October 6 Monday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka.
“Oh, come, now, it is irreligious, the way you accept articles & postpone the payment. When you come to keep four doctors & two trained nurses all summer, with a war-price specialist from Boston now & then as an additional strain on your bank balance you will reform & follow custom” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore.
October 6 Tuesday – The Clemens family was resting at the Grosvenor Hotel, N.Y.C.
Sam’s notebook: “Tell Ingersoll’s story of the Calvinist who took a holiday trip to hell. Long story. Abrupt end, without a point. Then ‘But is that the end?’ ‘Yes.—No, I forgot—he couldn’t sell his return ticket’” [NB 46 TS 25].
October 7 Monday – R.G. Newbegin wrote to Sam that Thomas Reed had called his attention to the fact that a letter had been sent in their company name “reported to have been signed by you.” Newbegin blamed W.I. Squire, another agent in Toledo, Ohio; he understood Sam’s indignation, was sorry that the matter occurred, and would do their best to see it didn’t happen again. He confided Reed’s assertion that the act was “forgery in the third degree” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env.
October 7 Tuesday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Jennie Starkey that it was Bill Nye who said it, though she had “his idea but not his phrasing” [MTP: Seven Gables Bookshop, Item 69]. Note: the famous line attributed most often to Mark Twain but which he laid at Nye’s feet was: “Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.” See MTA 1: 338.
Gertrude Swain wrote from Greeley, Neb. to Sam:
Dear Mr. Twain:
October 7 Wednesday – George Gregory Smith sent a telegram and wrote a letter to Sam, confirming the lease agreement for the Villa in Florence. [MTP; Oct. 9 to Goodman]. Hill gives the rental price at 10,000 Lire, which was “half the original lease price” [70]. Note: in his Oct. 11 to his mother, Smith noted Sam “cabled his satisfaction”; cable not extant [Orth 30].
October 8 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edmund Clarence Stedman in Bronxville, N.Y.
Mr. Dodge gave me the valued accommodation of a lift up the hill the other day, & although he wouldn’t come in at that time he promised that he & his family would come & see us later—we hope the contract will be made good. Yes, I am here for peace & repose…we are not of those who desire the peace & repose of the hermit or the convict.
October 8 Wednesday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.
If there is no Harper obstruction, or other thing in the way, I am willing that you shall newly issue the “Library of Humor” and pay me 4% as proposed Provided, that you will not object to my issuing a low-priced book when I want to. I have two books half finished, which I may wish to publish at a dollar each—I have had that thought in my head [MTP].
October 8 Thursday – Sam’s notebook:
I to write exclusively for him; (magazine stuff).
At 30 cents a word;
And get $10,000 a year;
Even if I write nothing.
If I write more than $10,000 worth, the surplus to be paid at 30 c per word. [NB 46 TS 25]. Note: Sam was mulling over Robert J. Collier’s offer.
Joe Twichell wrote to Sam, the letter not extant but referred to in his Oct. 9 reply.
October 9 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to George B. Harvey, president of Harpers and the North American Review: “If you are going to issue the North American several days before election day (Nov. 5) I’d like to have a few pages of space in it—otherwise, if it can’t be, I won’t waste my article but go to a political meeting & deliver it as a speech” [MTP].
October 9 Thursday – In York Harbor, Maine: Sam’s notebook: “10 weeks to-day since Jean had an attack. Longest previous interval since July 12 (end of bromides) 1899 was 6 weeks & 4 days./ [Horiz. Line separator] / Am giving Bliss privilege to issue low-priced Library of Humor, provided he shan’t object to my publishing low-priced books, too” [NB 45 TS 30].
Sam wrote a line to an unidentified local man: “All the letters have arrived. If possible I shall call upon you to-morrow, toward 1 p.m.” [MTP].
October 9 Friday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote an aphorism to Alfred E. Ann: “There is no sadder sight than a young pessimist—except an old optimist. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain. / Oct. 9/03” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Joe Goodman in Alameda, Calif.
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 1 Monday – In York Harbor, Maine: Sam’s notebook “Monday 6 p.m.—tea / Mrs. Rogers— Clara & Mr. Young R. there—going away. / Yorkshire Men—cousin of Miss Jones who is singing—near Stephens store). / telephone if we can’t come. / [Line separator] / Offered $50,000 for the Tarrytown house. Declined. We paid $45,000 for it. ” [NB 45 TS 25].
Sam also wrote to H.H. Rogers.
September 1 Tuesday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mark Bennett of the World’s Fair offices, St. Louis.
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 10 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook “Mrs. Loring, supper 7 o’clock / Bridge’s cottage almost opp. The Albracca [Hotel]. / [Horiz. line separator] / The Polecat Battery. / The siege & storm” [NB 45 TS 26].
September 10 Thursday
September 11 Wednesday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote a short compliment to his nephew Samuel E.
September 11 Thursday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
Mrs. Clemens, who loves you, is dragging along very very slowly. She thinks she will be strong enough a week from now, to travel on a bed, & can go home. We others have doubts, but do not say so, for that would make argument, & argument sends up the pulse & is forbidden. Sometimes we allow her to read a letter; & to-morrow she will see yours, & it will make her glad.
September 11 Friday – At 8 a.m. from the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Frederick A. Duneka.
I am leaving for Elmira, N.Y. I shall be back again next Monday morning.
Meantime please have a copy made of the lawyer’s opinion (1894-or ’95) concerning my competency or incompetency to sell or transfer the copyright-renewals of my books. Please send it to 26 Broadway so that I may find it there when I come.
Is there a cause in the Bliss-Harper contract providing for renewals? [MTP: eBay Mar. 28, 2002].
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.
September 12 Saturday – Sam was at Quarry Farm in Elmira, where he advised Livy that H.H. Rogers was handling the negotiations with George B. Harvey of Harper & Brothers, and the American Publishing Co. [Sept. 14 to Rogers].
September 13 Saturday – In York Harbor, Maine: Sam’s notebook: “Cadwalader, 7.30 / Precepts & Principles for a New Religion: having, for its base, God & Man as they are, & not as the elaborately masked & disguised artificialities they are represented to be in most philosophies & in all religions” [NB 45 TS 26]. Note: John Cadwalader of Phila., staying in York Harbor. In his next NB entry Sam noted the presence of “Young Mercer” at Cadwalader’s dinner on this evening
September 13 Sunday – The New York Times ran a squib on p.3, Sept. 19, “Mark Twain Getting Over Bronchitis,” which reported his attack of this day. Twain “has been indisposed all the week,” and on the 19th was “feeling quite well.”
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