Stormfield - Day By Day

March 25 Thursday — Sam’s new guestbook:

Clemens A.D. for this day is listed by MTP.

March 25 Friday - In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam finished his Mar. 24 to daughter Clara, “March 25. The portrait-postcard has just arrived from Geneva, & is very welcome, with its loving word from you, dear. / With heaps of love to you both / Marcus” [MTP].

Sam also wrote per Helen S. Allen to Albert B. Paine in Redding, Conn.

Dear Paine,

Mr. Allen has made the corrections in the check book suggested by you and now my book exactly corresponds with the pass book.

March 26 Friday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote a postcard (with a picture of Stormfield) to Andrew Carnegie.

Dear St. Andrew:

Many thanks for the whisky. Itgoestotherightplace, & finds a hearty welcome there.

Ever yours

T Mark [MTP].

Earl H. Reed wrote from Chicago to relate a boy’s idea that Cleopatra was the wife of Mark Twain [MTP]. Note: “Appreciation”; “ansd”’

March 27 Saturday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to John Albert Macy, who had sent Sam Granville George Greenwood’s book, The Shakespeare Problem Restated (1908) and Some Acrostic Signatures of Francis Bacon, etc. (1909) by William Stone Booth.

Dear Mr. Macy: / Alas!

I can’t (by sticking strictly to the directions given) succeed in digging out any of the acrostics submerged in the Shakespeare text.

March 27 Sunday - Easter —- Clara Clemens Gabrilowitsch and Ossip Gabrilowitsch spent the day in Rome, Italy, having arrived there the previous Thursday, Mar. 24. The New York Times reported, p. C3, Apr. 3, dateline Rome Apr. 2, with sub-headline “Mark Twain’s Daughter Has Unsatisfactory Experience and Leaves Town.”

March 28 Sunday - In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally.

Dear heart, where are you going to be—well, about the 10 or 12 of April? Because at that time I shall be publishing a booklet, Shall I send it to Atlanta, or to St. Timothy’s?

March 28 Monday - In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote per Helen S. Allen to Albert B. Paine in Redding, Conn.

Dear Paine,

I reenclose the check indorsed.

Enclosed is the small library of 44 volumes which you may buy & send to Mrs,.Allen let the books be sent through Mr. Allen’s agent Depew, and you may prepay all charges if you can manage it.

March 29 Monday - Raymond A. Blakemore wrote from Boston to advise Sam that he’d invented a “word counter” to be attached to a typewriter, and asked the favor of Sam’s opinion if “such a machine would be of material advantage to you and other authors”’ [MTP].

March 29 Tuesday - Albert Bigelow Paine wrote from Redding to Clemens: “Your news about the pain distresses me, but I am glad you are coming home. The change and the quiet of Stormfield will no doubt be beneficial. I hope Collier will let you be very quiet in N.Y. Edward Loomis whom I saw this morning hopes you will spend a few days with him also.” More discussion about AT&T stock: Paine bought another 100 shares [MTP].

March 3 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Helen Kerr Blackmer (Mrs. Henry Myron Blackmer) in N.Y.C.

Dear Mrs. Blackmer:

March 30 Tuesday — Sam described the beginning of a controversy concerning the recently hired servant, Horace Hazen:

March 31 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam finished the “lost” Mar. 5 postcard to Dorothy Quick.

March 31. Dear me, I wrote that 3 or 4 weeks ago, & I must have been called away, as I did not finish it. I have now found it in my table drawer, with two other unfinished letters, written the same week. I give you my word, dear heart, that I had not been drinking.

I am just leaving, now, for Virginia, with Ashcroft, to be gone a week or ten days. / With lots of love, / SLC [ [MTP].

March 31 Thursday - Albert Bigelow Paine wrote from Redding to Clemens: “Here is the March statement. It is a bit more complicated than the others, as I grouped the disbursements, but I guess you'll be able to work it out. Clara & Ossip write that they are afraid we are not getting enough to eat, from the amount of the food bill, but as I weigh about 193 and Katy is approaching 300 I consider their alarm unjustified”

March 4 Thursday - In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote a memo to Ralph W. Ashcroft.

Memo. for Mr Ashcroft.

Draw up codicil to will, whereby, at age 55, my daughter Clara may have her 1/2 share of estate, Jean’s share to remain in trust during her (Jean’s) lifetime. If Jean dies before Clara, & Clara is her sole or partial legatee, this property to remain in trust until Clara is 55. If Clara dies before Jean, & Jean is Clara’s sole or partial legatee, this property to remain in trust during Jean’s lifetime.

March 4 Friday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to Albert B, Paine in Redding, Conn.

March 5 Friday — In Redding, Conn. Sam began a postcard to Dorothy Quick, which he lost in his table drawer and which he then found and finished on Mar. 31.

March 6 Saturday — In Redding, Conn. an unidentified person wrote for Clemens to Harry A. Lounsbury.

Dear Mr. Lounsbury : / Mr, Clemens, who is, as you know, very satisfied with the manner in which you have attended to his needs in the past, wishes me, however, to call your attention to the following matters:

March 6 Sunday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote a humorous receipt for Miss Helen S. Allen.

Received of S. L. C. 
Two Dollars and Forty Cents 
in return for my promise to believe everything he says hereafter. 
[signed] Helen S. Allen

[verso] For Sale

March 8 Monday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Margery H. Clinton.

March 8 Tuesday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick. Text not available [MTP].

Albert B. Paine wrote to Sam. (Only the envelope survives) [MTP].

March 9 Tuesday— In Redding, Conn. Sam added to and finished his Mar. 8 to Mary B. Rogers:

Next Day—which is to-day, the 9th Letter from H. H., trying hard to say he hasn’t any room, but will refer the matter to Mrs. Rogers, I know what that means: he is going to raise the price. He thinks I can’t help myself—can’t get in elsewhere, But I can: I’ve already arranged it, conditionally.

March 9 Wednesday — David Alexander Munro, age 66, assistant editor of the North American Review under Col. Harvey, died in NYC after a seven-week illness. Munro was also a Greek scholar [NY Times, Mar. 10, 1910, “David A. Munro Dead”]. See entries Vol. III.

May 1 Saturday — The New York Times reported on Sam’s latest work, Is Shakespeare Dead?

IS SHAKESPEARE DEAD?

May 10 Monday - Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote to Sam, enclosing a bill from Altman for $13.95 and a list of purchases and payments to Wanamaker’s Dept. Store—neither in the MTP file. He closed with mention of a “Scarlet Taniger Guest Coat” saying it did not belong to him: “It was ordered at your request for the use of guests, and the buttons are stamped S.L.C.” A second page with this date, also on Ashcroft’s NYC letterhead details “extra work in the preparation of data covering the financial affairs of S.L.

May 11 Tuesday — Katharine I. Harrison for H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam: “Just a line to let you know that I have the signatures to both certificates of the Mark Twain Company, so your mind can be easy on this point” [MTP].

C.H. Gould for American Library Assoc., Montreal wrote to ask Sam for “an address, a reading, a paper—in any way you choose” for their Annual Conference June 28-July 5 [MTP]. Note: “Ans’d May 18, “02”