July 26 Friday – Jean Clemens’ 27th birthday. Clemens A.D. for this day is listed by MTP.
Dr. Edward C. Rushmore attended to Sam; his bronchitis had worsened the day before upon reaching Tuxedo Park.
In Tuxedo Park, N.Y., Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Charles M. Fairbanks and Pauline M. Fairbanks in Brooklyn. Sam was home now and was “overwhelmed with mail,” and asked Isabel to write thanks for their message of welcome home [MTP].
July 27 Saturday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Clara at the Hotel Victoria, Boston.
Clara dear, Clara very dear, I am in bed with a bronchitis caught in mid-ocean, but am not going to stay in bed after to-day. Nein, I will get up & sail for Bermuda next Thursday, & take Colonel Harvey along for courier, if I can’t shake off the cough in the meantime.
July 28 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Tino [ABP]. King is bed with bronchitis and cancelling a luncheon with Mrs. Wolfe and tea with Mrs. Kane. AB and I worked over old letters, until we were limp. Long after midnight there was a thundering rumble of the King’s voice and a slam of a door and some good swears and there hadn’t been a thing in the King’s room. “No whiskey, no towels, no soap, no water.” and it was fine to hear him swear around and wake up everybody in the house. Oh, he’s a darling King.
July 29 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to George Parsons, Mayor of Cairo, Illinois.
I thank you heartily for the high compliment of the invitation, & I would accept it at once if I could make the trip in a ship, but as that is not possible I am obliged to decline it. To me a land journey is the perfection of discomfort, & I am not expecting to try another one until I go in a hearse. A hearse with rubber tires, too, or I cancel the excursion. I hope you will have a good time: indeed I am able to predict that you will [MTP].
July 30 Tuesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y., Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote for Sam to Bowring & Co., N.Y.C., asking for $80 for the unused portion of the steamship Rosalind tickets by Clara Clemens and Isabel Lyon on the recently aborted trip to St. John [MTP]. Note: See July 1 entry.
July 31 Wednesday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam sent a telegram to Miss Dorothy Quick at the Turell Inn, Plainfield, N.J.: “Letter for you at your Inn I sent it several days ago. / S.L. Clemens” [MTP].
Dorothy Quick wrote from the Truell Inn, Plainfield, N.J. to Sam.
Late July and August – Sam’s A.D. sessions continued weekdays, for two or more hours each day. During this time, after his return from England, his dictations dealt almost exclusively with his time in England and Oxford [MTE 320-46].
August – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote his aphorism about honors deserved to E.M. Bowney [MTP: Philip C. Duschnes catalogs, No. 183, Item 98].
August 1 Thursday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam replied to the July 15 of Joy Agnew, daughter of Phillip L. Agnew, editor in chief of Punch.
Unto you greeting & salutation & worship, you dear sweet little right-named Joy! I can see you now almost as vividly as I saw you that night when you sat flashing & beaming upon those sombre swallow-tails.
“Fair as a star when only one
Is shining in the sky.”
August 2 Friday – Chatto & Windus wrote to Sam enclosing a check for £160:7:2 in royalties [MTP].
Frederick A. Duneka wrote to Sam after hearing from Harvey that Sam would give them a story for the Christmas Magazine [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Sent him Wapping Alice”
August 3 Saturday – John and Clara (nee Spaulding) Stanchfield visited Sam in Tuxedo Park, and stayed over through Sunday [New York Times, Aug. 4, p.7, “Tuxedo Park News”].
In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Joseph Hodges Chaote, ambassador to Great Britain, about speaking at the Sept. 23 Jamestown celebration of Robert Fulton inventing the steam boat.
August 4 Sunday – John and Clara (nee Spaulding) Stanchfield ended their two-day visit with Sam in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. [New York Times, Aug. 4, p.7, “Tuxedo Park News”].
Robert P. Elmer wrote from Wayne, Pa. to Sam, asking if the “Moult” in Chapter IV of IA was his grandfather Moulton, “Moult” being his nickname [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Answd. Aug 14, ‘07” and “Moult was a young fellow from Mo. quiet & rather diffident; he had not been away from home before. I have never heard of him since.”
August 5 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote the aphorism about improving bad liquor to Mr. Martin [MTP]. See index for other aphorisms or maxims.
Sam also replied to the July 30 from W.J. Phelps, by writing instructions to Lyon on the bottom and right margin of Phelps’ letter.
August 6 Tuesday – Dorothy Quick was visiting Sam in Tuxedo Park, N.Y. being brave not to be homesick.
Pardon B. Gifford wrote from New Bedford, Mass. to ask Sam “to express some little sentiment about our old city to assist us in booming old home week” [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Answd. Aug 9, ‘07”
August 7 Wednesday – Dorothy Quick was visiting Sam in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
Katherine Gregory wrote to Miss Lyon; this is miscatalogued as to Clemens [MTP].
Adelaide M. Lee (Mrs. Bruce B. Lee) wrote from Sacramento remembering Sam’s lectures in Sacramento and also her late husband’s lectures. She wished he would come to California for the National Irrigation Congress on Sept. 2-7 [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Answd. Aug 20, ‘07”
August 8 Thursday – Dorothy Quick was visiting Sam in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
Howells & Stokes wrote to Sam, advising that arresting work at the Redding house at this time would “make you liable for between ten and fifteen thousand dollars,” and enclosed a letter from Mr. Carter of Carter & Haskell attys. [MTP].
August 9 Friday – In the evening at Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote to Miss Dorothy Quick in Plainfield, N.J. some five hours after she’d departed from her Aug. 5 to 9 visit.
Dorothy dear, one of these days I am going to write you a letter the first time I write my other children, but not now, now I haven’t time, because I haven’t anything to do, & I can’t write letters except when I am rushed.
August 10 Saturday – Saturday Evening Post ran an anonymous article, “Boswellizing Mark Twain,” p. 25. Tenney: “Samuel Johnson had his biographer, and now Albert Bigelow Paine has taken on the task with MT, who is amiable and kindly, and provides him with cigars” [MTJ Bibliographic Issue Number Four 42:1 (Spring 2004) p.9].
Elvelena W. Morford wrote from England to Sam, glad to know of his safe return; The Morfords were still touring England [MTP].
August 11 Sunday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam began a letter to Dorothy Quick he finished on Aug. 15.
This isn’t a letter, Dorothy dear, yet I know I ought to write you a letter, because I would write you every time I wrote the other children, & I’ve just finished a letter to Clara. But I never could keep promises very well. However, I shall certainly write you a letter before very long. I wrote to Clara:
August 12 Monday – Emilie R. Rogers wrote from Fairhaven, Mass. to Sam, feeling “a little neglected.” H.H. Rogers was “in worse shape than he cared to acknowledge to anybody” and had spoken of Clemens often [MTHHR 632].
August 13 Tuesday – William F. Saunders wrote from St. Louis to Sam, offering more on the invitation to take a trip on the steamboat Alton with the party of governors [MTP].
Charles E. Wark wrote from Parker House, Boston to advise Sam of Clara’s continued improvement, weight gain of seven pounds and “great improvement” of voice. She was not overworking; no answer needed since Wark heard that Sam hated to write letters [MTP].
August 15 Thursday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam finished his Aug.11th to Dorothy Quick in Plainfield, N.J.
August 16 Friday – Dorothy Quick wrote from the Truell Inn, Plainfield, N.J. to Sam.
August 17 Saturday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam began a letter to Dorothy Quick that he added to on Aug. 18, 19, 21 and 22. For this day, he drew a sketch of an insect:
August 18 Sunday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam added to his Aug. 17 to Dorothy Quick.
We talk about you all the time. You are not a large subject, but a very entertaining one.
“Would I like to have you read to me?” Indeed I should. I couldn’t like anything better.
Don’t you be troubled about your hand, Dorothy. It is a good hand, & has the chiefest of all merits: that it is as easy to read as print.
August 19 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. in the morning, Sam added to his Aug. 17, 18 to Dorothy Quick.
“Just a WEEK” since I saw you! Why, you little, humbug, it is over 3 months; even Miss Lyon, who never gets anything straight but corkscrews & potato peelings & things like that, concedes that its’s upwards of two months. What is the matter with your veracity-mill?
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Night.