July 10 Friday – Sam’s guestbook has the following entries (also noted in IVL TS 54):
Name Address Date Remarks
Mrs. Quick Plainfield, N.J. July 10-17 Remained until
Dorothy Quick M.A. “ “ “ “ “ “ -17 July 18
Frances Paine Redding, Conn. “ “ “ -17
The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day
July 11 Saturday – The New York Times, “Topics of the Week,” p. BR385, led off with the following paragraph about Elinor Glyn and Mark Twain:
July 13 Monday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.).
July 14 Tuesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam finished the mislaid July 5 letter to Dorothy Sturgis.
TEN DAYS LATER
It has long been my impression that this letter went to the mail at the time it was written. But that was a mistake. It got mislaid, & had turned up by accident this morning.
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 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 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 20 Monday – In Redding, Conn. Sam replied to the July 7 request by Edward Verrall Lucas.
Dear Lucy: / My permission to include the Tom Sawyer extract in your series, you have, straight from the bat, as the worldlings say. My secretary will ask the Harpers to add their permission, & forward it to the Mac Millans or to you.
Love & all good wishes to you & to Punch & that dear little fairy./ Sincerely Yours … [MTP].
July 22 Wednesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Margery H. Clinton at 39 E. 57 N.Y.C.
July 23 Thursday – George M. Robinson, Clara’s tour manager, wrote to Isabel Lyon c/o Clemens: “Will you kindly send me a check for $75., in accordance with our understanding. I am sending out two thousand circulars with letters enclosed. Will send you a copy of the circular to-morrow. I think it a vast improvement on last year’s issue” [MTP].
July 24 Friday – Sam, Ralph Ashcroft, and Zoheth S. Freeman played billiards from 9:30 p.m. till after midnight [July 27 to Quick]. Note: Freeman, at this time Vice-President of Liberty National Bank, N.Y. Along with Jervis Langdon II, and Edward Loomis, Freeman would be an executor to Sam’s estate.
Sam’s new guestbook:
Name Address Date Remarks
Mrs. Grace Hill Freeman (“Sheba”) New York July 24-26
Z.S. Freeman (her property) “ “
July 25 Saturday – Sam sent a brief note to Miss Dorothy Butes, who was sailing home to England: “Goodbye you dear child, and a happy voyage / SL Clemens” [MTAq 188].
Mary Desha wrote from Washington, D.C. anxious to “establish kinship” to Clemens through her great grandmother Katherine Montgomery. A photo of a woman is in the file [MTP].
Note: on the letter, but not by IVL: “ans’d 9/7”
John M. Howells wrote from Onteora Park, NY to Sam.
July 26 Sunday – Jean Clemens’ 28th birthday.
Isabel Lyon’s journal: Today when the King and Sheba and Zoe [Mr. & Mrs. Zoheth Freeman] were driving and passed a cemetery, Sheba said that the King reverently lifted his hat from his beautiful head and after a moment Sheba reached over and touched his beautiful hand in sympathy.
July 27 Monday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Dorothy Quick.
Dorothy dear, I miss you. It seems a long time since you were here. Louise has been here once, for a few minutes, & we have had a five minutes’ glimpse of Frances; Frances [Paine] went back home to her father’s house the day you went away.
July 28 Tuesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Jean at Eastern Point in Gloucester, Mass.
July 29 Wednesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally in London, England.
Dear Francesca—
Your letter arrived to-day with picture of Interlaken. What an architectural transformation! There’s nothing of the former Interlaken left but the Jûngfraû.
I am sorry you did not catch my daughter in; & she was sorry, too. She was more fortunate with Dorothy Butes, who found her at home.
July 30 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Clara.
I place with this a copy of a letter of today’s date which I have just written to Colonel Harvey.
July 31 Friday – Sam’s guestbook:
Name Address Date Remarks
Harriet E.G. Whitmore Hartford, Conn ) July 31 – Aug 3
Franklin G. Whitmore “ “ )
Note: in the original guestbook, Franklin Whitmore was dated as Aug. 2 [Mac Donnall TS].
Isabel Lyon’s journal: “The Whitmores and Ashcroft arrived this afternoon” [MTP: IVL TS 55].
August – In Redding, Conn. Sam inscribed a photo of him seated (by Underwood & Underwood) with “best wishes” and the month/year to Jeannette Cholmeley-Jones [MTP].
Sam also inscribed a copy of JA to Mrs. Niehaus: “Truly Yours / Mark Twain / To Mrs. Niehaus, / the dear & valued friend of my daughter Jean—with my gratitude. / SL Clemens / August, 1908” [MTP].
August 1908 to February 1909 — Sometime during this period Albert I. Frye wrote from Brooklyn, NY to inquire of Sam a “less expensive method to insure copyright” [MTP]. Note: In the file a note by the MTP staff: “Since MLH, Mary L. Howden, is SLC’s stenographer from Aug 1908 to Feb 1909, this letter must have been written during that time”; the same note is in several letter files.
August 1 Saturday – Samuel E. Moffett, Sam’s nephew and longtime booster, “drowned in the surf off the Jersey beach,” while his wife and children (Anita Moffett, 17 and Francis Clemens Moffat, 13) watched from shore. He was 47. At the time of his death he was an editor of Collier’s Weekly [MTHHR 651n1; NY Times Aug. 2, 1908 p.1]. Note: The Times gives Normandie-By-The-Sea (now Normandy Beach, N.J. just sount of Pt. Pleasant). See Aug. 6 to Emilie R. Rogers. The New York Times reported the tragedy on the front page of its Aug. 2 issue:
August 2 Sunday– In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Charles M. Fairbanks.
Dear Charley— / Will you please entrust temporarily to the hands of the bearer, Mr. W. R. Ashcroft, such of my old letters and original (unpublished) MSS as your mother left in the family’s possession, so that he may have copies made of them for me. I have empowered Clara to publish a book of my letters for her bread-&-butter’s sake, (after my death.) / Sincerely Yours [MTP].
August 3 Monday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Dorothy Sturgis.
Dear Dorothy: /Good! Then you will be very welcome in September, & your journey from Boston will not be a heavy one. We will tell you how to come, & what trains to take.
And so this is hoping you can come September 18 , & stay till Sept. 25 . Francesca M. A., (Member of the Aquarium) will arrive Sept. 20th or 21st from England. Other guests will arrive on the 26th.
August 4 Tuesday – Sam went to New York City for the funeral of his nephew, Samuel E. Moffett, and where, per Robert Collier, he wrote to the Accident Insurance Co. which had determined that Moffett did not die from an accident but from natural causes. Moffett held an accidental death policy but had few assets.
Dear Sir
I shall be obliged to you for giving every consideration in your power to the case of my nephew, Samuel G Moffett, who was insured in your company and who died on Sat. Aug. 1st.
August 5 Wednesday – Sam called on H.H. Rogers’ office at 26 Broadway and talked William Robertson Coe into visiting Redding with his wife “later in the season.” Later in the day he returned to his Redding home, accompanied by Col. George B. Harvey and David Munro (of the N.A.R.), who stayed over until Aug. 7 [Aug. 6 to Emilie Rogers; IVL TS 56 below].