June 16 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to William Robertson Coe.
Dear Mr. Coe: / I was glad to hear from you, & I wish you had come yourself, & brought your letter & Mrs. Mai. I am in the doctor’s hands, as a foreguessed result of the Baltimore trip, which was a hard one for an old person, for it was cold & rainy; but the engagement was five months old & had to be kept.
June 17 Saturday – In Dublin, N.H. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to his attorney, John Larkin.
Mr. Clemens directs me to write for him and say that if this month ends without any permission from M . Renwick for work to be begun on the furnaces, why shouldn’t John Howells be put to work on July first on the $2250.00 hot water heating equipment.
June 17 Monday – The last night on board the Minneapolis en route to England, Sam wrote a poem on the back of a menu to Carlotta Welles:
There’s many a maid that’s dear & sweet,
In Paris, Versailles, Marly
But not one maid in any of those before-mentioned towns
That can compare with Charley. / M.T.
Front seat—don’t forget [MTAq 41].
June 17 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam inscribed a copy of LM to Commander Daniel Dow (1860-1931): “Very truly yours / Mark Twain / To Commander Dow, R.N.R. / June 17/08” [MTP]. Note: this from a message board posted by Dow’s grandson, Michael Dow, in 2004:
June 17 Thursday — K. Woltereck wrote from Wellesley College, Dept. of German, Wellsley, Mass. to ask Clemens: “1) Do you think Goethe has ever meant or would ever mean anything to America? 2) Has Goethe’s art ever influenced your art? 3) Whom do you consider the best living American Goeth Scholar? [MTP] Note: “Ansd June 21, ‘09”
June 18 Sunday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote to daughter Clara in Norfolk, Conn. It’s raining, dearheart, been raining several hours. The horse is at the door, so I judge Jean is going out driving. Patrick is standing by, superintending. It’s good to look at him—he’s just a dear! Shoves back his cap & scratches his head, just as he used to do ages ago—his way of acknowledging the presence of his superiors.
June 18 Tuesday – The S.S. Minneapolis docked at Tilbury, England at 4 a.m.
Just after 10 a.m., Sam came down the gangplank and was roused by the lusty cheers of the stevedores. In a few minutes he first met George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) on the dock. The Pall Mall Gazette, p. 7, reported:
“G.B.S.” AND MARK TWAIN.
FIRST MEETING OF TWO GREAT MEN
THE PALMIST’S PREDICTION.
——— ——— ———
June 18 Thursday – The History of Redding website notes that Sam arrived at the West Redding Train Station shortly before 6 p.m on the Berkshire Express out of New York. The train made a special stop for Twain and thereafter continued the stop for his many visitors.
June 18 Friday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally at Camp Esta-Nula, East Sebago, Maine.
Well, no, you dear Francesca, I have not been in good shape lately, but the doctor will come up from New York tomorrow & see if he can mend me up,
Don’t you forget, dear, that when you go to West Point you & your brother must come & see us if you find you can manage it.
June 18-August 31 – Sometime during this period in Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Margaret Blackmer about a humorous exchange with a supposed lookalike.
June 19 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam replied to H.H. Rogers’ June 16:
Why, I must have answered it. [Rogers’ May 26 letter] It may be that I merely worded the answer in my mind & then thought I had written & sent it, I am aware that that does happen to me sometimes. It’s like intending to wind a watch; the intention gets registered as an act, & the watch runs down.
No, indeedy, I’m not sick—I’m trying to work myself to death—& not succeeding, but I keep up the rush just the same. I am enjoying it.
June 19 Wednesday – Paine gives us Sam’s busy schedule the day after his arrival:
Sir Thomas Lipton and Bram Stoker, old friends, were among the first to present themselves, and there was no break in the line of callers.
June 19 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick:
Oh, this will never do! You are having altogether too good a time, you little rascal (because I am not in it.) Still, I’m glad. I mustn’t break into it now, but I’ll have to do it before long; you & your mother will have to pay me a visit here. I want you; & I want my other angel-fishes. I must have a couple of them under this roof all the time, from now until January. There will be 2 under it to-morrow, to stay a week, I hope.
June 19 Saturday — T. Fisher Unwin wrote from London to Sam, hesitant “to send you a book because I feel confident you must be crowded with presentation copies,” referring again to Stacpole’s book on the Congo [MTP].
June – Century Magazine published Willis Gibson’s article, “Arkansas Fashion,” p. 276-92. Tenney: “A work of fiction which pleased MT with its many favorable references to him. The hero enjoys reading HF and has a cat named Tom Sawyer. For details see Gribben (1980), I, 257” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide Fourth Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1980 p. 174].
June – Sam wrote “The Private Secretary’s Diary.” It was first published in Fables of Man (1972).
June – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Jean, who evidently was dissatisfied at Katonah, and also unhappy with Isabel V. Lyon.
June – Sam’s notebook contained a roster of his Angelfish:
The Acquarium, (June 1908)
June — George Gordon Coulton (1858-1947) book From St. Francis to Dante, etc. (1907), was signed by Sam on the front pastedown endpaper: “SL. Clemens /June, 1909, /Stormfield. From James M Beck” [Gribben 161]. Note; see other entries on Beck.
June 2 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam finished his June 1 to Joe Twichell.
P.S. / June 2/05
June 2 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Santa left at 3:14 and I came back to build a fire in my study and to settle down and read Dr. Long’s reply to Roosevelt’s attack on his books of nature[.] I went to sleep in the chaise lounge and rested some weary things within me, and went down at 7 o’clock to a solitary dinner, for the King had lunched with the Rogers’s. To my delight the King came wandering into the room with the salad, and then he talked steadily until after 10.