November 24 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Flagg, 10.30. / Lunch with Brander, 681 West End Ave / Big tea Gabrilowitch. / Billiards—night—Mr. Rogers” [NB 43 TS 30].
According to Sam’s Nov. 21 note to Rogers (and above NB entry) Sam played billiards with H.H. Rogers and Dr. Clarence C. Rice at Rogers’ home this evening.
The New York Times, p.6, ran an announcement of an English lecturer whom Mark Twain would introduce on Dec. 12:
November 24 Sunday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Chatto & Windus, requesting sheets for “The Californian’s Tale,” which he meant to publish in Harper’s Monthly [MTP].
November 24 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote two notes to Franklin G. Whitmore, the first per Isabel Lyon.
Mr. Clemens asks me to write you to “poke up” Dr. Porter with regard to the property question.
November 24 Tuesday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to Daniel Willard Fiske.
It was fine to hear by your own hand that you had turned the corner. Let us soon see you back, & see you here. Mr. Clemens does hereby officially invite you to tea, said invitation to have force & effect on all days, be they wet or be they dry.
November 25 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Mrs. Roosevelt Robinson, lunch—meet H. Cabot Lodge. / 422 Madison Ave” [NB 43 TS 30].
November 25 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Delmonico, 7. Harvey. To reconstruct Harper’s Weekly & save its life. Still with Bangs for editor? Go to! P.S. The result not promising” [NB 44 TS 18]. Note: John Kendrick Bangs.
November 25 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote a draft of a letter to Frederick C. Harriott in response to Howells’ urging of Nov. 24.
November 25 Wednesday – Sam wrote to Joe Twichell [MTP]. UCCL 12876 letter is not currently available.
November 26 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “See Col. Harvey” [NB 43 TS 30]. Note: in view of the letter below, perhaps Harvey was not available so he had to settle for a letter.
At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to George B. Harvey, President of Harper & Brothers, that “The terms proposed in your letter of recent date are satisfactory,” and also acceptable was the publication of Mark Twain’s memoirs “100 years hence” [MTP].
November 26 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Could take 6.46. Don’t | Leave by 7.27—arrive 7.55. 8 p.m. Waldorf— big ball room. Mr. Stokes (Fred). N. England Soc. Return, 11.35 (Next & last, is 12.30)” [NB 44 TS 18].
November 26 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Carl Thalbitzer, a Danish writer, who, after reading “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg,” wrote to Sam on Nov. 13 asking if Sam put his personal views into such stories.
November 26 Thursday – Thanksgiving. Sam and daughter Jean shared Thanksgiving dinner with the George Gregory Smith’s. Clara stayed behind to help care for Livy. Smith wrote to his mother on Nov. 29:
November 27 Tuesday – Livy’s 55th birthday.
Owen Wister wrote to Sam. “This morning I’m much astonished and pleased by an invitation to meet you at dinner next Tuesday. I’ve thanked Mr. Ellsworth, but must also thank you most heartily. Of course I’m coming—probably incognito in order to retain your permission to call upon you at 14 West 10th Street” [MTP]. Note: William Webster Ellsworth.
November 27 Wednesday – Livy’s 56th birthday. Sam inscribed in Hawthorn and Lavender, with Other Verses, to Livy: “To / Mrs. Olivia L. Clemens—Nov. 27, 1871 or 2—Upon the occasion & celebration of one of her early birth-days, when she did not mind them so much. / from SLC. / Riverdale-on-Hudson / Nov. 1901” [MTP: TS of inscription in Hawthorn and Lavendar, with Other Verses; Gribben 308].
November 27 Thursday – Livy’s 57th birthday.
Harry Freeman wrote from NY to Sam offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest [MTP].
Georg Becker wrote from Berlin, Germany (in German) offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest [MTP].
W.T. Leslie wrote from NY to Sam offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest [MTP].
November 27 Friday – Livy’s 58th birthday.
Rogers had sent a subscription to the N.Y. Sun for Sam. The first copy arrived this day at the Villa. Sam was down with a case of gout, from which he recovered the next day [Nov. 28 to Rogers].
November 28 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Livy wrote for Sam to George Austin Morrison, informing him that Sam would not be able to get to the Banquet of St. Andrew’s Society until 9:30 and “slip into his seat at the President’s table before the speeches begin” [MTP].
November 28 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Train at 7.07. / 7.07 / Birth-day, dinner (not the 29th or 30th) Train leaves here at 7.07. / Wounds our conventions rather than our convictions. The convictions of one age are the conventions of the next” [NB 45 TS 34]. Note: evidently there had been some changes of the birthday dinner date; Sam entered a few things to say at the event in his Nov. 30 NB entry, and specified there it was to be the 29th; it wound up being this day. The 29th he was in Elmira at his niece’s wedding. The Nov. 30 entry:
November 28 Saturday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, responding to a letter, date unknown, which is not extant.
November 29 Thursday – Sam wrote his famous “Salutation-Speech from the 19th Century to the 20th” heading it “(For Red-Cross Watch -Night)”. After discovering that the Red Cross Society was doing advance advertising using his name he requested the piece be returned unpublished. He would then send it to the New England Anti-Imperialist League, and the New York Herald, dating it Dec. 31. It ran on Dec. 30 [Zwick, “Who Wrote the Couplet? etc.” MTJ 27.1 (Spring 1989): 34]. Note: See Dec.
November 29 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “At the Library—8 p.m. politician / a May engagement—see May 29” [NB 44 TS 19]. Note: May 29 only mentions Mrs. Urban H. Broughton.
In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam signed a typewritten note to Mrs. Sol Baerlein, (Lottie Kohner Baerlein, d.1920) declining an invitation [MTP: Scott J. Winslow Assoc. catalog, June 16, 1999, Item 80]. Note: Sol Baerlein published poetry in the yearbook of the Celibates Club.
November 29 Saturday – In Elmira, Sam, Jean Clemens and likely Katy Leary, attended an evening wedding in the Langdon home between his niece Julia Olivia Langdon (Julie) (1871-1948) and Edward Eugene Loomis (1864-1937) [Nov. 30 to Livy]. Note: Loomis was the First Vice President of the Delaware and Lackawanna Railroad.
November 29 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Mr. Caulfield, inter. 10 am” [NB 46 TS 30]. Note: Edward B. Caulfield of The Italian Gazette. Interview not in Scharnhorst. See Caulfield’s followup, Dec. 1.
George Gregory Smith wrote to Sam, enclosing copies of Paola de Plaisant’s letter and his reply.
November 3 Saturday – Sam and Livy (and possibly one or both of their daughters) took a train by 10:55 a.m. and traveled to Princeton, N.J.. for a two day visit with the Laurence Huttons [Oct. 31, Nov 7 to Hutton]. Note: it is possible they took in a ball game if they arrived early enough (mentioned in Sam’s Oct. 31 to Hutton; Sam planned to attend a football game on a return trip Nov. 16-18).
November 3 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Rehearsal, 10.30 a.m. carry play & check for house money. Tailor, Emery, 246 – 5th ave. ” [NB 45 TS 33]. Note: The play rehearsal was Lee Arthur’s HF, arranged by Dillingham; see Nov. 7 NB and prior entries. The 1900 Biographical directory of the state of New York lists Edwin W. Emery, Tailor at that address in N.Y.C.