October 7 Monday – Isabel Lyon wrote to Dorothy Quick [MTAq 75-6].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Ashcroft went at 8:15 and I went to N.Y. to see about getting the house in order for C.C.” [MTP TS 113].
Howells & Stokes wrote to Miss Lyon requesting a new check be drawn in the name of William Webb Sunderland since both Howells and Stokes were out of town [MTP].
Charles J. Langdon wrote a short note, enclosing draft for $44.33 on the Buffalo property [MTP].
October 8 Tuesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Katonah, N.Y.
Jean dear, I hear that Dr. [Frederick] Peterson is exceedingly well pleased with your year’s progress, & certainly I am. It is a wonderful advance. How fortunate it was that fortune put you into his hands. He expects this improvement to go right along.
October 9 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “King and I went to N.Y. on the 8:15. He dined with Mr. Jim Clemens and Mr. Brent Clemens at Delmonicoes” [MTP TS 113].
John J. Craven wrote from Phila. to thank Sam for Lyon’s letter of Oct. 8 with signed photo [MTP].
September 1 Sunday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Albert Langen.
September 10 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “No. C.S. advertisements” [MTP TS 102].
Kate B. Lee wrote to ask Sam to write a piece on seasickness, as she suffered from it for two whole days and couldn’t explain it to friends [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd. Sept. 16, ‘07”
September 11 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: I had what the King calls “an adventure” this rainy morning. A Mr. Ullman, a man who does writing for newspaper syndicates came out by appointment to see me and so write an article about the way the King spends his day. He was planning to make it seem as if he had really had “a day with Mark Twain” and only after continued determination on my part would he consent to have the interview come through me. He is to submit his ms. to me. When that was promised I could and did talk freely and we had a very good time.
September 12 Thursday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam began a letter to Dorothy Quick who had left with Miss Lyon for New York City. Clemens added to the letter on Sept. 13 and 14. “Dorothy dear, you are gone, & I am dissatisfied” [MTAq 62].
September 13 Friday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam added to his Sept. 12 to Dorothy Quick.
You are still gone, & I am still dissatisfied.
Subsequently.
You are still gone, & I am still more dissatisfieder than ever. This is a long day.
Homeward the bandit plods her weary way and leaves the world to darkness & to me.
September 14 Saturday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam finished his Sept.12, 13 to Dorothy Quick.
Which I did [go to bed]. But a cricket was hiding somewhere in the room, & continuously & monotonously shrieking. I endured it an hour (until 10), then removed to another room. I returned at 11, at 1, at 4, but was drivenout each time.
Last night he drove me out at 9.30, & I returned no more. To-night Miss Lyon will occupy my room, & capture him if possible.
September 15 Sunday – Sam inscribed a copy of IA with his “truth….economise” aphorism to Miss Josephine S. Hobby, his stenographer for his autobiographical dictations [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: I wrote a poem for T.
September 16 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: This morning the King went away on the 11:50 train to be met by Ashcroft and go by the New Bedford boat “Maine”, up to Fairhaven to see Mr. Rogers, who has been a very ill man. The King looked very handsome in his pale grey travelling suit. I was left as I always am, with a great sense of loneliness, as the jigger went noisily away.
September 17 Tuesday – Sam left on the steamer Maine for New Bedford, Mass. to be a guest of H.H. Rogers at his Fairhaven home. Rogers was quite ill after a stroke [NY Times, Sept. 18, p.1].
H. H. ROGERS DRIVES AUTO.
———
Has Mark Twain as Guest—Said to be Crippled by Apoplexy.
Special to The New York Times.
September 18 Wednesday – Sam was in Fairhaven, Mass. visiting the Rogers family.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “T replied to the poem” [MTP TS 106].
Helen M. De Muth wrote from Crofton, Pa to Sam, sending him a photo of her (which also included Dorothy Quick) taken on the Minnetonka, [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd. Sept. 18, ‘07”
September 19 Thursday – Sam, in Fairhaven, Mass., wrote the date and his signature in a book for blottings, “The Ghosts of My Friends”—possibly to General and Mrs. Edward McCook [MTP].
Isabel Lyon wrote to Dorothy Quick
September – Bookman (NY) ran a sour article, “Mark Twain’s Publicity R.I.P.” p. 9-10. Tenney: “‘Mark Twain’s work,’ said one British writer when British applause was at its loudest, ‘has absolutely no connection with literature,’ and some of it ‘has for sheer concentrated vulgarity never been beaten’; and it was a pity, said another, that Oxford did not honor Henry James instead. The American press reported only England’s praise when MT visited.
September 2 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: The King had been up in my study telephoning to Dorothy [Quick] this morning, & when we went back to his room to go on with the morning business we found the smell of tobacco pretty strong & he said it smelt “as if a stuffy old archangel had been in there”. I told him that Santa & I love the smell of an archangel. He said “yes, the smell of young ones, but not the stale old ones.”
September 20 Friday – Sam left Fairhaven, Mass. early in the morning on the Kanawha. H.H. Rogers did not accompany him, but Harry and Mary Rogers did [NY Times, Sept. 21, p.18]. Sam arrived in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. in the evening and wrote to daughter Jean in Katonah, N.Y.
September 21 Saturday – Early in the morning Sam left Tuxedo Park for N.Y.C., where he boarded the Kanawha and left for Jamestown, Va. with Harry Rogers and his wife Mary
Benjamin Rogers, to attend the Robert Fulton Day celebration. Sam would preside at the ceremonies.
September 22 Sunday – The New York Times, “Mark Twain Skipper of Rogers’s Yacht,” p.9 reported the Kanawha and Cornelius Vanderbilt’s steam yacht North Star leaving for Jamestown.
September 23 Monday – Norfolk, Va. Sam introduced Rear Admiral Purnell Frederick Harrington (1844-1937) at the Robert Fulton Day ceremonies. The New York Times, Sept. 24 covered the event:
HONOR FULTON AT JAMESTOWN
———
Inventor’s Use of Steam in Navigation Shown in Marine Parade.
September 24 Tuesday – Near Norfolk, Va., for the Jamestown Exposition at Sewell’s Point on Hampton Roads, Sam inscribed a portrait drawing of him to Mrs. Hugh Gordon Miller: “To Mrs. Hugh Gordon Miller / With the affectionate & grateful remembrances of / Mark Twain / Jamestown Exposition, / September 24th/07. / (the day after the struggle).” [MTP]. Note: the Exposition was typical of many world fairs and expositions popular in the early part of the 20 Century; it ran from Apr. 26 to Dec.
September 25 Wednesday – At the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally.
Dear Francesca: / I have just come ashore from the yacht, & am passing by to take the 12.55 Erie RR train for Tuxedo Park. You & your mother are out—naturally, at this time of day. I would have telephoned in advance, but there wasn’t time.
September 26 Thursday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick.
Dorothy dear, I hear that you are at school, & that you greatly like it& are very busy—all of which is good to hear, & naturally is a great pleasure & comfort to your mother.
September 27 Friday – Sam also wrote two letters to J.E. Edmonds, of the Daily State Times of Baton Rouge. A trip down the Mississippi was planned by Theodore Roosevelt, with a suggestion that Mark Twain be the chief pilot. Sam turned down the offer; Edmunds wrote an editorial about it. Sam then wrote these letters, the first a cover letter and the second a blast: “I am often against [President Roosevelt] politically, but this has not affected the friendship existing between us these twenty years.” [MTP].
September 28 Saturday – Frances Nunnally and her mother visited Sam. They played hearts [Oct 2 from Nunnally].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Santa decides to come to town on the 11th.