June 15 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Sunday continued. I’ve come back to bed—there was no way to put in the time. It is still raining as hard as ever, & is reposeful & contenting. I finished both letters—oh, acres of MS!— make them kill time for me as long as I could. If by good luck Mr. Rogers says yes—but I know he will, & then I shall do as I’ve said.
“There was a row in Silver Street”
June 21 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Early the King said: “No dictating today.”
In dictating the morning’s chap in my auto one day last week I uttered a paragraph which indicates that I realize the magnitude & effectiveness of the earthquake which “The Jungle” has set going under the Canned Polecat Trust of Chicago.
Another memo was given to Lyon, this for Samuel S. McClure likely having to do with the same above reply to Bynner. Both memos carry a “?” for this date: “Telegraph Mr. McClure that Mr. Clemens can see him at noon on Wednesday June 27” [MTP].
June 24 Sunday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam gave Lyon instructions to write Ralph W. Ashcroft about a perceived “insulting advertisement” by Harpers, which stated that he was going to withdraw his Christian Science book from publication. Would Ashcroft look in Publisher’s Weekly for April 1903? [MTP].
Sam also replied to the June 22 of Brander Matthews (the note sent by hand to 121 E. 18 , NYC).
Dear Charlotte, I am called from this solitude to that of the society of Katy & the butler at No. 21 for a day or two, & am due to arrive there at 6 p.m. to-morrow. If you haven’t registered any crimes against me in the past ten days I hope you will be so good & so kind as to appear at 21 Wednesday morning at 10—if that isn’t too early for you—& let me look at you. Could you? Would you? Will you? [MTP].
It is lovely of you to say those beautiful things—I don’t know how to thank you enough. But I love you, that I know.
Notes: Miss Emily W. Burbank (ca.1869-1934), NY writer and lecturer, and Miss Florence Mosher, had been a pupil of Leschetizky. Both ladies were friends of Clara and Jean Clemens.
Jean dear, it is 5 a.m., this not being a good atmosphere to sleep in. I had a pleasant enough journey, (Tuesday) & went to bed almost as soon as I arrived; but I was not tired & not drowsy.
In Dublin, N.H. Isabel Lyon’s journal:
[written diagonally] I am giving birth to something. The parturition pains are great & the birth is a slow one—weeks & weeks. I know not what shall be born but it will be greater—greater than I, & the shell of me is not worthy to be the mother.
June 30 Saturday – In Fairhaven, Mass. Sam rose at 5 a.m. and after luncheon “began to play billiards & kept it up until a quarter past 2 this morning [July 1]” [July 1 to Jean].
Gertrude Natkin’s diary: “On June 30, Mr. Clemens sent me Eve’s Diary with his autograph” [MTAq 30].
July – Harper’s Monthly published Sam’s article, “William Dean Howells,” p. 221-5 [Budd, Collected 2: 1011].
The Reader carried a photograph by Underwood & Underwood of Mark Twain reading in bed [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Third Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1979 p. 191].
July 1 Sunday – In the evening in Fairhaven, Mass. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Dublin, N.H.
July 2 Monday – In Fairhaven, Mass. Sam finished his July 1 to Clara in Norfolk, Conn.
July 3 Tuesday – Charles J. Langdon wrote to Sam, enclosing a check for $120 for various bond coupons, property of Susie Clemens’ estate [MTP].
July 4 Wednesday – In Fairhaven, Mass. Sam inscribed a copy of Eve’s Diary to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. Harry Rogers, Jr.): “Mrs. Harry Rogers, jr / with the compliments of / The Authoress / & the kind regards of / The Translator. / July 4/06” [MTP].
In the early a.m., Sam returned with H.H. Rogers in the Kanawha to New York instead of going by rail to Dublin, N.H. as earlier planned [July 2 to Clara].
July 5 Thursday – In the afternoon at 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Charlotte Teller Johnson.
July 6 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to Elizabeth Jordan. “I am here for a day, & your note of July 2 has just reached me. I shall be eager to get those first chapters, & shall hope they will inspire me to do the boy” [MTP]. Note: Jordan was ramrodding a collaborative story for Harper’s Bazaar. Clemens was chosen to do the boy chapter. Sam ultimately could not interest his pen in the story.
Isabel Lyon’s journal (in Dublin, N.H.):
July 7 Saturday – N.Y.C.: Sam was spending his days in Rogers’ Standard Oil office or the lawyer’s office, and his nights aboard the Kanawha, which they anchored “about ten miles” out [July 10 to Jean]. Note: Harper’s lawyer and Sam’s lawyer Edward Lauterbach were negotiating to settle the dispute about the “unauthorized” Library of Humor reissue. See July 10 to Lyon.
July 8 Sunday – Samuel E. Moffett wrote to Sam. “My dear Uncle, / I was in Washington last week, and took advantage of the opportunity to copy off one of those copyright lists.” Moffett included lists of 134 copyrights renewed for 1903 [MTP]. Note: evidently Clemens had requested the lists for his work on the copyright cause.