September 30 Tuesday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam replied to Joe Twichell’s Sept. 28.
We think the above will be our address for only a week longer, but there’s no certainty. It depends on Livy’s picking up strength enough in that time to qualify her to sit up 30 minutes in a chair without harm. She sat up ten, yesterday. We have to wait & see.
We show her some of the letters, but not those that would stir her; she can’t see yours yet, but I will tell her it is here.
September 30 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “A P H / Every hog has his day” [NB 46 TS 25].
Joe Twichell wrote to Sam, pasting a Hartford Courant clipping at the top of the first page, which related an anecdote of Sam attending Parker’s Old South Church when Joe was away, and saying:
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 4 Thursday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to Eleanor V. Hutton (Mrs. Laurence Hutton).
Didn’t I answer your kind letter? I am afraid not, as I find it mixed-up in the long accumulation. Mails get neglected these days,—since Aug. 11.
Yesterday & to-day, however, I have been hard at it; for Mrs. Clemens has sat up in a chair a moment, both days, & is going to get well [MTP].
September 4 Friday – N.Y.C.: Sam’s notebook: “Went aboard the Kanawha 6 p.m. Lay off E. 23d st” [NB 46 TS 23].
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 5 Friday – Sam’s notebook “Last year, this month, I wrote that short story in 7 consecutive days— 22,000 words, $4,400. My average is only 10,000 words a week” [NB 45 TS 25]. Note: “The Double-Barrelled Detective Story.”
September 5 Saturday – Fairhaven, Mass: Sam’s notebook: “Sailed at dawn. / Arrived at Fairhaven early in the afternoon, 8 1/4 hours out / Billiards” [NB 46 TS 23].
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 6 Saturday – In York Harbor, Maine Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister, thinking Livy would be able to travel within a fortnight.
She is slowly recovering from an alarming illness which struck her Aug. 11., & which continued to be alarming, by fits & starts, until 3 or 4 days ago; then we discharged the night-doctor & retained only the day-one. She sits up ina chair now, 10 minutes at a time, twice a day.
September 6 Sunday – Sam spent the day with the Rogers family in Fairhaven, Mass. [NB 46 TS 23].
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 7 Sunday – Sam replied to Joe Twichell’s Sept. 2.
I don’t remember which book that convict’s letter is in. I think maybe it is in the back part of the Tramp Abroad; or might it be in Old Times on the Mississippi?
Bang away about me as freely as you please. When you include things from my letters it will be safest to select the extracts first & submit them to Livy—it will save wasting comment on passages which might perish under her blue pencil.
September 7 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Sailed for New York 2 p.m.” [NB 46 TS 23].
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 8 Monday – In York Harbor, Maine: Sam’s notebook: “This election day at the town hall, Twombley [sic Twombly] sat by the deputy sheriff & saw him buy votes at $2 each & enter the names in note-book. Said he had laid out $116 in this way—later (5 p.m.) T. saw the list of names of the bought-&-paid for—80!” [NB 45 TS 26]. Note: E.D. Twombly, editor of the short-lived (1899-1901) Old York Transcript.
September 8 Tuesday – Gustaf H. Ander wrote to Sam from NYC. Out of work and planning to start a business of some sort, Ander asked for an illustration he might use in his business. English was clearly not his first language [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.
September 9 Tuesday – In York Harbor, Maine, William Dean Howells, on his way to a reception, stopped by to visit Sam during a rainstorm [Sept. 11 to Aldrich].
Sam’s notebook “It took 3: one bought [,] one saw the swine mark his ticket & enter the booth, & no. 3 received him at the end of the hall & paid him. / Republic of America. / Patriots. Funston / [Line separator]
To The Person Sitting in Darkness