October 19 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “19th Oct. ’06. This is what Katy is celebrating as her ‘anniversary.’ We also celebrate it, cordially. She has been with us 26 years” [NB 48 TS 5].
Agnes L. Brown wrote from Ottawa, Ontario Canada to Sam appreciating his article on Howells. She sent Sam two books, The Cape Breton Giant by “Mr. Gillis” and another unnamed [MTP]. Note: Gillis not in Gribben.
October 20 Saturday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam inscribed a photo of himself in a rocking chair to Josephine S. Hobby: “Let us save to-morrows for work. / For / Miss Hobby— / Oct. 20, 06.” [MTP].
October 21 Sunday – In N.Y.C. Sam went “Sabbath-breaking” to Urban H. Broughton’s, and beat him five out of seven games at billiards [Oct. 22 to Mary Rogers].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “All day it has rained hard & Mr. Clemens went out to the Broughtons to play billiards. He is restless & finds a great emptiness in life. He doesn’t like this house & finds no comfort outside of his own room. My own little six sided room is the only place I care for—that & the King’s room” [MTP TS 137-138].
October 22 Monday – In the a.m. at 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.).
October 23 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dihdwo Twe, a Liberian who visited Sam several times and was deeply interested in the Congo reform movement. Sam dictated the letter for Twe to use as an introduction to a pamphet calling on the world to help the Congo. Basically, Sam wrote, the human race is made up of humbugs; he felt Twe should deal with the human race as it is, not as he wished it to be—it had “no desire for uncomfortable truths, no appetite for them…” etc. [MTP].
October 24 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Emilie R. Rogers.
Dear Mrs. Rogers, it is lovely of you! Yes, Mr. Coe is the very man. He will know the exact size of the Fairhaven table, & can duplicate it. When he examines this room I think he will say it is large enough: it is 15 feet wide by 18 long, & the 18 can be increased to 18.6 if necessary, by removing a bookcase.
October 25 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers now in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
Mariechen dear, it must be a Latin word, as it isn’t in the Unabridged. The U. has only “Accipient (obsolete) a receiver.”
October 26 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
It is with mighty pleasure that I record the fact that you will spend Nov. 9 & 10 (& as many days thereafter as you can spare), under this roof. We will gather some more stags together & eat, drink & get drunk, understanding that on some happy to-morrow we die & are likely to be damned. I am very very glad you are coming, old man [MTP].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
October 27 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
The King came down while Mrs. Crane & I were at breakfast to say that Mr. Leigh Hunt has invited him to go to Egypt for the winter—to spend his days & weeks on the Nile, & to take with him whomsoever he will. It will mean to take with him a stenographer & a biographer. He couldn’t take me because I’m needed at this base of action, although he says he wishes to take me. I’m so stunned.
October 28 Sunday – Clemens was still in Tuxedo Park, spending time with Harry and Mary Rogers.
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
October 28-31 – Sometime between these dates George C. Riggs and Kate Douglas Riggs sent Sam and Clara Clemens an invitation to meet Mr. & Mrs. Forbes Robertson, Sunday, Nov. 4 at 9:15 p.m. [MTP]. Note: possibly Johnston Forbes-Robertson (1853-1937), English actor, considered the finest Hamlet of the Nineteenth Century. Robertson got his start by playing second fiddle to the great Sir Henry Irving.
October 29 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Katonah, N.Y.
October 30 Tuesday – In N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Ralph W. Ashcroft, in care of the advertising agent for Canadian Pacific railway, Montreal: “Mr. Clemens is indefinitely bedridden with bronchitis & has been persuaded to give up the trip to Egypt entirely” [MTP].
Note: see Nov. 7 to Mary Rogers.
October 31 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam was down with a bad cold.
November – In N.Y.C. Sam inscribed a copy of Eve’s Diary to Elbert Hubbard: “Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economise it. Truly yours Mark Twain. To Elbert Hubbard, Nov./06.” [MTP: Parke-Bernet Galleries Catlogs, 25 Feb. 1938, Item 40].
Henry Hahn, Sven Riars, Agnede Larsen, Cecilic Kiar, & Bassemig wrote from Copenhagen, Denmark for birthday wishes to Sam [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Answered”; Lyon wrote “Answer / Dec 5”
November 1 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
November 2 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.).
November 3 Saturday – Either this day or the next Sam took a train trip of an hour-plus and visited daughter Jean in her Katonah, N.Y. sanitarium [Nov. 5 to Emilie Rogers].
Andrew Carnegie wrote to Sam. “So glad to learn that you are yourself again, back in town running about able ‘to take sustenance’ . Delighted to attend at dinner. / I hope we are going to snow under that Reprobate Hearst—His article upon Gilder roused my ire. / Yours Ever…” [MTP]. Note: see Carnegie’s Nov. 2 “invitation.”
November 4 Sunday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote from Ponkapog, Mass. to Lyon & Sam that he had no plans except Sam’s for Friday night, and intended to leave Boston by morning train Nov. 9 [MTP].
November 5 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Emilie R. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers).
The billiard table is better than the doctors. It is driving out the heartburn in a most promising way. I have a billiardist on the premises, & I walk not less than ten miles every day with the cue in my hand. And the walking is not the whole of the exercise, nor the most health-giving part of it, I think. Through the multitude of the positions & attitudes it brings into play every muscle in the body & exercises them all.
November 6 Tuesday – Rev. William Fitz-Simon of St. Mary’s Rectory, NYC wrote to Sam.
It was so kind, and doubtless characteristic of you to remember the clergy. The crown jewels reached me through Rushmore[‘]s hands and you have my sincere gratitude.
November 7 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote his “pal,” Mary B. Rogers:
Dear pal, there are many nieces in the world, but you are the most patient one there is, & in my opinion the only perfect one.
November 8 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean.
It is a gray morning, Jean dear, and I have awakened prematurely.
I have been coughing only 8 or 9 days, yet I am already more than half tired of it. This is because it’s not sentimental or sympathetic, but is a dry bark like tan-bark. I do not go out of the house yet; I go down stairs, but not frequent
[segment about the Nov. 7 dinner party]
November 9 Friday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich arrived at 21 Fifth Ave. for a weekend stay with Twain. He left on Sunday, Nov. 11 [Lyon to H. Whitmore Nov. 12].
November 10 Saturday – Sam wrote of playing billiards until 1:15 a.m.: “I got but poor sleep afterwards & was pretty tired next day. I stayed home at night [Nov. 10] & did not go to the Alden feed. Those who went to it did not reach their beds until 4 a.m.—Howells & Paine included—but Aldrich got here at 2 a.m.” [Nov. 13 to Jean].
Isabel Lyon’s journal:
T.B. Aldrich is so disappointing in appearance & in qualities of all kinds that go to make up the literary man bearing a high reputation.