August 8 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: The King wandered out from dinner tonight to look at a wonderful sunset and he called Benares and me to look at the mighty show. But we were compelled to stop in the great room to look at the slim beautiful white figure of the King standing in an archway of the loggia, with the hills and gorgeous glow of the sunset as a background.
Stormfield - Day By Day
August 8 Sunday —- Sam’s new guestbook:
| Name | Address | Date | Remarks |
| Dr. Loughran | New York | Aug. 8 Sunday | |
| Mrs. McKerncher [?] | " " | ||
| Her sister | " " |
August 9 Sunday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Gloucester, Mass.
Jean dear, don’t trouble about those financial matters; there will be no occasion for that; the expenses were fair & reasonable, & in any case Miss Lyon will take care of my interests. I knew all about the arrangement when it was made, & not only approved it but helped to make it.
“Is Shakespeare Dead?”– Stormfield $1 Tax – Clara vs. Isabel - Lyon Breaks Down – Clara’s Affair – Carnegie Dinner – Ashcroft Weds Lyon - “Lobster Pot” Boils – H.H.’s Railway – Who Fired Horace? – Lyon Sacked - St. Timothy’s – Ashcroft-Lyon MS – H.H. Rogers Dies – Lost Footnote - Twain Sues Mrs. Ashcroft – “Tobacco” Heart – Amicable Settlement - Ossip Weds Clara – Jean Comes Home – Bermuda with Paine - “Jean is a surprise & a wonder” – Jean dies: “I always envy the dead”
“I am still rich” — Bermuda Solitude — Wanting to Die at Stormfield
[SLC used mourning border for most letters from Jean's death on.]
December 1 Tuesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Marjorie Breckenridge.
December 10 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick.
December 10 Friday - The New York Times, p. 11, “Bazaar For Sick Nurses,” announced that Samuel L. Clemens would be in charge of “the raffling of an automobile.” Sam, however, was in Bermuda and would not return for the event.
December 11 Friday – Sam took a quick trip into NYC, using taxis to visit H.H. Rogers, Julia Langdon Loomis, daughter Clara, and Mary B. Rogers [Dec. 12 to Langdon].
December 11 Saturday — Hill records the final folding of the American Plasmon Co.
Ashcroft, who retained his position in the company, told [Charles T.] Lark that the foundering organization would sink unless Clemens provided additional funds, a suggestion that was sensibly declined. Finally, by December 11, 1909, while Clemens was in Bermuda.
December 12 Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Charles J. Langdon.
Dear Charley:
December 12 Sunday — D. Hoffman writes, “Nearly every Sunday [in Bermuda] he went to Prospect for the military band concerts. Once he had become a friend of the bandmaster, the entire program might consist of pieces Clemens suggested” [139].
Miss Angela Morgan wrote from Woodstock, NY to Sam, enclosing a page from the December number of Collier’s and which bore her poem, “God’s Man,” which Sam had given “interest and assistance” to her. She thanked him and considered herself “forever indebted” [MTP].
December 13 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mr. Starr & Mr. Watson came for luncheon today, & Mrs. Starr made some colored photographs of the King & Margaret” [MTP: IVL TS 83]. Note: see Starr’s account of this trip Nov. 29 entry.
December 13 Monday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam inscribed an aphorism in a copy of PW to Bernand Walker. “Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker may be sorry.—Page 77. Truly Yours, Mark Twain. With kindest regards to Mr. Bermand Walker. Bermuda, Dec. 13, 1909” [MTP: Parke- Bernet catalog, 4 May 1938, No. 38, Item 90].
December 14 Monday – William Ireland Starr, photographer from West Redding, Conn. came and took photographs of Stormfield and it’s occupants, including one of Ralph W.
December 14 Tuesday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally in Atlanta.
Francesca dear, I received your last just before I left home, & was glad to see you were carrying on as joyously & as turbulently as ever I hope there has been no abatement, & that there won’t be any while you are young.
December 15 Tuesday – Clara Apfel, who was about to prepare a paper for the Chicago Women’s Club wrote to ask “something new”—“Possibly what you personally think of ‘Women’s’ clubs” or some little incident” in his life [MTP]. Note: “Ans Dec 23 MLH”
December 16 Wednesday – William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.
Dear Clemens:
December 17 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam sent a telegram to daughter Jean in Berlin, Germany.
[typed on form of Western Union Telegraph Company:]
December 17 Friday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote a Bermuda postcard to Elizabeth Wallace. “Merry Christmas / & affectionate greeting / to Betsy / SLC / Blanche has been close-clipped & looks elegant—even spiritual” [MTP). Note: Maude was the donkey used in the earlier visit; Blanche may have been another.
December 18 Friday – In N.Y.C. H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam.
December 18 Saturday — Clemens and Albert Bigelow Paine sailed on the Bermudian bound for New York. In his Dec. 19 to Marion Schuyler Allen (Mrs. William H, Allen) Sam wrote, “We plunged into heavy seas before the waving handkerchiefs & the flag were an hour out of sight...”.
December 18-20 Monday — On board the Bermudian Sam wrote to Helen Schuyler Allen in Hamilton, Bermuda.
December 19 Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam replied to the Dec. 18 from H.H. Rogers.
Dear Admiral:
December 19 Sunday — On board the Bermudian Sam wrote to Marion Schuyler Allen (Mrs. William H. Allen) in Hamilton, Bermuda.
Dear Mrs. Allen:
I don’t know how to thank you & Mr. Allen enough for the perfectly charming time you have given me. I have never had a lovelier time, & I can’t get over being sorry that it had to come to an end.
December – Cooley writes of the decline of the Aquarium Club, something notable in less correspondence beginning this month:
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