March – May? – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Leonard Henslowe. “I am shut up with illness; but even if I were well I would not be interviewed by any but an enemy, & I am sure I do not take you for that” [MTP]. Note: Henslowe’s incoming not extant.
May 1 Monday – Katy Leary and Jean Clemens left for Dublin, N.H. to get the Greene house ready for Sam. Isabel Lyon would leave on May 5 to join the pair. The nearest railway station was an hour’s drive; from that point it was three hours to Boston or six hours to New York [Lystra 46].
May 1 Wednesday – At 4 a.m. the Kanawha got underway back to New York through the clearing fog [Baltimore Sun May 10, “Mark Twain in Clover” p.14]. Note: because the yacht could not be seen leaving from shore, it was thought for a day or more that it was lost at sea.
May 1 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam replied to the Apr. 30 to Frances Nunnally.
The way you are arranging things, you little rascal, what sort of a glimpse of you am I going to get? Before the 6th of June we shall be living in the house I am building in the country. However, it isn’t far away—only an hour & a half. When you arrive here I will come to town & see you—& then I hope you & your mother can run out to the villa with me & give me a visit.
May 1 Saturday — The New York Times reported on Sam’s latest work, Is Shakespeare Dead?
IS SHAKESPEARE DEAD?
May 10 Wednesday – The New York Times, May 11, p. 1 ran a squib that Clara Clemens was operated on in the afternoon by Dr. Hartley (likely Dr. Frank Hartley 1856-1913).
At 8 p.m. at 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Susan Crane.
dear, it’s over, & Clara is doing well. She had a famous surgeon—D . Hartley. It was a bad appendix—long & slim & with crooks in it; it was getting ready to be a dangerous case.
Good-night dear Sue—I am very tired, on account of the solicitude. / Holy Saml [MTP].
May 10 Friday – Annapolis: On the morning of May 10 Sam toured the Naval Academy, something he’d looked forward to. He was joined by three young ladies: Miss Carrie Warfield, and Miss Margaret Warfield, the Governor’s daughter, and niece, respectively; and Mary Foxley Tilghman, daughter of the Secretary of State. The group heard the Naval Academy Band concert and afterward visited the commanding officer. The Superintendent, Admiral James H.
May 10 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The Waylands and the Frohmans were here for dinner again, and a young journalist” [MTP: IVL TS 53].
Frances Nunnally wrote to Sam.
May 10 Monday - Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote to Sam, enclosing a bill from Altman for $13.95 and a list of purchases and payments to Wanamaker’s Dept. Store—neither in the MTP file. He closed with mention of a “Scarlet Taniger Guest Coat” saying it did not belong to him: “It was ordered at your request for the use of guests, and the buttons are stamped S.L.C.” A second page with this date, also on Ashcroft’s NYC letterhead details “extra work in the preparation of data covering the financial affairs of S.L.
May 11 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:
May 11 Saturday – Though Sam’s stay was planned for five days, including a tour of the bay on a special steamer, and a possible visit Sunday to the First Presbyterian Church, but Sam and Isabel Lyon cut it short, leaving this morning, and escorted as far as Baltimore by Governor Warfield [Nolan & Tomlinson 4, 6-7].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Home again, the King to Tuxedo, I to No. 21” [MTP TS 56].
May 11 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Margaret Frohman has sent me a darling colonial tea service” [MTP: IVL TS 53].
A.C. Furbush wrote from Georgetown, Conn., hearing of Sam’s plans to donate books to start a library in West Redding at the Umpawaug Chapel. Furbush argued that Clemens’ books would get better exposure if he donated them to Georgetown’s library, which was recently started by laboring people [MTP].
May 11 Tuesday — Katharine I. Harrison for H.H. Rogers wrote to Sam: “Just a line to let you know that I have the signatures to both certificates of the Mark Twain Company, so your mind can be easy on this point” [MTP].
C.H. Gould for American Library Assoc., Montreal wrote to ask Sam for “an address, a reading, a paper—in any way you choose” for their Annual Conference June 28-July 5 [MTP]. Note: “Ans’d May 18, “02”
May 12 Friday – At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Isabel V. Lyon in Dublin N.H. (only the envelope survives) [MTP]. Note: judging from Lyon’s journal entry below, this likely was a telegram with news of Clara’s condition, and news that he was not ready to come to Dublin quite yet.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Santissima’s temperature is normal. There are no complications, but Mr. Clemens won’t come yet” [MTP TS 57]. Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “Telegram this morning. / Pulse 80. Temperature 99. / Everything satisfactory [MTP TS 18].
May 12 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Busy with Santa, sleep and packing in the afternoon” [MTP TS 56].
May 12 Tuesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick.
You dear little Dorothy, it was very fortunate that you escaped the pinkeye, for although a cold is bad, pinkeye is worse, & is a stubborn & painful malady.
I shall look for you Saturday morning with high anticipations. We’ve got a box for “Girls,” & they say it is very good, & is clean & wholesome & hasn’t any of that horrible ballet-dancing in it, such as we saw last Saturday.
May 12 Wednesday — Sam’s new guestbook:
| Name | Address | Date | Remarks |
| Henryetta M. Holst [?] | May 12th 1909 | Thinks she [deserves] real house. Hope in [time] to be one of the [citizens] of [Heaven]. |
John F. Bernard wrote from Grafton, W. Va. to Sam.
My dear “Indolent” Friend; —
May 13 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: We walked around the Lake, Jean and I—a beautiful walk. The native people are so gentle and sweet-eyed, with soft lazy speech. We met a couple of men who had a setter with them. The owner eyed Prosper and said “I reckon my dawg won’t hurt him.” We found a glorious bank of violets, painted trillium, and trailing “Hobble bush.” You don’t always find it trailing. “Nature’s Garden” makes the country so enjoyable and it is so interesting to hear from Mr. Clemens and Jean how sweet and lovely Neltje Blanchan is [MTP TS 57].
May 13 Monday – Sam addressed a letter from Tuxedo Park N.Y. “(Summer residence)” to Harry Windsor Dearborn.
As I have not heard from you I am taking it for granted that Mr. Vanderbilt, on behalf of the [Fulton] Monument Association, has invited Mr. Cleveland already, or will invite him as soon as he gets back from Europe July 1.
And so I have today, by letter, invited Mr. & Mrs. Cleveland to be my guests in the Kanawha; I invite but one other guest.
May 13 Wednesday – At 21 Fifth Ave, N.Y. Sam wrote a letter of introduction for George M. Robinson, wealthy Elmira furniture maker, to Bram Stoker. “This is George Robinson, a friend of mine of 40 years’ standing, & I hope you will tell him the things he wishes to know, for Clara’s sake & mine” [MTP]. Note: George M. Robinson was a lineal descendant of John Robinson, one of the Mayflower emigrants of 1620. See Aug. 20, 1890 entry, Vol. II. Also, the reference to Clara and the need for Sam’s note become clear by this May 14, 1908, p.