Saranac Lake: Day By Day

June 21 Friday – The Clemens family left N.Y.C. and traveled to Saranac Lake, N.Y. According to his June 19 to Rogers, they left at 7:50 a.m. and arrived about 7 p.m., a day long trip. Their May 10 lease agreement was for June 1 to Oct. 1, 1901, so they had lost three weeks of lease at this point. Insert: “The Lair,” a “cabin” at Adirondack Park later called “Mark Twain Camp.”

June 22 Saturday – Clifford J. Wilkinson wrote from Kobe, Japan to Sam. Wilkinson had last spoken to Sam in London, through their mutual friend MacAlister, and had sent him a case of Tansan & Niwo mineral water for his gout, and was now sending a couple of cases which he felt would prevent a return of gout [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Answer this—try the water first”

June 24 Monday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam replied to Charles Erskine Scott Wood.

Good—I shall be glad to have a copy when it issues; & I am thanking you in advance.

June 27 Thursday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam replied to Abbott Handerson Thayer’s June 18:

Your hearty praises give me very great pleasure, & I thank you for speaking them out. When one is treading on an unpopular road it is a mighty help & refreshment to know that there are those whose hearts are with him.

June 28 Friday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote condolences to John M.

June 29 Saturday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Clara, who had remained for a time in New York, probably for activities related to her singing career: “Hurry up here, Ashcat dear, before the mosquitoes & strawberries are gone. We are wanting to see you, & are all ready to welcome you.” Sam signed the note “Mongoose.” His first paragraph is a short spoof that begins by “What does the mongoose say? That the spider is right to smile” [MTP].

Sam returned to New York May 10th, 1901, where he signed a lease indenture for a cottage that he would name “The Lair” (it would later be called “Mark Twain Camp”) on Saranac Lake, N.Y. The lease to run from June 1 to Oct. 31, 1901 for a total of $650, with $150 at the signing and $250 on July 1 and $250 on Aug. 1. Sam and George V.W. Duryee, owner of the Adirondack Park Co. signed, with Olivia L. Clemens signing as witness.

September 1 Sunday – Sam was writing “The Double-Barrelled Detective Story,” averaging eighteen pages per day between Aug. 29 and Sept. 6 [Sept. 6 to Rogers].

September 10 Tuesday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote to Joe Twichell.

DEAR JOE,—It is another off day, but tomorrow I shall resume work to a certainty, and bid a long farewell to letter-scribbling.

September 11 Wednesday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote a short compliment to his nephew Samuel E.

September 12 Thursday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka of Harper’s that his address would be in care of H.H. Rogers until Oct. 1, then Riverdale on the Hudson [MTP].

Sam also wrote to James B. Pond.

Sept. 14, 1901 – William McKinley died from his Sept. 6 gunshot wound. In Buffalo, N.Y. Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as the new President

September 15 Sunday – Sam inscribed in the front free endpaper of Great Religions of the World, by Herbert Allen Giles (1845-1935), et al (1901): “S.L. Clemens / Ampersand / Saranac Lake, N.Y. / Sept.

September 16 Monday – Saranac Lake: Sam wrote to Mrs. Virginia Frazer Boyle in Memphis, Tenn.

September 18 Wednesday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers that they were packed and would leave in the morning for Elmira. The rest of the letter has to do with what he felt was “a mighty cold -blooded piece of rascality” by the R.G. Newbegin Co. in resorting “to forgery” in their pamphlet on his uniform edition. He suggested a lawsuit:

September 19 Thursday – In the morning before leaving Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote a goodbye note to Mr. and Mrs. George V. Duryee, the real estate agent who leased their house over the lake: “Hail and Farewell! / It has been Paradise to us all Summer” [MTP].

Probably this day or Sept. 18 Sam wrote a quick note to H.H. Rogers.

September 2 Monday – Sam was writing “The Double-Barrelled Detective Story,” averaging eighteen pages per day between Aug. 29 and Sept. 6 [Sept. 6 to Rogers].

September 3 Tuesday – Sam was writing “The Double-Barrelled Detective Story,” averaging eighteen pages per day between Aug. 29 and Sept. 6 [Sept. 6 to Rogers].

September 4 Wednesday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote to Harper & Brothers. All that survives is his PS in a 1902 facsimile for a Harper’s Monthly Magazine Prospectus: “P.S. Before January I shall have a story ready for the magazine” [MTP].

September 5 Thursday – Sam was writing “The Double-Barrelled Detective Story,” averaging eighteen pages per day between Aug. 29 and Sept. 6 [Sept. 6 to Rogers].

Joe Twichell wrote to Sam from Hewitt Lake, Minerva, N.Y. In part:

September 6 Friday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote, forwarding Joe Twichell’s Sept. 5 to H.H.

Rogers: “From Twichell. Needn’t return it, Mr. Rogers; —don’t need it. Waste-basket it” [MTP; not in MTHHR].

September 7 Saturday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. while Sam worked to finish “The Double-Barrelled Detective Story,” the rest of the Clemens family was “away all day, on an engagement ten or fifteen miles from here” (unspecified) [Sept. 8 to Pond].

September 8 Sunday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote a short note to Frank Bliss, still haunted by the possibilities of a book on Lynching in the U.S. “After October 20 (we shall be settled at housekeeping by that time…) I want to talk with you about it.” On the lower left corner of the letter he added: “I wonder if George Kennan wouldn’t collaborate with me?” [MTP]. 

September 9 Monday – The ledger books of Chatto & Windus show that between Sept. 9, 1901 and Jan. 25, 1908, three additional printings totaling 4,500 copies of Tom Sawyer Abroad were printed, totaling 14,500 [Welland 237]. Chatto & Windus’ Jan. 1, 1904 statement to Clemens shows 1,500 3s.6d.