Stormfield - Day By Day

August 11 Wednesday — Sam’s new guestbook:

August 12 Wednesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Susan L. Crane.

August 12 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to George B. Harvey.

Dear Colonel: / It was lovely of Mrs. Harvey & Dorothy & Jessica to come & see me, & it would be lovely if you & Dunneka or the Major would do the same. I can shelter two of you any week-end, or week-middle.

August 13 Monday – Sam’s A.D. of this day (untitled) declared his admiration for the work of Rudyard Kipling, especially Kim; this A.D. segment was selected for MTE [310-12].

Clemens’ A.D. this day included: Rudyard Kipling’s 1889 visit to Elmira continued—Some of his books mentioned [MTP: Autodict2].

Isabel Lyon’s journal:

August 13 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Helen S. Allen in Bermuda.

To   Helen Allen, M. A. (Member of the Aquarium).

August 13 Friday — Edward Eugene Loomis for the Delaware, Lackawanna Railroad wrote to Sam.

“I return herewith the 300 shares of Plasmon Milk Products Company stock you left with me sometime since, also correct Power of Attorney I have just succeeded in getting, authorizing me to sign for the other shares of the stock of this company that are due you” [MTP].

August 14 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote a delightful letter to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. Harry Rogers, Jr.) in Fairhaven, Mass. 

August 14 Friday – Sam’s guestbook:

Name Address Date Remarks

John B. Stanchfield ) )    

Mrs. Stanchfield )   New York City )“ [August] 14-15 [Clara Spaulding Stanchfield]

Alice their daughter ) )

      Note: none of the above names were in the original guestbook.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The Stanchfields arrived by motor hours late. / Ashcroft started for Canada” [MTP: IVL TS 59].

August 15 Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Dorothy Sturgis.

Dear Dorothy:

Good! You will be very welcome.

August 16 Sunday – Sam wrote a tribute to his late nephew, “Samuel Erasmus Moffett” and quoted from an obituary in Collier’s Weekly [Gribben 154]. Note: Moffett died on Aug. 1, 1908.

Isabel Lyon’s journal:  “Stanchfields left, creeping down the long hill through the field” [MTP: IVL TS 59].

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

August 16 Monday — Paine writes of Sam’s reading and of events in the evening:

August 16. He is reading Suetonius, which he already knows by heart — so full of the cruelties and licentiousness of imperial Rome.

This afternoon he began talking about Claudius,

August 17 Monday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.).

August 17 Tuesday - Sam's new guest book:

August 18 Tuesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote an aphorism to Margery H. Clinton.

It is a poor old maxim, & nothing in it: anybody can do it, you don’t have to employ a dog.

“Let a sleeping dog lie.”

Truly yours / Mark Twain

To Miss Margery Clinton

(August 18, 1908, at Redding, Conn. ) [MTP].

August 18 Wednesday - Sam's new guest book:

August 19 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:  “Mr. Lounsbury is ill, a fistula caused by a strain in moving Santa’s piano. AB and his nice old father came up for billiards. I entertained his nice old father and gave him tea on the loggia. He called the dear little cedar trees ‘volunteers’” [MTP: IVL TS 60]. Note: Paine’s father is shown as Samuel E. Paine in the Aug. 24 original guestbook entry.

August 19 Thursday — David Rutherford wrote from London, offering to illustrate for nothing:

Dear Sir, / In the “Idler” of February 1898 there appeared an article by Robert Barr in which he exposed a “system” advised by you for those in want of work and which had been acted upon very successfully in a number of instances by those who applied it. [...]

August – In Redding, Conn. Sam inscribed a photo of him seated (by Underwood & Underwood) with “best wishes” and the month/year to Jeannette Cholmeley-Jones [MTP].

Sam also inscribed a copy of JA to Mrs. Niehaus: “Truly Yours / Mark Twain / To Mrs. Niehaus, / the dear & valued friend of my daughter Jean—with my gratitude. / SL Clemens / August, 1908” [MTP].

August 1908 to February 1909 — Sometime during this period Albert I. Frye wrote from Brooklyn, NY to inquire of Sam a “less expensive method to insure copyright” [MTP]. Note: In the file a note by the MTP staff: “Since MLH, Mary L. Howden, is SLC’s stenographer from Aug 1908 to Feb 1909, this letter must have been written during that time”; the same note is in several letter files.

August — Current Literature published an anonymous article, “Mark Twain from a New Angle” [Tenney 46]. In his third supplement, Tenney adds: Summarizes and quotes Henderson’s ‘Mark Twain’. ..; also, quotes INDEPENDENCE BELGE...where ‘Jacques Lux refers to Prof. Archibald Henderson’s study as one of rare consciousness and singular force. ‘The Yankees,’ he says, ‘are as proud of possessing a Mark Twain as their fathers were ashamed of acknowledging Edgar Poe as their fellow-countryman.

August 2 Sunday– In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Charles M. Fairbanks.

Dear Charley— / Will you please entrust temporarily to the hands of the bearer, Mr. W. R. Ashcroft, such of my old letters and original (unpublished) MSS as your mother left in the family’s possession, so that he may have copies made of them for me. I have empowered Clara to publish a book of my letters for her bread-&-butter’s sake, (after my death.) / Sincerely Yours [MTP].

August 2 Monday — Sam’s new guestbook:

August 20 Thursday – In Redding, Conn., Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Katharine B. Clemens.

“Mr. Clemens asks me to thank you for the photograph which he is very glad to have, & also for your note containing the very pleasant news that you will probably be able to spend a Sunday here.

“Mr. Clemens is better, & asks me to convey his love to you” [MTP].

Sam’s new guestbook:

Name Address Date Remarks

Jervis Langdon Elmira, N.Y. August 20 (My nephew).

August 21 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The day was a placid one. We played Hearts, and then more Hearts” [MTP: IVL TS 61].

Charles W. Birge wrote from the Fitch Home for Soldiers in Noroton Heights, Conn. to ask Sam if he’d be some help to him in securing a cheap pair of spectacles to help him read; he could get a pair for $2 in Stamford. At age 72, Birge had a shaky hand [MTP]. Note: IVL: “No ans.”

Joe Goodman wrote from Alameda, Calif. about locating old letters from Clemens.

August 22 Saturday – Sam’s new guestbook:  

Name Address Date Remarks

Z. S. Freeman New York City       “ [August] 22-24 [Zoheth S. Freeman]

      Note: not in the original guestbook.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “I went to N.Y. on the 8:15. Back on the 1:27 and Zoe Freeman came too. It was torrenting when I went to the station, and the flood gates [sentence unfinished] [MTP: IVL TS 61].