always concealed it before, but now I am compelled to confess that I am Tom Sawyer!
[MTP]. See Florence’s Nov. 30 letter.
Sam also wrote to daughter Jean.
December 10 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Robert Underwood Johnson, thanking him for being elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters on Dec. 2. Johnson was the Secretary of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, which founded the Academy in emulation of the French Academy, and formed to “foster, assist, and sustain excellence” in American literature, music, and art [MTP].
December 10 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Home again—& the King is still in Washington. The papers are full of him, for he went down there with plenty of white clothes & people love to see him in them” [MTP TS 149].
David A. Munro for the North American Review wrote to Sam:
I am in distress over one of the first four pages of the new instalment of the autobiography, and the printer expects me to send them to the press tomorrow. That is why I pursue you to Washington.
December 10 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick about his amazement at touring the Jewish Technical School for girls.
I am very sorry you didn’t see Peter Pan, you dear child, but you will see it yet. Meantime we can hunt up something else when you come.
Saturday after next? Can’t you come then—& stay over till Monday? We hope you can; & that is why I am writing now, at sleep-time, instead of waiting till tomorrow, when I am going to be busy & could be prevented.