July 9 Thursday – Sam’s A.D. for this date continued to focus with “spectacular venon” (Hill 209) against Lillian Aldrich for the June 30 Memorial of her late husband, which Sam attended.
Sarah S. Collier (Mrs. Robert J. Collier) wrote from Racquette Lake in the Adirondacks, N.Y. to thank Sam for his invitation to stay with him, “but I am settled here for the summer, and don’t expect to leave till some time in September” [MTP].
July 9 Friday — Sam’s new guestbook:
| Name | Address | Date | Remarks |
| Rev. Joseph H. Twichell | |||
| Mrs. Twichell | Hartford | July 9 & 10 |
June 1 Tuesday — Sam noted in his after Sept, 25, 1909 letter that on this day was the “Discovery of the Blanket Power of Attorney,” referring to the Nov. 14, 1908 document. In the L-A MS, section XVIII, however, he puts the discovery at Monday, May 31. Did the search take two days or one? Sam included in a copy of the document revoking the discovered power of attorney, signed by Clemens and received and recorded by John N. Nickerson, Redding Town Clerk, on June 3.
June 10 Thursday — Clemens and Paine traveled 20 miles to Catonsville, Maryland and St. Timothy’s School for Frances Nunnally’s graduation. Clemens’ commencement speech was his last public speaking performance. The speech as reported by Baltimore News, “Advice to Girls,” in Fatout:
June 11 Friday - The New York Times ran a follow-up article, p.3 on the plagiarism flap over Sam’s work, “Is Shakespeare Dead?” datelined June 10, Baltimore:
TWAIN’S FOOTNOTE LOST.
Wrote One, He Says, Crediting Author
and Publisher of Borrowed Matter.
Special to The New York Times.
BALTIMORE, Md., June 10.—Referring to the charges of Plagiarism, in connection with his book, “Is Shakespeare Dead?” Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) today said:
June 12 Saturday - In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote a notecard (2x3 inches), likely a gift enclosure, to Gertrude (probably Natkin): “Dear Gertrude I send you my love. / Mark Twain / June 12/09” [MTP: James Cummins catalog, No. 64, Item 19].
Charles T, Lark, assistant to John B. Stanchfield, attorney, wrote to Albert Bigelow Paine concerning the flight of the Ashcrofts on June 8:
So the soiled birds had flown.
June 13 Sunday - According to Sam’s guestbook entry on the page ending May 4, this was the day it was discovered that the Ashcrofts had sailed for England on June 8. Sam’s note claims they did so after promising Stanchfield they would wait for his investigation to be completed. See May 4 entry.
June 14 Monday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to an unidentified man.
June 15 Tuesday - James B. Shropshire wrote a fan appreciation letter from Brooklyn to Sam. His quill was quite worn out [MTP].
June 16 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to William Robertson Coe.
Dear Mr. Coe: / I was glad to hear from you, & I wish you had come yourself, & brought your letter & Mrs. Mai. I am in the doctor’s hands, as a foreguessed result of the Baltimore trip, which was a hard one for an old person, for it was cold & rainy; but the engagement was five months old & had to be kept.
June 17 Thursday — K. Woltereck wrote from Wellesley College, Dept. of German, Wellsley, Mass. to ask Clemens: “1) Do you think Goethe has ever meant or would ever mean anything to America? 2) Has Goethe’s art ever influenced your art? 3) Whom do you consider the best living American Goeth Scholar? [MTP] Note: “Ansd June 21, ‘09”
June 18 Thursday – The History of Redding website notes that Sam arrived at the West Redding Train Station shortly before 6 p.m on the Berkshire Express out of New York. The train made a special stop for Twain and thereafter continued the stop for his many visitors.
June 18 Friday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally at Camp Esta-Nula, East Sebago, Maine.
Well, no, you dear Francesca, I have not been in good shape lately, but the doctor will come up from New York tomorrow & see if he can mend me up,
Don’t you forget, dear, that when you go to West Point you & your brother must come & see us if you find you can manage it.
June 18-August 31 – Sometime during this period in Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Margaret Blackmer about a humorous exchange with a supposed lookalike.
June 19 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick:
Oh, this will never do! You are having altogether too good a time, you little rascal (because I am not in it.) Still, I’m glad. I mustn’t break into it now, but I’ll have to do it before long; you & your mother will have to pay me a visit here. I want you; & I want my other angel-fishes. I must have a couple of them under this roof all the time, from now until January. There will be 2 under it to-morrow, to stay a week, I hope.
June 19 Saturday — T. Fisher Unwin wrote from London to Sam, hesitant “to send you a book because I feel confident you must be crowded with presentation copies,” referring again to Stacpole’s book on the Congo [MTP].
June – Sam’s notebook contained a roster of his Angelfish:
The Acquarium, (June 1908)
June — George Gordon Coulton (1858-1947) book From St. Francis to Dante, etc. (1907), was signed by Sam on the front pastedown endpaper: “SL. Clemens /June, 1909, /Stormfield. From James M Beck” [Gribben 161]. Note; see other entries on Beck.
June 2 Wednesday — Italian journalist Felice Ferrero visited Stormfield and interviewed Mark Twain for the most popular Italian newspaper in Italy, Corriere della Sera. Zuppello includes the interview in her 2008 paper for American Literary Realism. In part: .
June 20 Sunday - The New York Herald, p. 1, reported Mark Twain’s lawsuit against his former secretary:
MARK TWAIN SUES FORMER SECRETARY
Asks $4,000 Damages and Levies on Property He Gave to Mrs. Ralph W. Ashcroft.
CAUSE OF ACTION SECRET
June 21 Sunday – The photograph of Clemens playing cards with Dorothy Harvey and her friend Pauline Martin, and Louise Paine was likely taken this day, the day after their arrival at Stormfield [MT Journal Spring/Fall 2006 p. 25].
The New York Times, p. C2 under “Nearly 10,000 Guests Bidden to Windsor,” ran a final paragraph about Clara Clemens:
June 21 Monday — In Redding, Conn, Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore in Hartford.
Dear Brer Whitmo’—
Have you our old Hartford check-books? If you have, will you send them to me? I don’t want the vast one from which we used to pay the robber Paige; it is those from which we paid our household expenses that I want.
June 22 Monday – In Redding, Conn., Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Dorothy Quick.
Dear Dorothy: / Mr. Clemens has just left for town, & he asks me to invite your mother & you to come up here on Thursday the second leaving N. Y. Central on the 4:15 train M for Redding. Mr. Clemens & Mr. Paine will be on the same train. Please do not disappoint Mr. Clemens. He sends you much love, & to your mother too. / Yours Ever / I. V. Lyon [MTP].
June 22 Tuesday — Pieter Bausch wrote from Amsterdam to Harper’s about Sam’s non-answers to Bausch’s last letters. Though catalogued to Clemens, it is clearly not to him; see July 2 Duneka to Clemens [MTP]. Note: “Ans’d July 6, ‘09”
June 23 Tuesday – John J. McCowan for the Actors Society of America wrote from NYC. He planned to enter vaudeville dressed up as Mark Twain, if Clemens had no objection [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Answd / June 29, 08; Please refer him to Miss Elizabeth Marbury 1430 Broadway”
Mr. & Mrs. Whitelaw Reid sent an engraved invitation to the wedding of his daughter Jean Reid to John Hubert Ward on June 23 at Dorchester House [MTP].