October 13 Thursday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Charles J. Langdon.
Dear Charley— / Will you attend to this? It is Livy’s Texas land. I think you took the papers & kindly offered to look after it for her.
I dined with Julie & Edward last night, & had a delightful time. Julie profoundly touched me (even to moisture in the eyes) with her charming tale of “Mark Twains Rule.”
I send my love to you all, & welcome-home to the Idas.
October 14 Friday – Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote two letters on Koy-Lo Co. letterhead to Sam. The company was connected with The International Spiral Pin Co. “In accordance with our conversation over the ‘phone yesterday, while you were in Mr. Rogers’ office, I have offered the $2,000. of shares in International Sprial Pin co. to Mr. Stanchfield, and he has accepted them. / This, therefore, cancels the option extended to you on them.”
October 15 Saturday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam began a reply to Edmund Dene Morel’s Oct. 10 letter (originally Georges Eduard Pierre Achille Morel de Ville) (1873-1924) British journalist, author and socialist politician. He collaborated with Roger Casement, the English Congo Reform Associaton and others and in newspapers such as the West African Mail, campaigned against slavery in the Congo Free State. Sam would add a P.S. to this note on Oct. 16.
October 16 Sunday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam finished his Oct. 15 letter to Edmund Dene Morel. “The Senate Memorial reached me early this a.m., & I remained in bed to read it./ If anything can be done—but come & let us talk about it.” Sam wanted another copy of the Senate Memorial “& some terrible illustrations” [MTP]. Note: Gribben identifies this as Memorial Concerning Conditions in the Independent State of the Kongo. April 19, 1904. Committee on Foreign Relations. U. S. Senate. 58th Congress, 2d Session. Document No. 282 [462].
October 17 Monday – Edumund D. Morel, head of the English Congo Reform Assoc. wrote to Sam. “I send you by an express messenger a packet of Congo literature.” He closed by asking for Sam’s photograph [MTP]. Hawkins writes that Morel visited Sam in his N.Y. house on this day [148].
October 18 Tuesday – Sam wrote at least three letters which survive and carry this date’s postmark. The first, to daughter Jean and Isabel V. Lyon in Lee Mass.: “All right, Jean, you shall bring the mongrel cat” [MTP].
The second letter to Mary H. Hitchcock (Mrs. Roswell D. Hitchcock), President Entertainment Club, N.Y.C. declining an invitation to read [MTP].
The third to Isabel V. Lyon, enclosing Dr. G.W. Kirch’s bill and letter from the doctor’s attorney [MTP].
October 19 Wednesday – Edumund D. Morel wrote from the Union Club, NYC to Sam. “Not a single N.Y. daily newspaper has published my open letter to Cardinal Gibbons.” Much of this letter is illegible [MTP]. Note: James Gibbons (1834-1921), of Baltimore, American cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Best known for his support of labor unions, in his later years he became the face of Catholicism in America.
October 20 Thursday – About this day Sam replied to Cécile Freese’s Oct. 18. Sam wrote on the bottom of Freese’s letter: “Here is Madame Freese’s address. Miss Lyon can now return the photo to her” [MTP].
October 23 Sunday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Susan Crane. I have been telephoning the Hoffman, dearest Susy dear (as’su), & the Stanchfields are there— so I am going up, right after dinner, to see them. Clara Stanchfield says she has made the journey from Elmira especially to see our Clara, & it is too bad, for the doctor put her under the strictest seclusion & captivity yesterday evening, & now I, with all others, am shut out for the coming months. It is best so. She will not get well on any less stringent terms.
October 24 Monday – In N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Ralph W. Ashcroft c/o The Koy-lo Co., 11 Broadway, N.Y.C. “These are the original telegrams. / S.L. Clemens” [MTP]. Note: possibly telegrams to and from John Hays Hammond (Sept. 15 and others) regarding dissension over seating Plasmon Co. new board of directors. Sam’s notebook: “All royalties & nobilities are conscious fictions & artificialities. They privately laugh at themselves; knowing that, alive they are no better than their valets; & that, dead, their meat is inferior to pork” [NB 47 TS 17].
October 25 Tuesday – In N.Y.C. Sam inscribed a copy of A Dog’s Tale to an unidentified person: “With the kindest regards of the Author, Oct. 25, 1904” [MTP: Samuel T. Freeman & Co. catalogs, 3 May 1932, Item 105].
October 27 Thursday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to daughter Jean.
Dear Jean: / Let Miss Lyon tell them your registered-letter address “will be as above for the next few weeks while the dwelling at 21 Fifth avenue is undergoing repairs.” Don’t let them return the certificates to Lee. Sign in ink, Jean, wherever I have written your name in pencil. Let the witness sign where the penciled cross is.
This has been an awful secretarial job. My brains are absolutely caked with its perplexities. I haven’t sworn so much in three days.
October 28 Friday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Joe Twichell.
It is good & relieving news that you send me about Joe. Now, then, let him make a sacrifice for his mother’s sake & call Jean’s hand: * [at bottom margin: * Ecclesiastical poker term] Jean has given up horse-back riding, for my sake. I shall try to make it up to her some way.
October 29 Saturday – Sam inscribed each of the 23 volumes of the new Hillcrest Edition of his works, using a different aphorism (most from “Pudd’nhead Wilsons New Caledar” in FE) just out by Harper & Brothers, to William R. Coe, H.H. Rogers’ son-in-law. Volume one is not extant and only five is dated.
To Will R. Coe with the kindest regards of The Author. October 29, 1904.”
October 31 Monday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Charles Erskine Scott Wood. Dear Wood: / I have read “A Masque of Love” with strong pleasure. It is a beautiful poem & wise & deep. What Alp shall you subdue next? You were an able instructor of West Point lads in the science of war; then you took up the law & distinguished yourself in that profession; & now you have proven that you are a poet. Well, go on, old time friend; the more triumphs you achieve the better will be pleased [MTP].
November – W.L. Alden’s article, “Mark Twain; Samuel L. Clemens,” ran in English Illustrated Magazine p. 182-4. Tenney: “‘Mark Twain is essentially an enthusiast, and his enthusiasm is always for the things that are noble, and heroic, and right.’ Photo of MT by Walter Barnett, and bibliography of his works and secondary material concerning him” [39].
Michael Monahan’s article, “Saint Mark,” ran in The Papyrus: A Magazine of Individuality [Gribben 525].
November 1 Tuesday – The Earl of Norbury (William Graham-Toler) wrote from London to Sam. I cannot tell you how pleased I was to get your kind and fiery letter, and to hear that your powerful pen will be wielded in the cause of humanity. Certainly the Congo Reform agitation is going ahead well now. I was aware of the very great loss you had sustained, but feared to reopen the wound by any allusion to it, but as you have yourself referred to Mrs Clemens’ death, I feel that I may be allowed to express my very great and sincere sympathy… [MTP]. Note: on the env. Sam wrote: “For my tin box.
November 2 Wednesday – Harper & Brothers sent a small notice of a check enclosed, amount not given [MTP].
November 3 Thursday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Andrew Carnegie.
In our sad circumstances I am not privileged to be present Nov. 22d , but I greatly want to renew the acquaintanceship with Mr. Morley, & I would like to come some time—in the day or in the evening—& see him & the Carnegie’s when there is an absence of formal company.
Does such a time happen—in your house?
November 4 Friday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Joe Twichell.
November 5 Saturday – Charlotte Graham Toler wrote from London to Sam. She had seen the letter Clemens wrote her brother, and was “infinitely touched” by his reference to her sister and herself. She offered condolences and expressed gratitude he was taking up the Congo matter, since Roger Casement, who had prepared the Congo report, was “a great friend of ours” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “My tin box / sisters of.”
November 6 Sunday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Susan Crane.
November 7 Monday – Clara Clemens was back in N.Y.C. at Dr. Parry’s on 69 Street. The doctor had ordered complete isolation for her for one year, all except the nurse and doctor. Sam went to say a long goodbye [Nov. 9 to MacAlister; Nov. 10 or 11 to Doubleday].
Yuran writes of Clara’s removal to Norfolk, Conn. and gives us a letter dated Nov. 7, 1904 to her father. “In a letter with the heading ‘Clara goes into vanishment’… there is a handwritten note documenting that it was ‘written on the way to Norfolk, CT where Clara went for a rest cure.’ She wrote to her father:”
November 8 Tuesday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam inscribed a copy of A Dog’s Tale to The Guild of St. Elizabeth: “To / The Guild of St. Elizabeth / from a friend. / Mark Twain / We cannot all be as good & sweet & lovely as a good dog, but we can all try. / M.T. / Nov. 8, 1904” [MTP].
November 9 Wednesday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister in London, sharing his plans for him and his staff to occupy the remodeled house on Fifth Avenue, and offhandedly mentioning what the Plasmon Co. had cost him: It is very good news you give me (along with the £350) about Plasmon. The American Co got my $32,500—the whole of it. Let it go. Davis sails for England a fortnight hence. He will tell you all about the sharp game that was played, & the result of it.