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:
The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day
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-August 31 – Sometime during this period in Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Margaret Blackmer about a humorous exchange with a supposed lookalike.
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 20 Saturday – In the morning in Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Clara, now in London.
June 21 Sunday – The photograph of Clemens playing cards with Dorothy Harvey and her friend Pauline Martin, and Louise Paine was likely taken this day, the day after their arrival at Stormfield [MT Journal Spring/Fall 2006 p. 25].
The New York Times, p. C2 under “Nearly 10,000 Guests Bidden to Windsor,” ran a final paragraph about Clara Clemens:
June 22 Monday – In Redding, Conn., Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Dorothy Quick.
Dear Dorothy: / Mr. Clemens has just left for town, & he asks me to invite your mother & you to come up here on Thursday the second leaving N. Y. Central on the 4:15 train M for Redding. Mr. Clemens & Mr. Paine will be on the same train. Please do not disappoint Mr. Clemens. He sends you much love, & to your mother too. / Yours Ever / I. V. Lyon [MTP].
June 23 Tuesday – John J. McCowan for the Actors Society of America wrote from NYC. He planned to enter vaudeville dressed up as Mark Twain, if Clemens had no objection [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Answd / June 29, 08; Please refer him to Miss Elizabeth Marbury 1430 Broadway”
Mr. & Mrs. Whitelaw Reid sent an engraved invitation to the wedding of his daughter Jean Reid to John Hubert Ward on June 23 at Dorchester House [MTP].
June 24 Wednesday – In Princeton, N.J.. ex-president Grover Cleveland succumbed to a heart attack. His last words were, “I tried so hard to do right.” Sam consistenly held the man in high esteem, and wrote condolences to Cleveland’s widow on June 25.
Alice Minnie Herts for the Children’s Educational Theatre wrote to Sam announcing their move and asking for “a good picture of yourself” [MTP]. Note: IVL: “Answd/ June 29, 08 / Say, yes. For her to get the photo & Mr. Clemens will present it. Mr. C. is in his country home”
June 25 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Frances F. Cleveland (Mrs. Grover Cleveland) in Princeton, N.J..: “Your husband was a man I knew and loved and honored for twenty-five years. I mourn with you. S.L. Clemens” [MTP]. Note: for some reason the NY Times reported this as June 26 [June 27, p.2, “From Mark Twain to Mrs. Cleveland”].
June 26 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
Dear Mr. Rogers: / Will you & Mrs. Rogers come & pay me a visit? I hope you can, & that you will give me that pleasure. I have been in the house a week, now, & am nearly wonted. I am sending this note to New York, as you were still there & making preparations for Bermuda when I last heard of you, which was a week ago.
June 27 Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Augusta M.D. Ogden in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.
June 28 Sunday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick.
“Dorothy dear, bring with you a doll about 8 inches long—Paine’s little daughter Frances will fetch a doll when she comes up the hill to visit you, & you and she can have a fine domestic time together./ With lots of love” [MTP; MTAq 181]. Note: Frances Paine was a younger sister to Louise Paine.
June 29 Monday – Sam and Albert Bigelow Paine left Redding and traveled to Boston, where they took rooms at the Touraine Hotel. Before they left, Paine wrote a letter for Sam to Dorothy Quick, then followed it with a telegram and another letter. The first letter:
June 30 Tuesday – In the morning, Sam and Paine traveled to Portsmouth, N.H. for the dedication of the Thomas Bailey Aldrich Memorial Museum, an event staged by Lillian Aldrich.
The New York Times, July 1, p. 16 covered the event:
MEMORIAL TO T. B. ALDRICH
———
Notable Speakers at Opening of Poet’s Home as Museum.
July – Sometime during the month a lawn party was held by the Mark Twain Library Association at Harry A. Lounsbury’s home. Another party at the same location was held in August [MT Library minutes copied by Tenney, Nov. 15, 1981].
Amo Umbstaetter and Elizabeth Atwood wrote from Lovell, Maine to thank Sam for his letter and autographs. Signed, “Your little friends” [MTP].
July 1 Wednesday – Sam and Albert B. Paine were still in Boston at the Hotel Touraine, staying the third night there [July 5 to Sturgis]. According to Paine:
Clemens did not wish to hurry in the summer heat, and we remained another day quietly sight- seeing, and driving around and around Commonwealth Avenue in a victoria in the cool of the evening. Once, remembering Aldrich, he said:
July 2 Thursday – Sam and Albert B. Paine left Boston at 8 a.m. for N.Y. [June 29 and July 2 to Quick]. Later, in Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Jean.
July 3 Friday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to John M. Howells, who had designed Sam’s new home in Redding.
July 4 Saturday – Sam’s A.D. for this date continued to focus with “spectacular venom” (Hill 209) against Lillian Aldrich for the June 30 Memorial of her late husband, which Sam attended.
Harper’s Weekly ran an anonymous article, “Mark Twain’s New Home at Redding,” p. 24, 29. Tenney: “On the purchase of the land, building of the house, and the neighbors. Illustrated with photographs of the house, local scenes, and MT playing billiards with Albert Bigelow Paine” [45].
July 5 Sunday – In Redding, Conn. Sam began a letter to Dorothy Sturgis which he mislaid, found and finished on July 14. The July 5 portion: Sunday noon.
July 6 Monday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Collier’s Weekly.
July 7 Tuesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Margaret Blackmer.
July 8 Wednesday – Sam’s guestbook has the following entries (also noted in IVL TS 54):
Name Address Date Remarks
Frederick Leigh New York City July 8-9 Staff of Harper & Bros.
F.A. Duneka “ “ “ “ “8-9
Note: Major Frederick Leigh was Treasurer of Harper’s.
William Dean Howells, in Kittery Point, Maine, wrote to Sam.
July 9 Thursday – Sam’s A.D. for this date continued to focus with “spectacular venon” (Hill 209) against Lillian Aldrich for the June 30 Memorial of her late husband, which Sam attended.
Sarah S. Collier (Mrs. Robert J. Collier) wrote from Racquette Lake in the Adirondacks, N.Y. to thank Sam for his invitation to stay with him, “but I am settled here for the summer, and don’t expect to leave till some time in September” [MTP].