September 25 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Isabel V. Lyon, with a humorous end note to daughter Jean, in Dublin, N.H.
About 10 last night Clara took the alarm & fled to the sanitarium in 69 street. It was because the tearing up of the avenue made such a pounding racket. I hope she will stay there—for two reasons. Miss Gordon is good company for her, & there’s none here; & up there she is close to Luckstone.
September 26 Wednesday – NYC: Sam inscribed a photograph of himself sitting up in bed to Katy Leary: “It is your human environment that makes the climate. To Katy Leary, with the affectionate regards of her friend. / Mark Twain / Sept 26/06” [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Petit mal all day. / I got up to lie out in the sunshine with a piteously aching & suffering & quivering spine. AB came out with the mail & he took a lot of it away to dictate answers to Miss Hobby” [MTP TS 122].
September 27 Thursday – In the evening at 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Ralph W. Ashcroft.
The Colonel [Harvey] has just gone. I expected he would not be willing that any but Harpers should issue the brochure, & he wasn’t.
He wants to put the 7 [photographs on being good] in the Xmas Weekly—a huge & elaborate number—& says he can print them perfectly; so I told him to go ahead. Miss Lyon is suffering a severe nervous collapse [MTP].
September 28 Friday – About this day Sam went to Fairhaven, Mass. for the weekend. His Oct. 2 to Clara reveals he left Fairhaven for Dublin on Oct. 1.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Jean, 1:30 and 6:00 on porch.
September 29 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
I have had to ask Mr. Clemens to come back on Monday.
September 30 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
October – Sam inscribed an aphorism in a copy of P&P to an unidentified person: “On the whole it is better to deserve honors & not have them, than have them & not deserve them. / Truly Yours / Mark Twain / Oct/06” [MTP].
Sam also sent a signed aphorism on an octavo sheet to an unidentified person: “Taking the pledge will not make bad liquor good, but will improve it” [MTP].
October 1 Monday – Sam left Fairhaven, Mass. and returned to Dublin, N.H. at 8 p.m. He replied to the Sept. 30 of Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
October 2 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam began a letter to daughter Clara that he finished Oct. 3.
Clara dear, perhaps you thought I couldn’t leave my niece, Mary Rogers, but I did it. I came away from Fairhaven yesterday. Everything is going well here, except that Miss Lyon is still feeble & has to go carefully & not over-exert herself. But she is up & around, comes to meals, chats, laughs, plays the orchestrelle a little, & signs checks. I believe she will soon be quite well.
October 3 Wednesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam finished his Oct. 3 to daughter Clara, in care of John Walker, 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. 6, a.m., Wednesday.
Take my bedroom—you will never hear a hoof-click there. And keep it, permanently, if your own room is big enough for a billiard room. I hope it is, & I feel sure it is. I think I know it is.
I must telegraph you this to-day, dear [MTP].
Sam also replied to the Sept. 27 from Brander Matthews.
October 4 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to the Sept. 27 from Anne W. Stockbridge.
Dear Miss Stockbridge (if she really exists):
257 Benefit Street (if there is any such place)
Yes, I should like a copy of that other letter. This whole fake is delightful, & I tremble with fear that you are a fake yourself & that I am your guileless prey. (But never mind, it isn’t any matter) Now as to publication. I shall be going home to New York 8 days hence— 21 Fifth Avenue
October 5 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to the Oct. 3 from (Harold) Witter Bynner, supporting Bynner’s decision to devote himself to poetry.
Dear Poet: / You have certainly done right—for several good reasons; at least, of them, I can name two: 1. With your reputation you can have your freedom & yet earn your living: if you fall short of succeeding to your wish, your reputation will provide you another job. And so, in high approval I suppress the scolding & give you the saintly & fatherly pat instead.
October 6 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
All day, wind & rain.
With the afternoon mail came a letter from AB to the King—a love letter & the most beautiful love letter ever written. The King was deeply moved as he read it & when he called me in from my study his voice was shaking as he said, “Superb, superb! and worth waiting 70 years for.” He gave me the letter to read & it made me weep, even as he had wept. I didn’t know A.B. could write so exquisitely.
October 7 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
It’s night now & I’ve just come to my room. The King called a minute ago & when I went to my door to see what he wanted, he stood in his own doorway & with gritting teeth said, “I wish you’d gather together my bobtailed flannel night shirts & burn them! I wish they were all in hell! I hate them so!”
He has been giving us a lovely evening, for he has been reading poetry for more than an hour— the old English ballads, & war poems
October 8 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
The King is filled with the idea of defying conventionalities & wearing his suitable white clothes all winter, so he has bidden me order 5 new suits from his tailor; the suits to be ready against the time we arrive in N.Y. He was a creature of inspiration today even to his toe tips. He was a lambent spirit, & the dictating was beautiful. I sat in the study, writing some, but listening most; & drawing checks.
October 9 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara, in care of John Walker,
Clara dear I hope you are sleeping well, now, & without the help of drugs. Certainly broken sleep is a bad thing. I have suffered from it several times lately. Twice it has cost me my day’s work. This morning it took me half an hour to dictate a dozen sentences—then I gave it up. A day or two ago I had the like experience.
October 10 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
October 10-16 Tuesday – Sam wrote two aphorisms to Henry Darracott Allison, of saving work for tomorrows, and of being better to deserve but not receive credit than the other way around [MTP: from Allison’s Dublin Days Old and New: New Hampshire Fact and Fancy (1952) ].
October 11 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam began a letter to Mary B. Rogers that he added to on Oct. 12, 13, and 16.
Thursday. 6 pm
Dublin, Oct. 12/06.
It isn’t right to pelt you with a letter so soon, dear pal, but there’s been a cloud-lift today & I’ve got to jubilate with somebody or expire with satisfaction. Next, I will write Clara, & between you two I expect to quiet down & become rational again.
October 12 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam added to his Oct. 11 to Mary B. Rogers.
Next Day, 11a.m.—Friday.
What a useful creature you are, Saccharin! When I’ve lost my sleep & can’t dictate coherently & have to quit trying, I can turn for relief to you—I can entertain myself with scribbling incoherently to you, & you have to put up with it. Clara likewise.
October 13 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam added to his Oct. 11 and 12 to Mary B. Rogers.
9.30 a.m. Saturday
I have been editing this letter with the scissors—for I had put into it the very dismal news which I had spared you in that recent note. I went to that dinner-party at the MacVeagh’s palace last night—in white clothes. All the others of both sexes—in their noblest evening costumery. (But I know all those people familiarly.)
It is a time of surprises.
October 14 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
Mrs. William Cabot came out this afternoon for a quiet talk with me, recalling still more of the great depths of Gerry’s nature. Then Mrs. Pumpelly came in with Mrs. H. Cabot. The Pumpellys are leaving next week & expect to sail on Nov. 3rd for Italy. Thence they go down to Egypt for 6 weeks, then stop at Athens on their way back to Italy, where they expect to spend the rest of the winter in Capri.
October 15 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Jean, 8 a.m. / The King dictated today & I went over to Keene & dentistry” [MTP TS 136].
Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: Item from Susy’s biography about Sour Mash & the flies —Livy Clemens’ experiment for destroying the flies in the Hartford house—Soap-bubble item from Susy’s biography; Clemens’s comments—Clemens’ experience in learing to ride-high bicycle—Letters regarding his fiftieth birthday [MTP Autodict2].
October 16 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam finished his Oct. 11, 12, 13 to Mary B. Rogers.
Tuesday
You hope you will come out of it “a better woman.” You don’t need it, Mary. You have the clean mind & the right heart, & this is a condition which is not really betterable. It is going to carry you far out of Harry’s reach & mine. But I believe—I truly believe—we shall be allowed to call, sometimes, as the aeons drift by on their long course. St. Peter will sniff & say—
October 17 Wednesday – Sam took “The long railway journey from Dublin” N.H. to N.Y.C. which he later wrote, “destroyed me for 7 whole days!” [Oct. 24 to Emilie Rogers].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “This morning the King left early for Boston & he was in a dear mood. / Jean left by way of Keene. I took her over & put her on the train” [MTP TS 137].