November 13 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “3.30 Col Harvey at 26 B’way” [NB 43 TS 28]. Note: George B. Harvey at H.H. Roger’s office.
At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, thanking him for sending a copy of Aldrich’s speech for the Nov. 11 Lotos Banquet in Mark Twain’s honor.
November 13 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Anti-Imp. League—501-Fifth Ave, cor. 42d—4 p.m. rooms of Mr. Forney” [NB 44 TS 17]. Note: Sam attended a meeting of officers of the Anti-Imperialist League of New York. His participation is also mentioned in a news release about the meeting circulated later by Edward W. Ordway [Zwick email Oct. 20, 2007].
November 13 Thursday – Sam had promised Edward W. Ordway he would be at the Anti-Imperialist League meeting at 4p.m. [Nov. 2 to Ordway].
In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to William Dean Howells.
I am glad you sent me the short story from Texas. I wonder if you have much of this luck. That little story is a meal for a male; a male who has been living on Huyler’s Candy for a week, and wants something with bones and blood and gristle in it.
November 13 Friday – Jean Holden wrote from Chicago to Sam asking permission to make slides of some of the pictures in JA [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Refer to Harper aout the pictures”
November 14 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: names a comedy play by Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, whom he’d met at a dinner for Sir Henry Irving in London on June 9: The Gay Lord Quex: A Comedy in Four Acts. N.Y . The full NB entry:
Sam’s notebook: “Gay Lord Quex—Wednesday—Box—or billiards? Ask R & the Rices & telephonegraph. /
Mrs. Clemens & not the Rice’s—dinner 6.45. / Dine with Mr. Rogers” [NB 43 TS 29].
November 14 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Emily S. Hutchings, advising her what to do with rejected manuscripts.
November 14 Saturday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam sent a telegram to Daniel Willard Fiske: “WE HOPE YOU ARE DAILY IMPROVING AND WILL SOON BE WITH US. + CLEMENS” [MTP]. Note: Fiske was in Copenhagen suffering from Gout .
November 15 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Society of American Authors / Delmonicos 8.30 / Mr. John J. Rooney 66 Beaver st. Rooney will call for me at 8.15 / No public mention to be made” [NB 43 TS 29]. Note: see the “public mention” made by the NY Times later in this entry; no mention made of Rooney in the article.
November 15 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Carey & portraits of Wash &c. / Why’nt you go to hell?—no Irish there/ A lie is an abomination [U] / Faith is believing what y’ know ain’t so. [U] / The callant died [?] / Pate de fois gras / May yr hon live till y’ collect it. [C] / The lost trunk—French [C] / What streets have you? [U] / We’ll see two cubs—/ He won’t let me go to par when he can get me at 30 off. [U] / Lightning bug & lightning / Josh” [NB 44 TS 17].
November 15 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow.
Welcome!—welcome!—and again and again welcome to these foreign shores, you well beloved alien’! You should be arriving today by my count.
Mrs. Clemens is abed and in the osteopath’s hands, but she will get well as soon as she can, for she wants you to come up here and eat before you go off lecturing.
We make our reverence to your father, and join in kind regards to all the blood [MTP].
November 15 Sunday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam finished his Nov. 11 and 12 to H.H.Rogers.
Nov. 15. Just in the edge of the evening of that day (the 12th) Mrs. Clemens got a bad & disabling burn, & is keeping her bed ever since. It was an accident, & not her fault. It will not be well soon.
November 16 Friday – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.
Frank Doubleday (whom you know well) of 111 East 16th street, got this furnished house for me, & I am immensely obliged to him. Therefore I want to present him with a set of the Ordinary Uniform edition of my books….
November 16 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frank Fuller.
“With the enfeebling big adjective squelched & the commendation strengthened by the substitution of a smaller one I think the remark will now do to print.
“Excuse brevity & haste—I am crowding a piece of work to a finish today” [MTP].
November 16 Sunday – In N.Y.C. William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.
(the way you look now)
Of course I should like to help pry that money out of Heriot [sic Harriott], but I think it will take more than fence-rails to do it. Poor Stoddard wrote me to the same effect as he wrote you, and wrung my heart so that I have not yet braced up to show that I had one. “This d—— human race!” You were well out of that dinner last night. Oh, but the clack was dull [MTHL 2: 750].
November 16 Monday – Mary Elizabeth Phillips sent a money order to Sam for 25 cents, probably for the print she sent the day before (above) [MTP]. Note: on the env.: “Preserve this rubbish / SLC.”
November 17 Saturday – Sam was in Princeton, N.J.. staying with the Laurence Hutton’s. He attended the Yale-Princeton football game. Sam’s NB 43 TS 29 cited the game this day. The New York World, p.3 reported on the event the following day, Nov. 18; in part:
“THIS BEATS CROQUET,” SAID MARK TWAIN AT FOOTBALL GAME.
Sees Yale Whip Princeton, but “Roots” Vigorously for the Tigers.
November 17 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Like dew on the gowan lying is you specialty. / Lord Rector of Glasgow—rectors are ecclesiastical only—if its a good salary I shall run for it. Ancient & Honorable Artillery” [NB 44 TS 18].
Theodore Weld Stanton (1851-1925) wrote from Paris on Harper’s letterhead
I landed here last week after a most delightful passage. I never in fact had a more pleasant one. We were nearly, within a half hour, making the shortest eastern passage.
November 17 Monday – Emily S. Hutchings replied from St. Louis to Sam’s Nov. 14, thanking him for his “good and helpful letter,” which she’d rec’d this morning. She related a quick history of a novel she’d written on the Civil War when she was 20, and of Gen. Lew Wallace’s opinion, her decision not to publish it with Munsey, etc. Her lament was that so many other “oars” were in the water when it came to getting a book to the right publisher. She wished Livy better health [MTP].
November 17 Tuesday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote on John Y. MacAlister’s letter of introduction to Guido Biagi.
November 18 Sunday – Sam was in Princeton, N.J. staying with the Laurence Hutton’s [NB 43 TS 29].
On letterhead sporting “PEEP O’DAY / PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY,” (Laurence Hutton’s home) Sam wropte to William Webster Ellsworth.
Dear Mr. Ellsworth:
I’ve thought of a couple of guests, if you like:
Joe Jefferson
Gen. C.J. Langdon.
The latter’s address is Elmira, N.Y.
Brother-in-law of mine / Sincerely Yours / SL. Clemens [in left lower corner:] OVER
[verso]
November 18 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Embalm—bury—cremate, if these fail, try dissection. Extravagant enough in American form—in original Scotch form more so. Unconscious: chance juxtaposition of quaint or grotesque incongruous elements” [NB 44 TS 18].
November 18 Tuesday – Sam gave daughter Jean the following book, which she inscribed with her name and this date: Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore’s Nature and the Camera. How to Photograph Live Birds and Their Nests, Animals, Wild Game [Gribben 205].
Sam’s notebook: “Strachey dinner 8 p.m. Arr. Grand Central at 8. Col. Harvey 1 W. 72d” [NB 45 TS 34].
November 18 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Mrs. Crocker T.D. f / Villa Solferino / 8 & 10 Via Solferino / Dinner, 7 p.m. / (& Mrs. Acklan)” [NB 46 TS 30]. Note: Mrs. Mary Aklom (Mrs. A.J. Aklom), appears in various spellings.
St. Clair McKelway wrote a letter of introduction to Sam for Miss Theodosia Lawson Boone, “now a visitor in Florence, but a resident of New York City” [MTP]. Note: see Nov. 23 from Theodosia Boone.
November 19 Monday – At Princeton, N.J.. Sam wrote to Channing H. Cook with the American Plasmon Syndicate asking that two pounds of Plasmon be sent to Laurence Hutton since he had been at Hutton’s for two days and eaten up all his supply [MTP].
Sam returned to N.Y.C. He had a “delightful companion” on his trip back, a Mr. Palmer, whom he wrote of to Hutton on Nov. 21 (not further identified).
November 19 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Conscious humor. Intentional juxtaposi can be wit in unconscious but not in conscious—the word indicates an intellectual effort. Man put 2 expediting stamps on letter he wanted it to go in a great hurry. Irish? No (Bub) | Goldsmith says: For thy sake I admit that a Scot may have humor—I’d almost said wit. | Does the text mean 1.