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.
November 11 Sunday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich left 21 Fifth Ave. after a weekend stay with Twain. He [Lyon to H. Whitmore Nov. 12].
November 12 Monday – In N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote to Harriet E. Whitmore.
The darling wonderful White King isn’t out of the house yet. It wasn’t a bad bronchitis, but it housed him well & on Saturday when Thomas Bailey Aldrich was here—(he came Friday & left Sunday) the King hopped around without many clothes on & so added to his bronchial condition which finished with heavy coughing again. But again he is better.
November 13 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean , in Katonah, N.Y. “Jean dear, since I wrote the other day, conditions have not changed—at least for the better. They stopped me from playing billiards & I have been in bed ever since.” Sam then told of his “Stag dinner party” of Nov. 9, and of being tired on Nov. 10 from playing billiards until the wee hours, and of not going to Henry M. Alden’s dinner party celebrating his 70 . He was ordered to bed by Dr. Halsey. He finished with:
November 14 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Ill on this day” [MTP TS 146].
Fanny Flint Conradson wrote from Franklin, Pa. to Sam. She, like many others, had read in the NY Herald of his bronchitis. She was a lifelong fan of his books since IA. Now she was a “twisted cripple” but owed much to his books for lightening her load.
November 15 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal noted she was still ill [MTP TS 146].
J.G. Babb Secretary for University of Missouri wrote to Sam requesting his portrait, though it must be “approved by a committee competent to pass on its artistic merit” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “No answer – the terms of the letter being uncourteous to the verge of brutality.”
November 16 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
C.C. walks out of my room in her blue wrapper & says, “Damn the profession, I don’t like anything about it!”
Today I went downstairs in the afternoon. The King was playing billiards with AB. C.C. went to sing down in the bowery, & the King & I dined alone; later I played the Lohengrin Wedding March for him twice [MTP TS 147].
Chapters from “My Autobiography—VI” ran in the N.A.R. p.961-70.
November 17 Saturday – Roi Cooper Megrue wrote to Isabel Lyon enclosing Ernest Hendrie’s reply to Elisabeth Marbury’s Oct. 29 about dramatization rights for “The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg.” Lyon wrote on Megrue’s letter sometime after Nov. 17:
Katherine telephoned
M . Timory can have the right to dramatize The Interviewer M . Hendrie be may be right, but r M . Clemens doesn’t remember. wrote Mr. Hendrie—Mr.H needn’t be surprised that M . Clemens has forgotten, for he always forgets everything of that nature.
November 19 Monday – In the morning at 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.), enclosing his latest photograph for her opinion; he wanted to put it in a locket for Clara. He revealed his creative method for catching up on mail, since Isabel Lyon was ill.
November 20 Tuesday – Sam wrote thanks from 21 Fifth Ave., N.Y.C. to McClure, Phillips & Co., publishers of: The Viper of Milan (1906) by Gabrielle Margaret Vere Long (Campbell; 1888-1952), pseud. “Marjorie Bowen” (see Gribben p. 418).
November 21 Wednesday – Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: Father Hawley, and the meeting at which he presided in Hartford, 30 years ago—showing the ill effects of having too many orators when trying to raise money by public speaking [MTP Autodict2].
Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote to Lyon asking about his spectacles left there during his visit [MTP].
November 22 Thursday – Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: The international copyright bills before Congress in ’86—Clemens supported the Chase bill—The young physician (now very old) who by drawing quaint pictures and writing original poems persuaded his little patients to take his odious mixtures, & who afterwards had these published in book form & is still living on income from his book, as he is a citizen of an honest country, Germany— Clemens will be 71 next week—His copyrights will soon begin to expire, therefore he must continue writing [MTP Autodict2].
November 23 Friday – The Charlton Public Library banned Eve’s Diary, and the New York Times reported the story on page one, Nov. 24:
BAR MARK TWAIN’S BOOK.
———
A Massachusetts Librarian Draws the Line at “Eve’s Diary.”
Special to The New York Times.
November 24 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Came to Hfd. —Allyn House” [MTP TS 148]. Note: she had been ill since Nov. 14.
Clemens’ A.D. of this day included: More about international copyright—Congresses & Parliaments made up of men who know nothing about the matter—Clemens disputes with Lord Thring his statement that there is no property in ideas [MTP Autodict2]. The segment was selected for MTE [372-80].
Andrew Carnegie wrote to Sam.
November 25 Sunday – In N.Y.C. Sam inscribed his “bad liquor good” aphorism in a copy of HF to Isabel Lyon’s journal (in Hartford): “Quietly in bed I stayed. Hattie came in in the morning. I saw Leila in the afternoon” [MTP TS 148]. Note: see letter to Clemens below. Garth W. Cate [MTP].
Isabel V. Lyon wrote a note to Sam.
November 26 Monday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Andrew Carnegie at 2 E. 91 St., N.Y.C..
Dear St. Andrew:— / I should be delighted to be able to attend that dinner of yours, and would endeavor to come in a proper frame of mind, if the people who are trying to doctor me would let me come at all; but I have had many warnings from them, and from other sources, which convince me that I must stay in the house, hereafter, at night. If I were allowed to go any place after dark, it would be to your dinner [MTP].
November 27 Tuesday – George Chainey wrote a long rambling letter from Williams Bay, Wisc. to Sam, enclosing a flyer on “The Unsealed Bible,” volume 1 of 30 planned [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Crank Letter / Auto”
Elizabeth L. Howard wrote from Anoka, Minn. to wish Sam birthday greetings as her birthday was the same. Her husband was an 80 year old disabled veteran of the Civil War from Michigan [MTP].
November 28 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal (in Hartford): “Today I came out here to beloved Harriet Enders. The children are wonderful. John, Bunny, Ostrom, and Elira—yes, they are wonderful” [MTP TS 148].
November 29 Thursday – Thanksgiving – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to John Y. MacAlister in London (incoming not extant).
It was good to hear from you. Particularly to-day, which is Thanksgiving Day, sacred to humbug & hypocrisy; & so a letter from a sincere source comes as a breath of fresh air to the person who has fallen down the privy.
November 30 Friday – Sam’s 71 Birthday.
Gertrude Natkin sent a telegram to Sam. “Congratulations & best wishes with love and blots” (kisses) [MTAq 30]. Note: in her diary, Gertrude wrote: “I sent this telegram early in the morning. In the evening I sent Mr. Clemens my birthday gift which was a leather case. Soon after this Mr. Clemens went to Washington on business, that is to try to hve a copyright bill passed to have the rights of the published preserved fifty years after he is dead” [ibid.].
December – Sam’s story, “Hunting the Deceitful Turkey,” first ran in Harper’s Monthly, p. 57- 8 [Budd, Collected 2: 1012].
Sam inscribed a copy of The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories to Anita Moffett: “To Anita Moffett / with affectionate Xmas greeting / from her kinsman / Mark Twain / Dec. 1906” [MTP].
Sam also wrote a letter declining to attend a gathering of Kentuckians to honor Henry Watterson, his third cousin by marriage.
December 1906 to 1907 – Sometime during this period, more likely on his 1907 trip to England, Sam enclosed a “Tuck’s Post Card” in a letter (the card itself is not postmarked) to daughter Jean. The card has a printed poem “To Mark Twain” about the “secret little maid,” so that famous picture is likely on the reverse side. He wrote:
Jean dear, do you remember this picture with the accidental child in it?