July 15 Sunday – 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.): “I am alone today;—wonderfully alone! / All the morning I had a rich solitude here in my room, reading Nietzche & theosophy… / A solitary luncheon—more reading—& then at 4.30 lovely Gladys Thayer came, & we had tea & talk together. I played for her the Tannhauser Overture & Grieg & Träumerer, before she left to hurry home” [MTP TS 96-97].
July 15 Monday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka. The ship struck a small French bark, the Sterling on this day. New York Tribune, July 20, p.7:
Steamer Minnetonka, at sea, July 20.
July 15 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally in Camp Esta-Naula East Sebago, Maine.
July 16 Saturday – In N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Ellen O’Neil in Hartford.
Dear Ellen: / Of all the tributes of homage & affection for our lost one that have come from her friends in many lands, that which came from you & John has moved me most & touched me deepest. Those white roses spoke a message of love as pure & fragrant as themselves; & the like of that love was in Mrs. Clemens’s heart for you two to her last day. She held you in as high honor as she held any of her other friends, & she never spoke your names but with affection.
July 16 Monday – N.Y.C. 10 a.m. Sam wrote to Isabel V. Lyon in Dublin, N.H.
“I have just arrived. Please thank my nephew Sam Moffett for me, & say I wonder at his sending a valuable letter to ‘Redding,’ a place I have no recollection of ever having heard of in my life. Preserve his statistics. / With love to Jean” [MTP].
July 16 Tuesday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka.
Cooley writes of the time aboard ship and of a new acquaintance made with one of the younger of 129 passengers during the voyage, likely early on:
July 16 Thursday – Jeanne E. Wier for the Nevada Historical Society wrote to inform Sam that he’d unanimously been given honorary membership in their annual meeting on June 8. She added that she felt RI was the best history of Nevada yet written [MTP].
Clemens A.D. for this day is listed by MTP.
July 16 Friday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote a one-liner to Eugene T. Skinkle: “Sir: YES, I done it. / M.T.” [MTP: Chicago Tribune, 24 April 1910]. Note: Skinkle published a book, Practical Ice Making and Refrigeration (1897). See July 12. Sam answered Skinkle’s questions about CS; it is noted the Chicago paper carried this but three days after his death. Jean wrote on her father’s reply: Mr.
July 17 Sunday – Emilie R. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers) wrote to Sam enclosing a letter of condolence from Helen Keller dated dated June 14. Keller had graduated in June from Radcliffe College, Harvard University. “I could not find the words…” Emilie wrote, being unable to send sympathy before now [MTHHR 578].
Thomas R. Lounsbury wrote from New Haven, Conn. a letter of condolence to Sam. “No death has for a long time so profoundly affected me as that of your wife” [MTP].
Seth Low wrote a nearly illegible letter of condolence to Sam [MTP].
July 17 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):
Jean, 3:30
July 17 Wednesday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka. Sam came down with another case of bronchitis on this day [July 29 to Rogers].
John Briggs, Hannibal boyhood pal, died near New London, Mo. (1837-1907) see entries Vol 1.
July 17 Friday – Frank N. Doubleday for Doubleday, Page & Co. wrote to Sam that he was sending “some books for your library at Redding.” He declined the invitation from Miss Lyon to spend a night but he and the wife were taking a steamer for France next Tuesday. He offered to send their “bang-up photographer,” Mr. A.R. Dugmore, to take colored pictures of the Redding house [MTP].
July 17 Saturday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote three notes to unidentified persons authorizing Albert B. Paine to take the contents of Sam’s safety deposit box. The second note survives [MTP: AAA-Anderson Galleries catalog 4346, Nov, 11-12 Nov. 1937, item 89]. Note: Hill points out that Paine was made manager of Clemens’ business affairs on this day, and “had the restrictions removed from his use of unpublished material in his biography” [242]. See also July 24,
July 18 Monday – N.Y.C.: Sam’s notebook: “At 9.15 I and Ugo (butler; he arrived from Italy with the horses on Friday) left for Lee & arrived at 1.07. / Jean & Katy left at 3.30 & arrived about 7” [NB 47 TS 16].
The regional paper, The Berkshire Gleaner, July 20, p. 1 reported a Monday, July 18 arrival for Sam and Saturday, July 16 for Clara and (mistakenly) for Jean.
Mark Twain Arrives.
July 18 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Yesterday Mr. Pumpelly called because Mr. Clemens and Jean dined there last night, and he paid such interesting respects to “Casa Clemens,” and I was the only one to hear them. He is tall and white bearded with a fine blue eye, and he’s handsome to look upon. He has been every where too. Mr. Clemens says that Mr. P. is two years younger than he.
July 18 Wednesday – Sam was in NYC. Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.):
What will this day bring?
The grass is down! It was so ripe, so ready, and willing, to be slain. (3 men have been working at it all the morning.) It began to be so tired; & when the scythe swept through it, it lay so still, as if glad and full of rest—like other deaths.
July 18 Thursday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka. Sam inscribed a first English edition copy of AC: “Truly Yours / SL. Clemens / (Mark Twain) / July 18/07” [Christie’s London, 1 June 2009, Lot 203, Sale 5822]. Note: at an angle under Sam’s inscription are three more signatures: Mrs. J. Ian Ansdsale, Josephine Watts, and Herbert Percy, likely shipmates on the voyage over.
July 18 Saturday – Sam’s guestbook shows the following entry (also noted in IVL TS 54):
Name Address Date Remarks
Margery Hamilton Clinton 29 (?) East 57th, New York July 18-24 (?) *
* Sam added the following in the Remarks column next to Margery’s entry:
July 18 Sunday - In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Clara:
Clärchen dear Jean is a surprise & a wonder. She has plenty of wisdom, judgment, penetration, practical good sense—like her mother—& character, courage, definiteness, decision; also goodness, a humane spirit, charity, kindliness, pity; industry, perseverance, intelligence, a clean mind, a clean soul, dignity, honesty, truthfulness, high ideals, loyalty, faithfulness to duty—she is everything that Miss Lyon isn’t.
July 19 Tuesday – In Tyringham, Mass. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to A. Chalkley Collins, that “it is impossible for him to appear in public—he is in very deep mourning” [MTP].
A. Chalkley Collins, attorney in Great Barrington, Mass. wrote to invite Sam to a celebration of “old Home Week the last day of July” [MTP]. Note: Lyon’s answer above.
Sometime between July 19 and 28, Sam posed for photographs by Joseph Gaylord Gessford in neighboring Lee, Mass. [MTP photo binders].
July 19 before – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to George Porter. “Mr. Clemens has read the play & is greatly interested. He would like to talk with you. Name your day & hour” [MTP]. See July 23 entry.
July 19 Thursday – Sam was in NYC. Isabel Lyon’s journal (Dublin, N.H.): “Today we climbed Monadnock—starting before nine o’clock we slowly wound our way up those mighty slopes. I cannot write of the wonder of the mountain—the wonder of the day. It was too great. It was a mighty stroke out of the great drama of eternity. Oh the great soul of that eternal mountain” [MTP TS 98-99].
July 19 Friday – Sam and Ashcroft were en route to New York on the S.S. Minnetonka.