• Dublin, NH - Summer of 1906

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    Sam departed Dublin June 26 for Boston and New York City.  He joined H. H. Rogers on the Kanawah and sailed to Fairhaven on the 29th.  They return to New York City on  July 4th.

    Evidently, Sam made several trips back and forth to Fairhaven with Rogers but returned to Dublin on the 25th of July.

    Actually, he spend quite a bit of time with Rogers, in his New York offices and in Fairhaven, travelling on Rogers' yacht, the Kanawah.

  • May 17, 1906 Thursday

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    May 17 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mr. Clemens reads poetry to Jean & me every evening. Such reading it is. There never was anyone to read so beautifully before & to charm you so & hurt you so” [MTP TS 72].

  • May 18, 1906 Friday

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    May 18 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers. I am lying fallow here, all these days, & drowsing & resting. Life begins to stir in me at last, but I’ve no use for it yet, for my stenographer is delayed & I can’t begin work until 3 days hence.

  • May 19, 1906 Saturday

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    May 19 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Orchestrelle put up today. / Mr. Paine & Miss Hobby are to arrive today” [MTP TS 72]. Note: the Aeolian Co. disassembled, shipped, and reassembled the Orchestrelle, from NY to Dublin, and returned it to NY after the season. The arrival of the biographer and stenographer on May 20 means Clemens did not dictate for his autobiography until Monday, May 21.

  • May 21, 1906 Monday

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    May 21 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam began dictating again for his Autobiography [MTHHR 607n1]. Sam’s A.D. of this day, “The Jumping Frog” gives a short history of the famous frog tale; it was selected for MTE [143-48].

    Clemens’ A.D. for the day: Early experiences as an author—Publishing of “The Jumping Frog” in volume of sketches—Meeting George W. Carleton in Luzerno. His apology for having refused to publish Clemens’ book of sketches. Difficulties attending the bringing out of “The Innocents Abroad” [MTP Autodict2].

  • May 22, 1906 Tuesday

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    May 22 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mr. Clemens is sitting down stairs in the hall revising the auto-ms. & chuckling with delight over the account of the speech he made 20 years ago at the Whittier dinner. “Oh, it will do to go into print before I die.” —and the couch shakes with him & his laughter He sits in his white clothes—so beautiful he is—so pure—and he calls out that he must begin at once to read it aloud to me” [MTP TS 72-73].

  • May 23, 1906 Wednesday

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    May 23 Wednesday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Frank N. Doubleday.

    The Gospel is going to be a fine book. Keep the 250 copies safe & secure. Your share of the swag is 20% whenever we sell a copy—which will not happen for a good while yet; nor until the edition is rare & people are illing to pay $300. a copy for it. That is the price, or we hold on & wait ten years—you & my daughters. … [MTP].  

  • May 24, 1906 Thursday

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    May 24 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

    The Gospel proof [“What is Man?”] comes along in batches from Mr. Doubleday & it is so beautifully printed to begin with & so absorbingly interesting that once you begin a galley you can’t stop until you’ve read all the batch. And Mr. Clemens does like it so much! It is his pet book and absolutely true. That & the Rubiyat ought to stand together [MTP TS 73].  

    In N.Y.C. William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.

  • May 25, 1906 Friday

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    May 25 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Frank N. Doubleday.

    Y.M. This is too much! I think it is not right to jest about such things.

    O.M. I am not jesting, I am merely reflecting a plain & simple truth—& without uncharitableness. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot. It is my belief that this position is not assailable.

  • May 26, 1906 Saturday

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    May 26 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

    This afternoon when Mr. Clemens picked up the Times & noticed the date, he said, “This is one of my anniversaries—48 years ago I said goodbye to my little sweetheart”. He told me then how he had said that he wouldn’t see her for years—2 or 3—& she had given him a little gold ring & then he went away. Laura Wright was her name & she was very young. In all these 48 years he had never seen her. There weren’t many romances in his life. There were 2 early ones, Laura Wright and Laura Hawkins [MTP TS 73-74].

  • May 28, 1906 Monday

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    May 28 Monday – Clemens’ A.D. for the day: Clemens calls on General Ulysses Grant just as he is about to sign contract with Century Co. for publication of his Memoirs on 10% royalty.

    Clemens dissuades him, and finally decides to publish them himself. Terms upon which they were published [MTP Autodict2].

    Frank N. Doubleday for Doubleday, Page & Co. wrote to Sam.

  • Summer 1906

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    Summer 1906 – Sometime during his 1906 stay in Dublin (May 18 to Oct. 18, excluding a few trips), Sam met Ethel Barrymore, who was spending the summer at the artists’ colony in Cornish, N.H., where she posed for several paintings. The colony, active between 1895 and 1925, was spread out over Windsor, Vt., Plainfield, and Cornish. During its time nearly 100 artists, sculpors, writers, designers, and well-known politicians chose to live there, either for the full year or during summertimes. Barrymore would become a famous actress.

  • June 1906

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    June – Sam wrote “The Private Secretary’s Diary.” It was first published in Fables of Man (1972).

  • June 3, 1906 Sunday

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    June 3 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

    The morning bed-talks are vastly interesting. I go into Mr. Clemens’s room a little before 9, after he has finished his breakfast. I make a good audience for him to talk against in order to get himself into the dictating swing. The day has passed long since when he discovered he couldn’t sting me by his tirades against the superstitions of the church & his disgust at those who worship “a tarbaby of a Jesus Christ” or the “dangling carcass of a virgin”, so he lets his speech flow freely on those subjects.

  • June 4, 1906 Monday

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    June 4 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka.

    I find that this “Library of Humor” is not the one which was compiled by me, but is a new book, in whose compilation I have had no part.Also, I find that this book is being actually “published” & its sale pushed.

    Also I find that it is not a cheap book, “with no money in it for either of us,” but is cloth-bound & higher priced than my own book.

  • June 5, 1906 Tuesday

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    June 5 Tuesday – Marguerite Merington wrote to Sam. “To-morrow –Wed. June 6, at four, Dr. Douglas Hyde, President of the Gaelic League and Mrs Hyde are coming to me at dear Ruth McEnery Stuart’s with whom I am staying. They would so greatly like to see you—Mrs Stuart joins me in warmly hoping that you and the Misses Clemens will come” [MTP].

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