The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day

December 25 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Dorothy Butes.

December 25 Saturday — In Redding, Conn. Sam sent the same reply (telegram) to Annie Moffett Webster at 55 W 10th St N.Y. [MTP]

Paine writes of Christmas day:

December 26 Tuesday – Sam and Isabel Lyon attended an afternoon song recital at Carnegie Hall by Mme. Johanna Gadski (1872-1932), German soprano who achieved worldwide success and whose recordings survive. Leaving the building Clemens spotted a young girl who later wrote she was “yearning” to speak with him. They chatted briefly about the weather, and the following day she would write him a note; they would begin an affectionate correspondence.

December 26 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.) in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. After musing over who it was that called and said her name was Mrs. Rogers, Sam offered this fictional dialogue about going to Bermuda in summer.

Naturally I came home yesterday almost entirely convinced that Bermuda-in-summer & suicide are interchangeable terms. By midnight I had almost come to the conclusion to retire from the experiment.

December 26 Thursday – Harper & Brothers wrote to Miss Lyon replying to hers of Dec. 23 and would be “very glad to communicate with Miss Katharine I. Harrison in regard to the 24the and 25th Volumes of Mr. Clemens’ Works” [MTP].

Ethel Newcomb wrote to Sam, hoping she might see him before going back to Europe, as she’d missed him at Brown’s Hotel in London when he was there. Regards to the girls [MTP].

December 26 Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam sent the same postcard with a photo of himself, Ashcroft, and Lyon to Dorothy Sturgis, this time adding supposed dialog between those photographed:  

December 26 Sunday — Sam drafted instructions to a printer for a card he wished printed for answering the many dozens of letters that poured in expressing sorrow and condolence upon the death of Jean Clemens.

December 27 Tuesday – William E. Benjamin wrote to Sam, enclosing the Hoyt bill for the balance of commission on the sale of the Tarrytown house amounting to $800. In case the sale fell through all would be returned [MTP].

Nathan Haskell Dole wrote from Jamaica Plains, NY to invite Sam to the Boston Authors’ Club 12 night dinner on either Jan. 6 or 7 [MTP].

December 27 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to the Nov. 9 from David M. Jones.

Dear Father Jones: /It is a pleasant & welcome greeting and I thank you cordially for it.

December 27 Friday – Sam and Dorothy Quick had some unspecified engagement for today; see telegram Dec. 25 to Quick.

The New York Times ran “Want Tchaykovsky Free” on p. 8, and included Samuel L. Clemens in a list of about 500 names signed to a petition plea to liberate Nicholas Tchaykovsky (Nikolai V. Chaikovsky), recently arrested for complicity in the Russian revolutionary movement.

December 27 Sunday – Sam’s new guestbook:

Name  Address  Date  Remarks

December 27 Monday – Redding, Conn, Sam wrote to Mai H. Coe.

December 28 Wednesday – Dr. Matthew Gaffney wrote from Newark to Sam. He’d written before asking for “Just a word” about Rev. Dr. Edward McGlynn and Henry George, to be included in a bio of the former [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter that she’d written him saying in time his letter would be put in front of Sam, who had been ill.

December 28 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

“Puppy chew the soap.”

“Mr Clemens do you care to contribute to the Booth Memorial Fund?”

“No I don’t. I hate this idea of celebrities scratching each other’s backs & I don’t want anybody to be asked to contribute anything—for me!” [MTP TS 154-155].

December 28 Saturday – In his Dec. 29 to Nunnally, Sam wrote: “Yesterday I went with 70 other slaves of Harper & Brothers to Lakewood to lunch Mr. Howells out of the country & give him God-speed. The distance was greater than I was expecting it would be.” On Dec. 21 he had written to daughter Jean: “The Howellses sail for Europe Jan. 4; on the 2d all the Harper staff, to the number of 60, go down to Lakeville by special train & give him a send-off. Miss Lyon & Mr.

December 28 Monday – In Redding, Sam wrote a postcard to Ragnvald Blix in Munich, Germany.

December 28 Tuesday — In Redding, Conn, Sam wrote to Harriet E. Whitmore.

December 29 Thursday – Marion von Kendler wrote from Vienna, Austria to Sam, noting the old year had been a cruel one for him and wishing him better with healing of time in the new year [MTP].

December 29 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

December 29 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally; his letter informs of a short trip he took the day before, and of his dinner plans for this evening.

Ah, you dear Francesca, you & your mother gave me a pleasant surprise in that beautiful & valuable addition to my winter comforts, & I thank you cordially ; & I wish also to thank you, dear, for the fine album of Rembrandts. I am the better, bodily & spiritually, for these welcome remembrances.

December 29 Tuesday – Sam wrote in the new Guestbook before transferring names and information from the old guestbook:  

STORMFIELD GUESTBOOK

December 29 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Clara .

O, Clara, Clara dear, I am so glad she is out of it & safe—safe!

I am not melancholy; I shall never be melancholy again, I think.

You see, I was in such distress when I came to realize that you were gone far away & no one stood between her & danger but me—& I could die at any moment, & then—oh then what would become of her! For she was wilful, you know, & would not have been governable.