May 12 Wednesday — Sam’s new guestbook:
| Name | Address | Date | Remarks |
| Henryetta M. Holst [?] | May 12th 1909 | Thinks she [deserves] real house. Hope in [time] to be one of the [citizens] of [Heaven]. |
John F. Bernard wrote from Grafton, W. Va. to Sam.
My dear “Indolent” Friend; —
May 14 Friday — James M. Beck for Shearman & Sterling (Attys.) wrote to Sam, not having a reply for his May 10 letter canceling the engagement, as he was purchasing a house at Sea Bright and wished “to take possession at an early date” [MTP]. Note: “Ans’d May 18, ‘09”
Belle V. Elliott for the Saturday Club of Brunswick, Maine wrote to ask Sam to come speak in November or sometime in the winter [MTP]. Note: “Ans’d May 18, ‘09”
May 15 Saturday — Sam’s original guestbook, since replaced by the newer, more elegant gift from Mary B. Rogers, for some reason lists this date for Clara Ashcroft, and Lucy Ashcroft [Mac Donnell TS 7]. Note: any connection to Ralph W. Ashcroft of these two is unknown. Sisters?
Sofia Haag and Charles Haag wrote from Norwalk, Conn. to invite Sam to a Whitman fest on May23 [MTP]. Note: “Ans’d May 18, 09”
May 16 Sunday — The Charlotte Observer (N.C.) included an article by Archibald Henderson, “The Real Mark Twain” [Tenney 47].
May 18 Tuesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow. “Dear Poultney: / Come, by all means! I shall be in New York, but that is nothing, for Jean will be here to welcome you & house you. With my best love to your father, / Ys ever / Mark” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Mr. M.B. Colcord in No. Plymouth, Mass.: “ Dear Mr. Colcord: / You see, all I want is to convince sane people that Shakspeare did not write Shakspeare. Who did, is a question which does not greatly interest me” [MTP].
May 19 Wednesday — At 7:20 a.m. in his home at 3 East 78th in NYC, Henry Huttleston Rogers died following a stroke. Clemens was on his way to visit Rogers without knowing of the death.
The New York Times, May 20, p.1, reported on the death of Rogers and Sam’s shock at learning the news:
H. H. ROGERS DEAD, LEAVING $50,000,000
Apoplexy Carries Off the Financier Famous in Standard Oil, Railways, Gas, and Copper.
ONLY HIS WIFE WITH HIM
May -— Sam noted in his after Sept. 25, 1909 letter that during this month, “Discovery of evidence proving Lioness a thief,” referring to Isabel Lyon.
May 2 Sunday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Emilie R. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers).
Dear Mrs. Rogers: / I shall arrive at noon next Friday, & go at once down town on business, & back to No. 3 for dinner, provided there will be a bed for me & no extra charge. I return home next day. I’m due at the Jerome banquet Friday evening at 10.
If there’s no vacant bed, or if you are to be away Fairhavenward, will you please telephone me here when you receive this?
My telephone address is
May 20 Thursday —- M.W. Thompson for the Ionian Lecture Course, Univ. of Illinois wrote to ask Sam to lecture during the coming school year [MTP]. Note “Ans’d May 26, ‘09”
May 21 Friday — At 10 a.m. Sam was a pallbearer at the funeral of Henry Huttleston Rogers, at the Unitarian Church of the Messiah, Park Ave. and 34th Street, NYC. Rev. Dr. Robert Collyer conducted the services, aided by the Rev. Dr. John Haynes Holmes, the church’s current pastor. The body was taken for burial by train to Fairhaven, arriving in the evening [NY Times, May 22, p. 16, “Simple Funeral for H.H. Rogers”’].
May 22 Saturday — Clemens inscribed his copy of The Mother and the Father. Dramatic Passages, (1909) by William Dean Howells: “S. L. Clemens / from W.D. Howells. / May 22, 1909” [Gribben 332].
Andrew Carnegie wrote from Stresa, Italy: his sympathies to Sam on learning of the death of H.H. Rogers:
May 24 Monday — Columbia University sent Sam an engraved invitation to exercises of Commencement Week, May 24 to June 4 [MTP]. Note: likely before this date; included a baseball game Yale v. Columbia on May 29,
May 25 Tuesday — Sam recorded going to New York to check with a secretary of the late H.H, Rogers, Miss A. Watson, who had been put in charge of looking into the financial records to see if the Ashcrofts had committed theft.
May 26 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote a postcard to Marjorie Breckenridge.
The summer is clothed in all its splendors, Marjorie dear, & it is beautiful here now. I have to go away & leave it for a while, but shall be back the middle of June, & by that time I hope you will be housed in that shady nook in the glen.
With love & good wishes / SLC [MTAq 258].
May 27 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Sam replied to a non-extant from Poultney Bigelow.
Dear Poultney: /Indeed yes the invitation does hold good till September.
I, too, was invited to join the psycho-theologized band. ‘Think of that: Sunday School inviting Satan.
Very well, I've seen an expurgated Don Quixote; also an expurgated Bible. They were merely sucked oranges. / Yours ever [MTP].
University of Missouri sent an engraved invitation to their 67" Commencement, May 30 to June 2 [MTP]. Note: “Declined May 27, ‘09”
May 28 Friday — Sam recorded a blunder by Ashcroft that led to the revocation of a power of attorney to Lvon and a search for a general power of attorney:
Toward the end of May our tempest in a teapot was pulling away at a great rate, & making a lively stir amongst the farms & hamlets scattered in the woodsy hills & vales of our neighborhood. Every day brought its fresh little event & added a new text for gossip. Whatever either side did or said was known next day all around, & discussed.
May 29 Saturday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote a short note to Isabel V. Lyon revoking in writing the power of attorney he’d given her and revoked orally some months ago. Albert Bigelow Paine signed as a witness [MTP].
Sam also wrote to an unidentified person about the appointment of Paine as his secretary and manager of his affairs [MTP: American Art Assoc.—Anderson Galleries catalog, Nov. 11-12, 1937, No. 4346, Item 89].
May 3 Monday - Sam paid a bill dated Feb. 1, 1909 for $13.95 for “Fit Mdse” to B. Altman & Co., Fifth Ave. 34th and 35th Streets, NYC [MTP: L-A MS XVII]. Note: See May 25 entry.
May 30 Sunday — Sam recorded that daughter Clara and Albert Bigelow Paine were still not satisfied about the possible existence of a general power of attorney that Sam may have given unaware to Ralph W. Ashcroft.
May 31 Monday — Sam and Albert Bigelow Paine went to New York City and made a startling discovery:
We went down the next morning, Monday, & while I loafed in the Hotel Grosvenor, Paine went to the banks. Sure enough, in the Liberty National he found a power of attorney! A stately one, a liberal one, an all-comprehensive one! By it I transferred all my belongings, down to my last shirt, to the Ashcrofts, to do as they pleased with.
May 4 Tuesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
Dear Mr. Rogers: / The check-books & vouchers which Ashcroft will have to place before your expert are my property, & I would be glad if you will keep possession of them for me, when the inquiry is finished. I don’t want them to go back into Ashcroft’s hands.
I shall spend Thursday & Friday in New York, with Robert Collier, for I think you are all in Fairhaven & your city house closed for the season.
May 5 Wednesday — William Dean Howells wrote from N.Y.C. to Sam
“Dear Clemens: / Pilla is away at Kittery Point, and I can’t leave the old lady alone. But I do want to see Stormfield with its clothes on, and I’ll come sometime before June. Yours ever / W.D. Howells” [MTHL 2: 846]. Note 1; “Howells did not come before October (letter 668, note 2).”
Karl Gerhardt wrote from N. Orleans to Sam.
May 6 Thursday — Arthur Bennett for the Denver Post wrote to ask Sam to come to Denver for a lecture [MTP]. Note: “Ans’d May 18, ‘09”
May 7 Friday — In the evening Sam attended and spoke at a dinner for District Attorney William Travers Jerome at Delmonico’s. The New York Times, May 8, reported on page one:
JEROME REVIEWS HIS OFFICIAL YEARS
District Attorney Tells of What He Has Done at a Dinner Given Him by Friends.
NO HINT OF FUTURE PLANS
Speaker Says he Still Has Faith In Reform and Wishes to Work for Civic Betterment
May 8 Saturday — H.N. Allen wrote from Seaford, Del., relating on a recent trip to NYC he and his sister were often mistaken for Mark Twain and daughter Clara. He’d heard the same thing in Virginia City, Nevada and San Francisco. He sent his photo (not in file) and asked for one in return ]. Note: “Ans’ May 18, “09”