• May 27, 1907 Monday

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    May 27 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Marjorie Bowen (pseud. for Gabrielle Margaret Vere Long) giving his London address, Brown’s Hotel.  

    I shall be in England 10 days—June 18–28—& I think you will have to do as the American girls do: waive youth, sex, & the other conventions, & call on me. Yes, & telephone me when you are coming: otherwise we shall fail to collide, for I shall be a very busy person” [MTP: Cyril Clemens, Mark Twain: The Letter Writer, 1932 p.130].

  • May 28, 1907 Tuesday

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    May 28 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Went to town” [MTP TS 60].

    Frederick D. Wardle wrote to Sam (c/o Chatto & Windus) on Town Clerk’s Office, Guildhall, Bath stationery to Sam.

  • May 30, 1907 Thursday

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    May 30 Thursday – Sam replied to Harper’s of May 29: Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “If the London people will just ask C&W [Chatto & Windus] they will find that they can let Harpers know. They transferred” [MTP].

    Isabel Lyon’s journal: Days and weeks are passing and I am not writing a word about the most wonderful creature in the world, but I’ll try to hark back. He is in love with Tuxedo.

  • May 31, 1907 Friday

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    May 31 Friday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Robert Underwood Johnson. “M . Clemens asks me to say that he cannot serve an active part in the Academy, & so regrets that he is not able to send in any nominations. He believed that his Silence would be an answer” [MTP].

  • June 1907

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    June – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean, who evidently was dissatisfied at Katonah, and also unhappy with Isabel V. Lyon.  

  • June 1, 1907 Saturday

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    June 1 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Will came out today and there was very great music in the afternoon. The piano is down in hall and from my 3rd story I slipped down a flight, I had on a long thin black silk gown that made a little swish, just enough for the King who stood in his underdrawers in the 2nd hall, to hear and make him look up at me with his eyes shining with delight. He had come home from Mary Rogers’s and had gone to bed tired.

  • June 2, 1907 Sunday

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    June 2 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Santa left at 3:14 and I came back to build a fire in my study and to settle down and read Dr. Long’s reply to Roosevelt’s attack on his books of nature[.] I went to sleep in the chaise lounge and rested some weary things within me, and went down at 7 o’clock to a solitary dinner, for the King had lunched with the Rogers’s. To my delight the King came wandering into the room with the salad, and then he talked steadily until after 10.

  • June 3, 1907 Monday

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    June 3 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Chatto & Windus. “M . Clemens asks me to write for him & say that he must refer you to the London Harpers, and say to them that he has no objection himself to the cheaper edition of the three books you mention; but that as he is a sort of partner of the Harpers, he cannot give his consent without consulting them” [MTP].

    Sam also wrote an invitation to H.H. Rogers, Jr. and Mary B. Rogers, also in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.

  • June 4, 1907 Tuesday

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    June 4 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: We dined with the Ronalds’s tonight. She was like a pretty marquise, and it was nice to fly along home in the electric jigger. The King was in behind a bank of green stuff and so I couldn’t see him at all, but he wore his white clothes, and was beautiful to look upon.

    I came home very much exhausted and threw myself on the bed in my evening gown to read a letter from Mother…[MTP TS 64].

  • June 5, 1907 Wednesday

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    June 5 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Tonight we dined at the Mortimers in a very beautiful house, 16 of us. I sat between Dr. Rushmore and Mr. Pell, and had a very good time. They have wonderful pewter there and great stone carved fireplaces. It was a very formal dinner, and so the King wore black.

    Tomorrow we start for N.Y. [MTP TS 65]. Note: Edward C. Rushmore. The Tuxedo Club 1908 book lists five men named Pell; Herbert C. Pell as a founder of the Club.

  • June 6, 1907 Thursday

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    June 6 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Today we came into town to begin the preparations for England. It’s a good thing that Ashcroft can go with him, but it has been making me heart- sick I think. I drifted into a headache and staggered about the house, but went down to dinner. Mr. Wark was here, and Mr. Paine, and after dinner the King led the way at once to the billiard room. I sat with those 2 sweet children for awhile and they gave me a ring, a lapis lazuli, in a quaint setting.

  • June 7, 1907 Friday

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    June 7 Friday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote a dedication to Steve Gillis: “To / Steve Gillis / with the unabated love / of his oldest friend— / Mark Twain / New York, June 7, 1907” [MTP].

  • July 1907

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    July – Sometime after his return to Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick [MTP].

    In London Sam inscribed a photograph of himself in front of the House of Parliament, to I. Benjamin Stone [MTP].  

    After June An unidentified person “G” wrote a spoof to Sam about the stolen Ascot Cup.

  • July 23, 1907 Tuesday

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    July 23 Tuesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Butes at the Hotel Webster.

    Your letter has arrived to night. Tried to telephone you but you are out. To-day mailed letter to you in New Hampshire. I have engagement here tomorrow or would go and see you. Please telephone me here first thing in the morning. Call 113 Tuxedo. I am unspeakably sorry you are going without seeing you. If I had known you were in town I would have called last night [MTAq 46].

  • July 24, 1907 Wednesday

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    July 24 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: The King is lonely and so we make calls in the afternoons, but mostly people are out. We did see Mrs. Davies and Mrs. Ogden who gave us iced coffee and the King sat on their beautiful terrace and told about the Punch Dinner and the King’s Garden Party, and those 2 ladies were very sweet and worshipful, Mrs. Davies was a little flustered when she glanced up at her window to see her undershirt hung on some kind of a wire and swinging cheerfully at us [MTP 86].

  • July 25, 1907 Thursday

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    July 25 Thursday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote a note on a small card to Dorothy Butes, who was sailing: “Miss Dorothy BUTES / Steamer CELTIC. / Goodbye you dear child, and a happy voyage.” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the verso, “The King was heart sick to have Dorothy sail away for England.” In her journal entry below, Lyon referred to the above message to Butes as a “wireless.” Likely this card survives but the telegram does not.

  • July 26, 1907 Friday

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    July 26 Friday – Jean Clemens’ 27th birthday. Clemens A.D. for this day is listed by MTP.  

    Dr. Edward C. Rushmore attended to Sam; his bronchitis had worsened the day before upon reaching Tuxedo Park.  

    In Tuxedo Park, N.Y., Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Charles M. Fairbanks and Pauline M. Fairbanks in Brooklyn. Sam was home now and was “overwhelmed with mail,” and asked Isabel to write thanks for their message of welcome home [MTP].

  • July 27, 1907 Saturday

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    July 27 Saturday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Clara at the Hotel Victoria, Boston.  

    Clara dear, Clara very dear, I am in bed with a bronchitis caught in mid-ocean, but am not going to stay in bed after to-day. Nein, I will get up & sail for Bermuda next Thursday, & take Colonel Harvey along for courier, if I can’t shake off the cough in the meantime.

  • July 28, 1907 Sunday

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    July 28 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Tino [ABP]. King is bed with bronchitis and cancelling a luncheon with Mrs. Wolfe and tea with Mrs. Kane. AB and I worked over old letters, until we were limp. Long after midnight there was a thundering rumble of the King’s voice and a slam of a door and some good swears and there hadn’t been a thing in the King’s room. “No whiskey, no towels, no soap, no water.” and it was fine to hear him swear around and wake up everybody in the house. Oh, he’s a darling King.

  • July 29, 1907 Monday

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    July 29 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to George Parsons, Mayor of Cairo, Illinois.

    I thank you heartily for the high compliment of the invitation, & I would accept it at once if I could make the trip in a ship, but as that is not possible I am obliged to decline it. To me a land journey is the perfection of discomfort, & I am not expecting to try another one until I go in a hearse. A hearse with rubber tires, too, or I cancel the excursion. I hope you will have a good time: indeed I am able to predict that you will [MTP].

  • July 30, 1907 Tuesday

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    July 30 Tuesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y., Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote for Sam to Bowring & Co., N.Y.C., asking for $80 for the unused portion of the steamship Rosalind tickets by Clara Clemens and Isabel Lyon on the recently aborted trip to St. John [MTP]. Note: See July 1 entry.

  • July 31, 1907 Wednesday

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    July 31 Wednesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam sent a telegram to Miss Dorothy Quick at the Turell Inn, Plainfield, N.J.: “Letter for you at your Inn I sent it several days ago. / S.L. Clemens” [MTP].

    Dorothy Quick wrote from the Truell Inn, Plainfield, N.J. to Sam.

  • Late July and August, 1907

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    Late July and August – Sam’s A.D. sessions continued weekdays, for two or more hours each day. During this time, after his return from England, his dictations dealt almost exclusively with his time in England and Oxford [MTE 320-46].