The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day

July 10 Tuesday – At noon, 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean in Dublin, N.H.

July 10 Wednesday – Ashcroft’s notes: “Went to Liverpool with Tay Pay. Attended banquet in the Town Hall in the evening” [MTB 1399]. Note: “Tay Pay” was T.P. O’Connor.

Insert Cartoon. Caption: “Mark Twain and the Jumping John Bull Frog have been having a good time together” [The Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury, July 9, 1907, p. 9].

The Evening Standard and London St. James’s Gazette reported on Sam’s departure for Liverpool.

MARK TWAIN

July 10 Friday – Sam’s guestbook   has the following entries (also noted in IVL TS 54):

Name Address Date Remarks

Mrs. Quick Plainfield, N.J. July 10-17 Remained until

Dorothy Quick M.A.  “        “        “   “  “ “ -17       July 18

Frances Paine Redding, Conn.   “  “ “ -17

July 10 Saturday — Joe and Harmony Twichell finished a two-day stay at Stormfield.

July 11 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):

July 11 Thursday – Ashcroft’s notes: “Returned to London with Tay Pay. Calls in the afternoon” [MTB 1399].

In Liverpool, England Sam sent a telegram to Henry Rawcliffe Kirkland in West Kirby, England:

“Very very sorry not to have seen you please accept my cordial thanks for your kind letter and my hearty wish for renewed health and strength for you / Mark Twain” [MTP].

July 11 Saturday – The New York Times, “Topics of the Week,” p. BR385, led off with the following paragraph about Elinor Glyn and Mark Twain:

July 11 Sunday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote a Stormfield picture postcard to Dorothy Quick.

July 12 Thursday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote his plans to Isabel V. Lyon in Dublin, N.H.

Checks received & banked.

We sail at 9 a.m. to-morrow, for over-Sunday. [to Fairhaven]

I resume business here on Monday, when Col. Harvey arrives. I shall expect to be here all the week [MTP]. Note: in her July 13 journal entry, Lyon calls this “a note not so big as a post scriptum.”

July 12 Friday – At Brown’s Hotel in London Sam wrote to daughter Clara, a letter which reveals his activities this final day in England:

Clärchen dear, we sail tomorrow in the Minnetonka (I think.) 

We are due to arrive in 8 or 9 days.

I have been most mannerly & etiquetical. I have returned every call—card-calls by card, delivered by myself; personal calls in person.

July 12 Monday — Anne-Netta Brownlee wrote from Youngstown, Ohio, a lengthy letter of admiration in which she discusses articles on Twain and his books. The letter is copied by a different hand and both are in the file [MTP].

Eugene T. Skinkle wrote to Sam with questions about CS. Sam’s reply was published in the Chicago Tribune of 24 Apr. 1910; a copy from that paper in the file is only: “July 16/09 / Sir: / YES, I done it. M.T.” [MTP]

July 13 Friday – In the a.m. Sam and H.H. Rogers sailed again for Fairhaven on the Kanawha [July 12 to Lyon].

Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):

“Zarathustra” has arrived!

July 13 Saturday – The Pall Mall Gazette, announced the leaving of Mark Twain.

July 13 Monday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.).

July 14 Thursday – Livy’s funeral was held in Elmira [July 19 to Collins]. The New York Times reported , July 15, p.7:

Mark Twain’s Wife Buried.

ELMIRA, N.Y., July 14.—The home of Gen. Charles J. Langdon witnessed the gathering of a large number this afternoon to pay their last respects to the memory of his sister, Mrs. Samuel L. Clemens, who died in Italy. Burial was in Woodlawn Cemetery. With Mr. Clemens were his two daughters, Misses Clara and Janet [sic] Clemens.

July 14 Saturday – Sam was at the Rogers’ residence in Fairhaven, Mass. for a weekend stay [July 12 and July 16 to Lyon].

Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):

Here am I reading “Thus spoke Zarathrustra” & I do not pretend to be qualified to say how wonderful I find it.  …

July 14 Sunday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka. This from a Mark Twain dispatch to the NY Times from London, July 17: “Left the Channel Sunday at 1:50 in doubtful weather and sighted the Scilly Islands ten miles off. At 6 o’clock ran into a dense fog, which broke into patches during the night” [July 18, p.4, “From Twain by Wireless”].

Harry E. Brittain wrote from Westminster to send Sam a photo that appeared in the Sphere; he asked Ashcroft if he could obtain Sam’s autograph on the photo [MTP].

July 14 Tuesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam finished the mislaid July 5 letter to Dorothy Sturgis.

TEN DAYS LATER

It has long been my impression that this letter went to the mail at the time it was written. But that was a mistake. It got mislaid, & had turned up by accident this morning.

July 14 Wednesday — Isabel Ashcroft (Lyon) returned from her honeymoon to respond to the attachment Clemens had placed on her house, “The Lobster Pot.” The New York Times, p. 4, July 15, reported on the conflict and her return. The Ashcrofts had sailed from the US on June 8.

WANTS MARK TWAIN TO EXPLAIN TO HER

Mrs. Ashcroft Hurries Back from Her Honeymoon

Abroad to Find Out About $4,000 Suit.

FORMERLY HIS SECRETARY

July 15 Friday – At the Wolcott Hotel, 31 Street and Fifth Ave. N.Y. He wrote his thanks to Edward Eugene Loomis, vice president of the Delaware & Lackawanna R.R., husband to Julie Langdon Loomis: