To The Person Sitting in Darkness: Day By Day

December 16 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Jules Hart of the Hebrew Infant Asylum. Hart’s address: 173 St. Nicholas Ave., N.Y.C. “When politics enter into municipal government, nothing resulting therefrom in the way of crimes and infamies is then incredible. It actually enables one to accept and believe the impossible.” This is often quoted.

December 16 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Frank Bliss.

“ I write at Mr. Clemens’s suggestion to ask if you will send me a list of his writings published by the American Publishing Co. Many letters come asking information about his books and the prices, and it will simplify matters greatly if you can send me such a list for reference” [MTP].

Marquis de Eguilles wrote from France to Sam—a short fan letter of appreciation [MTP].

December 16 Wednesday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam began a letter to H.H. Rogers that he finished on Dec. 18. Sam enclosed a copy of Susan Crane’s Dec. 3 about John T. Lewis that Jean typed.

December 17 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Possible dinner with Harvey. See Thursday / The whole family dinner Rogers—telephone or Thursday” [NB 43 TS 31].

Sam wrote a reply to Richard Watson Gilder (incoming not extant), about the price of an article:

Dear Gilder: / But won’t you offer a price yourself? And make it a final one, so’s we shan’t lose time dickering.

December 17 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Ralph David Blumenfeld.

December 17 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frederick C. Harriott, and gave the letter to William Dean Howells, who somewhat softened the language, then sent it on to Harriott the same day.

December 17 Thursday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam wrote to Francis H. Skrine.

It is a charming young lady. She brought the book, & I have dipped into it with satisfaction—here I only dip & sip, for I am at work, these days, on a steady long job. We are beginning to like it here; we are housed, but not quite homed yet. But we are a long journey from town, & I like that. The daughters pay the visits & I stay at home.

Mrs. Clemens is not prospering as we could wish [MTP].

December 18 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Dinner at Mr. Mott’s 8 pm 17 E 47th / HOWELLS Lunch at 1 Century Club 7 W. 43d” [NB 43 TS 31]. Note: Jordan Lawrence Mott, Jr.; Sam gives the same address for Mott as he did in his Dec. 9 entry, connecting Mott to Winston Churchill’s visit.

Sam lunched with William Dean Howells at the Century Club [MTHL 2: 725: NB 43 TS 31].

At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Mrs. Elizabeth Evans.

December 18 Thursday – Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904), Irish writer and suffragette, wrote from Bristol, England—a short, and mostly illegible note of appreciation to Twain [MTP]. Sam wrote on the env. “Preserve this (Frances power Cobb’s autograph.)” Two of Cobbe’s books are noted in Gribben, p. 149. Cobbe founded the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection. Her father banished her for rejecting her Calvinist upbringing.

December 18 Friday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto near Florence Sam finished his Dec.16 to H.H. Rogers.

December 19 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Opera with Col Harvey / Owen Wister coming, 10.30.” [Note: source gives Livy as writer of the opera engagement. Also:] “dinner with Harvey. See Monday. His carriage will arrive for me at 6.30” [NB 43 TS 31-32].

December 19 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Debating Club, 8.15. Pipes & tobacco” [NB 44 TS 19]. Fatout lists this appearance and talk by Sam at a Debating Club, N.Y.C. but offers no particulars [MT Speaking 669].

Elisabeth Marbury wrote to Sam:

December 19 Friday – Fatout lists an “unidentified dinner” speech in N.Y.C. for this date [MT Speaking 672].

December 19 Saturday – Harper’s Weekly, ran an anonymous article, “Mark Twain’s Audiences,” p. 2071. Tenney: “A brief, undocumented anecdote of MT’s reply to a question of what audiences make the most responsive and sympathetic listeners: ‘college men and convicts.’ Also, p. 2030, photograph of MT, without comment, in ‘A Group of Our Harper Authors and Artists’” [38].

Sam’s notebook: “1 p.m. Mrs. Birch. / Villa Negri / Villa Bolognesi” [NB 46 TS 31].

December – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Eduard Pötzl in Vienna that he could not “write articles for anybody but Harper’s Magazine—it’s a contract.” Sam conveyed that they thought of and spoke of him often and sent Christmas greetings [MTP].

Clara Clemens wrote of her father’s new status as a sought-after sage on almost any topic and life in the 10th Street house:

December – Sam inscribed his photograph to William Winter: “Willie Winter, with the affectionate regard of Mark Twain. Riverdale, Dec., ’01” [MTP: Walpole Galleried catalogs, Nov. 11, 1923, Item 60].

Sam’s story, “The Death-Disk” (aka “The Death Wafer”) ran in Harper’s Monthly Magazine.

W. Ramsay’s article, “Mark Twain: A Biographical Sketch” ran in Great Thoughts. Twainian, II (February, 1940), 7 [35].

December – Sam’s story, “A Dog’s Tale” first ran in Harper’s Monthly this issue. Budd: “Shortly afterward it was published as a pamphlet…by the National Anti-Vivisection Society in London, dated 1903, although it was apparently not distributed until 1904. The story was published in a separate edition in September 1904 as A Dog’s Tale…and was included in the collection The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories (1906)”  [Collected 2: 1008].

December 2 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Dinner—Mrs. Kate Douglas Riggs” [NB 43 TS 30].

December 2 Monday – Elisabeth Marbury wrote from N.Y.C. to Sam about whom she should select to make a libretto of CY. She had conferred with George W. Broadhurst, whom she thought “especially qualified” for the job, and also thought Mr. Englander could write the music. If Francis Wilson (Sam’s preference) would not do business on terms acceptable, did Sam have another preference or would he “leave the thing wholly in” Marbury’s hands? [MTP]. Note: Sam answered the next day, Dec. 3.

December 2 Tuesday – Sam, daughter Jean, and Katy Leary were in Elmira, N.Y. [NB Dec. 3; 45, TS 34].

George B. Harvey forwarded to Sam copies of the regrets and acceptances for his 67th birthday celebration dinner [MTP].

John P. Hermann wrote from St. Louis to Sam offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest:

“He lies here still as he did before” [MTP].

December 20 Thursday – At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Clarence F. Forrest, thanking “the Committee” for the invitation but declining [MTP]. Note: Forrest is not further identified.

Sam also wrote to Mr. Griswold.

“I shall be very glad indeed to have the Dresden edition of my old friend’s books in my library in this house. I knew him twenty years, and was fond of him, and held him in as high honor as I have held any man living or dead” [MTP].

December 20 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Must be at home–Clara” [NB 44 TS 19].

In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Elisabeth Marbury’s Dec. 19, his letter not extant but noted on hers:

“Dec. 20/01. / Wrote her to give them 80% & me 20%” [MTP].

Sam inscribed a copy of FE to Robert B. Cone: “To / Mr. Robert B. Cone / with the compliments of / The Author. / Riverdale, Dec. 20, 1901. / S.L. Clemens / [cross-signed:] Mark Twain” [MTP].

December 20 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote per Isabel Lyon to Laurence Hutton.

I don’t lecture any more, otherwise I should say yes to that proposition, with pleasure. I never intend to stand on a platform again until the sheriff requires it.

December 20 Sunday – William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.

December 21 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Sir Martin / N.E. Dinner—to-day or tomorrow” [NB 43 TS 32].

At 1410 W. 10th in N.Y.C., Sam wrote to Irving Bacheller, declining an invitation. He had not accepted one since Nov. 12 and “declined an average of three a day ever since—the last three from my own home (Hartford).” He added that “The book charmed me!” [MTP]. Note: See Dec. 5 and 14 for, Eben Holden; A Tale of the North Country. Also see Gribben 36.