November 18 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Mr. Halsey—S. Phi.” [MTP TS 34].
Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote on Koy-Lo Co. letterhead to Sam that he’d responded to Stanchfield’s Nov. 17. Ashcroft asked Stanchfield if he wanted to sell more Spiral Pin Co. shares [MTP].
November 19 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Times Reporter. 10—” [MTP TS 34].
Marjorie V.d.W. Brooke wrote to Sam, evidently enclosing a photo of her grandfather, who many said looked like Mark Twain—didn’t Sam think him a handsome man? [MTP].
Asa Don Dickinson wrote to Sam.
November 22 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Ray. 3.15” [MTP TS 32].
George Dewey wrote to Sam, advising receipt of “your recent letter, I have to state that I resigned several months ago from the Advisory Directorate of the Oppenheimer Institute, but that while I was a director I had no personal knowledge of the workings of the cure” [MTP].
Max Lowenthal wrote a postcard from Vienna, Austria to send birthday wishes [MTP].
November 22 ca. – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam responded to C.F. Bertholf’s Nov. 16 question: Stories he refers to is in one of the volumes of sketches published by the Harpers” [MTP]. Note: The MTP catalogs this as “on or after 16 November.” Six days estimated postal time is allowed here.
November 24 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y., Sam spoke into a graphophone, dictating a letter that Isabel Lyon later wrote to Dr. Osgood:
Dear Dr. Osgood:
Your letter gives me very great pleasure. I believe there is no greater pleasure than that which one gets out of a compliment heartily expressed. Your warm words have gone to my heart and I am grateful for them.
November 28 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. where he wrote to Robert Bacon, Asst. Secretary of State, who was seeking more information about England’s willingness to act against Leopold.
November 29 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to John P. Cowan.
Dear Mr. Cowan: / Health to you! Sometimes, in the past two years, I have asked the Harpers’permission to say a word outside—for print—but I don’t now, for the applications these past two days amount to a sort of flood. Privately, between you and me, I did not suppose there was any Clemens blood in the world, outside of my family and J. Ross Clemens of St. Louis. Adam was the only ancestor I had ever heard of. / Sincerely yours … [MTP].
November 30 Thursday – Thanksgiving Day – Sam’s 70th Birthday.
Several newspapers across the country reported Sam’s “Thanksgiving sentiment,” including this quote taken from the Nov. 28 issue of the Grand Forks Daily Herald (N. Dakota), p.1:
“Every year every person in America concentrates all his thoughts on one thing—cataloguing his reasons for being thankful to the Deity for the blessings conferred on him and on the humanrace during the expiring twelve months.
December – “Eve’s Diary” was first published in Harper’s Monthly. In June 1906 it was published in book form as Eve’s Diary Translated from the Original MS; also included in The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories (1906) [Budd, Collected 2: 1010-11].
In N.Y.C. Sam inscribed his photograph to Mrs. John C. Graham: “Perhaps Mrs. John C. Graham will divine why this picture is intruded upon her by her obliged servant. / Mark Twain Dec./05.” [MTP].
December 1 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote a short note to Marcella Sembrich, opera star. “Dear Madame Sembrich— / It was lovely of you to send me so eloquent & so beautiful aremembrance, & I thank you out of my heart” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Will Larrymore Smedley in Chataqua-on-Chataqua, N.Y.: “To you, & to all my other known & unknown friends who have lightened the weight of my seventieth birthday with kind words & good wishes I offer my most grateful thanks, & beg leave to sign myself” [MTP].
December 3 Sunday – Gribben cites the New York World’s article “Twain Calls Leopold Slayer of 15,000,000,” and speculates: “Twain probably drew on Suetonius when he mentioned Nero as a killer” [677]. Note: the interview is in Scharnhorst, p.528-31, and also online at the Univ. Washington site:
Twain Calls Leopold Slayer of 15,000,000 Besides Leopold, Nero, Caligula, Attila, Torquemada, Genghis Khan, and such killers of men are mere amateurs.
December 3 or 10 Sunday – At 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y. Sam wrote to Andrew Carnegie.
“Dear St. Andrew: / I don’t know for sure that you got my telephone message the other day, but it doesn’t matter—I’m coming, the 18 anyway, with a nightshirt / Ys Ever / Mark ”[MTP]. Note: this letter # 08592 was found in the Fragments file and determined to be on a Sunday before Monday, Dec. 18, 1905, when Sam spoke for Russian Jews in NYC. No other year fits. Also, Carnegie inscribed his book for Clemens on Dec. 16. See entries.
December 5 Tuesday – In New York City Sam wrote a short note to Helen Keller:
December 6 Wednesday – Sam attended “a part of Hansel and Gretel,” a play based on Grimm’s fairy tale, performed at the Metropolitan Opera House, Alfred Hertz conducting the performance of the opera written by Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921). Isabel Lyon recorded that he enjoyed the opera, but at George Harvey’s insistence left early so as not to become overtired [Gribben 341: Lyon’s journal TS 112: MTP]. Note: the N.Y. Times, Dec. 7, p.9 “Haensel Und Gretel Again” noted that “Among conspicuous figures in the audience last evening was Mark Twain.”
December 8 Friday – Louise A. Howland (Robert Howland’s widow) wrote from Sausalito, Calif. to Sam, congratulating him on his 70 , asking for an “up to date photograph” and recalling the old says when she “knew and claimed Mark Twain—as one of her best friends” [MTP]. Note: estimated here one week, or ca. Dec. 15 for Sam’s reply.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Today Mr. Clemens took me down to the Produce Exchange Safety Vaults and made me his deputy there” [MTP TS 112].
Benjamin Arthur wrote to congratulate Sam [MTP].