Stormfield - Day By Day

December 25 Saturday — In Redding, Conn. Sam sent the same reply (telegram) to Annie Moffett Webster at 55 W 10th St N.Y. [MTP]

Paine writes of Christmas day:

December 26 Sunday — Sam drafted instructions to a printer for a card he wished printed for answering the many dozens of letters that poured in expressing sorrow and condolence upon the death of Jean Clemens.

December 27 Monday – Redding, Conn, Sam wrote to Mai H. Coe.

December 28 Tuesday — In Redding, Conn, Sam wrote to Harriet E. Whitmore.

December 29 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Clara .

O, Clara, Clara dear, I am so glad she is out of it & safe—safe!

I am not melancholy; I shall never be melancholy again, I think.

You see, I was in such distress when I came to realize that you were gone far away & no one stood between her & danger but me—& I could die at any moment, & then—oh then what would become of her! For she was wilful, you know, & would not have been governable.

December 30 Thursday - More letters and telegrams of condolence were sent by:

December 31 Friday - More letters and telegrams of condolence were sent by:

“I am still rich” — Bermuda Solitude — Wanting to Die at Stormfield

[SLC used mourning border for most letters from Jean's death on.]

January 1 Saturday — Sam signed a typewritten letter to an unidentified person concerning the appointment of Albert B. Paine as his secretary and manager of his affairs [MTP: American Arts Association-Anderson Galleries catalogs, No. 4346, 11-12 Nov. 1937, Item 89].

Sam also wrote to Elizabeth Wallace.

Dear Betsy: / I cant write. For I am ill with a cold—the first one I have had in two years. The pain in my breast has come back—so I am leaving for Bermuda next Wednesday, for an indefinite stay.

January 3 Monday - Albert B. Paine wrote to William H. Allen in Bermuda, advising them of Sam’s preferences during his stay there. Paine’s protectiveness of Clemens is quite evident:

For Mr. Clemens, I want to say that he is more than anxious to go to your house [Bay House] during his stay in Bermuda, for he does not like hotel life... but he feels he could not take advantage of this generosity on your part for any length of time without some compensation....

January 4 Tuesday — D. Hoffman writes: “Clemens took the train to New York on Tuesday, January 4, and had dinner that night with Howells and Paine at the home of Edward Eugene Loomis, who was married to Livy’s niece, Julia O. Langdon” [144]. (Editorial emphasis.) Note: it would be the last time Howells and Clemens met. Though the date is off by one day, MTHL carries the following note: 

January 5 Wednesday — Sam sailed “unexpectedly” for Bermuda on the Bermudian. Paine did not accompany him; instead his valet, Claude Benchotte [Paine to Quick Jan 17; D. Hoffman 158]. Note: Paine also had written the Allens that Sam would likely make another trip during the winter to Bermuda; Sam, down with a cold on New Year’s Day, planned to leave on this day for Bermuda, so just how “unexpected” the trip was, it may have seemed so to Paine.

January 6 Thursday — Sam was at sea on the Bermudian headed for Bermuda. It would be his last stay there and last 95 days, his longest [D. Hoffman 158].

Albert Bigelow Paine wrote from Redding to Clemens: “Matters are going well. Mrs. Paine & I are sending out the cards, and I shall order two hundred more bought. Already there are over three hundred letters and telegrams and a number came in today—one from Helen Keller, which I enclose to you” [MTP].

January 7 Friday — Sam arrived in Hamilton, Bermuda, where he wrote from the Allen’s Bay House, Pembroke Parish, to Frederick A. Duneka or Frederick T. Leigh at Harper’s.

Dear Duneka 
or The Major: 
Please get for me with good dispatch, & send to me to the above address, these things, to-wit, and charge to me: 
“Old Rose & Silver,” by Myrtle Reed; 
“Their Heart’s Desire” (illustrated by Harrison Fisher;) 
“The Master’s Violin.” hy Myrtle Reed

January 8 Saturday — Amy C. Hayes wrote from Molokai, Hawaii to offer condolences from her and her son, Dr. Homer H. Hayes [MTP].

January 9 Sunday — Albert Bigelow Paine wrote from Redding to Clemens:

I am enclosing to you a letter from Clara, received yesterday. It seems to be postmarked the 27th, so it was written before she could have received a letter from you.

She probably received my first letter about Jan 1 and we may expect an answer to it by next steamer. I also am enclosing a letter from Margaret Blackmer and I will put in one or two foreign letters [MTP].

Margaret W. Patterson wrote from Iowa to offer condolences [MTP].

January 10 Monday — Albert Bigelow Paine wrote from Redding to Clemens:

January 11 Tuesday - In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to Albert B. Paine in West Redding, Conn,

January 12 Wednesday — Mr. & Mrs. A.S. Kelley from Palmyra, Mo. wrote condolences [MTP].

January 14 Friday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to Albert B. Paine in West Redding, Conn.

For the Bazar

WHO?

Who loves to steal a while away 
From sinful joys & foolish play 
And fold her holy hands & pray? 
The Bitch. 
Who loves to watch while others pray, 
And hog their assets, night & day, 
Wherewith to fat her Ashcroft—say? 
The Bitch, 
(To be continued.) 
[verso:]

January 15 Saturday — Mrs. W.F. Forbush wrote from Cannon Station, Conn. to offer some treatment for Sam’s indigestion [MTP].

January 17 Monday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to the New York Telephone Co. requesting telephone books. His letter is not extant but referred to in the Company’s Jan. 20 reply; since Paine wrote the below for Clemens, it’s probable he also wrote this letter [MTP].

Albert B. Paine wrote for Sam to Mrs. Emma Gertrude Quick.

January 18 Tuesday — William Dean Howells wrote from NYC to Sam.

Dear Clemens: / While your wonderful words are warm in my mind yet, I want to tell you what you know already; that you never wrote anything greater, finer, than that turning-point paper of yours.

I shall feel it honor enough if they put on my tombstone, "He was born in the same Century and general Section of middle western Country with Dr. S. L. Clemens, Oxon., and had his Degree three years before him through a mistake of the University.”

January 19 Wednesday — Ragnvald Blix wrote on Simplicissimus notepaper from Munich, Germany:

I have just received the St. Sebastian [drawing] from my exhibition in Christiana and a friend of me, who goes to New York in some days, takes the drawing with him (I have heard that the luggage of drawings in America is very detailed and troublesome)

I hope, that the Sebastian is welcome in Stormfield? [MTP].

January 20 Thursday - W.H. Howe for H.H. Laboratory, Moorefield, Ky. wrote to ask for an autograph, after having visited Florida, Mo. and viewing the house where his aunt Polly said Clemens was born [MTP].

New York Telephone Co. per F.B. Ellis wrote to Sam: “I have your favor of January 17th, and wish to advise that 2 copies of the New York Telephone Directory issue of October 14th, 1909 have been sent to you by Adam’s express to-day” [MTP].

Dora Prentice Wills wrote from Holmesburg, Phila. to Sam.