You dear, read these & return them. No, there is no need of “private”—no one will open your letter. Do not write about the letters —it is a secret of mine—just return them without comment.
Jean & I were out from 5 yesterday until 8, calling, & had a good time. We sup with Raphael Pumpelly this evening.
July 18 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Yesterday Mr. Pumpelly called because Mr. Clemens and Jean dined there last night, and he paid such interesting respects to “Casa Clemens,” and I was the only one to hear them. He is tall and white bearded with a fine blue eye, and he’s handsome to look upon. He has been every where too. Mr. Clemens says that Mr. P. is two years younger than he.
July 19 before – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to George Porter. “Mr. Clemens has read the play & is greatly interested. He would like to talk with you. Name your day & hour” [MTP]. See July 23 entry.
July 21 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Today I set out for Dublin again, achieving all I planned to do. I reached the house at 8:30 to find Mr. Clemens and Jean having supper with Mr. and Mrs. Learned. Oh, the peace of the hills, the purity of the air, only I am too exhausted to know [MTP TS 81].
July 22 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: This afternoon [4 p.m.] Mr. Clemens spoke before the members of the Dublin Lake Club. It was all a surprise to them. They had imagined Mr. Thayer would speak. He was such a delight. I had never heard him before in public—so didn’t know that side of the magic of him. He touched on “Eve’s Diary,” and Eve’s characteristics, and then he spoke of the caprices of memory, introducing one delightful anecdote after another. I didn’t want to know what subject he was going to speak on, so I didn’t ask. He is so wonderful.
July 23 Sunday – George Porter, playwright who had written a play on Joan of Arc, The Maid, A Drama in Five Acts (1904), visited Sam in Dublin, N.H. [Gribben 554: Note on July 19 from Porter]. On the inside of Porter’s July 19 letter Miss Lyon wrote, “He came—Sunday- July 23 and brought the play of Joan of Arc—and some sweet peas. He was chilled to the bones & shivering, so Mr. Clemens put his own cape about his shoulders, & gave him whiskey… / But oh dear— / He didn’t come to any point.
July 24 Monday – On or after this day in Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote a short note for Sam to reply to George B. Harvey’s July 22 (below). “M . Clemens has already stopped this & has sent something. Very sorry to hear that Maj. Leigh is ill, & that Col H is well If M .Duneka cannot stand the Hell—then compromise on Sheol” [MTP]. Note: MTP places this as “on or after July 22” the date of Harvey’s incoming. Same day delivery from NYC to Dublin, N.H. was unlikely, so it is estimated on or after this day.
July 25 Tuesday –Isabel Lyon’s journal: He spoke yesterday morning of the gradual shifting of portions of the earth’s surface. The infinitesimal disintegration of a mountain heavy as the Himalayas, and he made you see the thousands and thousands of years it would take, and the time—Oh, you didn’t see years, you just saw the solemn embodiment of time. Oh, so majesting, and you were down on your spirit knees worshipping. Oh, the divine flame, that blows here now—-now there.
In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Muriel M. Pears.
P. S. July 27’05
Here the letters are, at last! Clara thought she had sent them to me. I am hurrying them off to you, because I dasn’t read them again, I would blush to my heels to fill up with this unearned gratitude again, pouring out of the thankful hearts of these poor swindled people, who do not suspect you, but honestly believe I gave that money! [MTHHR 592]. Note: see July 26 to Rogers note.
July 28 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to Helena Gilder (Mrs. Richard Watson Gilder).
July 29 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Tonight Mr. Clemens and Jean dined at the Leightons” [MTP TS 83].
“M . Clemens directs me to write for him and say that he has so many calls upon his purse, for one cause or another, that he must decline your invitation to endow a scholarship in your university” [MTP]. Note: the university in question was Alfred University. See below entry from Crandall.
M.H. Crandall wrote on Alfred University, Alfred, NY to ask Sam to endown a “Mark Twain Scholarship” for $1,000 [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
August 2 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “I walked with Miss Greene up to the top of Oak Hill” [MTP TS 83].
Helena Gilder wrote from “Four Brooks Farm,” Tyringham, Mass. to Sam, expressing it “a great pleasure to have Clara and find her like her old sweet self.” She was glad Sam and Jean liked Dublin. Her handwriting is somewhat inscrutable [MTP].
Hock! Hock! dear Abott H. Thayer! Jean asked him to dine here tomorrow night with Mr. and Mrs. Pumpelly, but he said he couldn’t! He said it was so lovely to see Mr. Clemens all alone, and to hear him talk when there weren’t others around, that—Oh, he couldn’t—And that is only the borderland of it all, for if it is better to hear Mr. Clemens without an audience, then how best it is to just be near him in his beautiful silences [MTP TS 84].
August 4 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
I have your favor of Aug. the 3rd in which I understand Miss Marbury to suggest that I give Mr. Timmory an extension of one year on his contracts with me; also that I grant Mr. Timmory free choice of theatre. I beg you to say to Miss Marbury I am quite willing that she shall make these concessions for me [MTP]. Note: Gabriel Timmory, French playwright.
M . Clemens directs me to say that upon thinking over the matter of auto-graphing any of the maxim postcards he has decided that to auto-graph any of them would be a distinct mistake. He is inclined to be afraid of the post card scheme even without the auto-graph, and wishes me to ask what you think of it. But don’t throw the scheme away, for M . Clemens thinks it may be a good one after he’s dead. That is Mr. Clemens’s language not mine [MTP].
Winifred Holt wrote from NYC to Sam. “Helen Keller has written an interesting article which may show you more clearly why I am brave enough to write to you again—I forward under separate cover what she has just written in the “World’s Work” [MTP].
August 8 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The fallow days are still with Mr. Clemens. All day he has been very, very tired and resting. At dinner tonight the talk was of Babylon and its great, great glories” [MTP TS 84].
Frederick T. Leigh wrote to Sam that Duneka was on vacation and Sam’s post-card scheme, according to Sam’s wishes, would be “dropped for the present” [MTP].
M . Clemens directs me to write and say that his idea of publishing the Adam’s and Eve’s Diaries, is to have them go into one volume—using the corrected form of the Adam’s Diary .