The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day

November 9 Wednesday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to John Y. MacAlister in London, sharing his plans for him and his staff to occupy the remodeled house on Fifth Avenue, and offhandedly mentioning what the Plasmon Co. had cost him: It is very good news you give me (along with the £350) about Plasmon. The American Co got my $32,500—the whole of it. Let it go. Davis sails for England a fortnight hence. He will tell you all about the sharp game that was played, & the result of it.

November 9 Friday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich arrived at 21 Fifth Ave. for a weekend stay with Twain. He left on Sunday, Nov. 11 [Lyon to H. Whitmore Nov. 12].

November 9 Saturday – Captain James C. Barr sent a telegram from the SS Lucania to Sam: “Big fish landed / thanks it was. / Captain Barr” [MTP].

John Bigelow wrote from Highland Falls-on-Hudson to advise that though he was at an old age, he would be at the Educational Theatre with one of his daughters on the 19th, and please send the tickets to an address he furnished in Gramercy Park [MTP].

November 9 Monday – Arthur J. Burdick for Gateway Gazette wrote from Beaumont, Calif., having heard the rumor that Clemens contemplated living in California. He promoted the city and wrote he was sending “a paper telling something of Beaumont” [MTP]. Note: “Ans. Nov. 17 MLH”

Frederick A. Duneka wrote from NYC to Sam. “It was very beautiful—our visit—just the happiest kind of times….even the cats seem to be dressed up for the occasion and to join in the welcome…. I am looking into the Mark Twain Spring Water scheme” [MTP].

October 1 Monday –  Sam left Fairhaven, Mass. and returned to Dublin, N.H. at 8 p.m. He replied to the Sept. 30 of  Thomas Bailey Aldrich.

October 1 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Last night I stayed awake waiting for the King to come home, and full of anxiety until he did.

I am purged of anxieties, purged of discontents and I think it may be in part the exodus of Delia.

October 1 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to John Henniker Heaton (also seen as Henniker-Heaton).

“Dear Mr Henniker-Heaton: / At midnight to-night the Great benefaction to two nations conferred by your labors reaches consummation, & I send my first 2-cent letter to you, along with my cordial congratulations. / Truly Yours” …  [MTP]. Note: Henniker-Heaton’s long campaign for cheap postage between England and the US resulted in his being called “the father of International Penny Postage.” See July 2, 1907 entry, Sam’s A.D.

October 1 Friday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Helen Schuyler Allen, St. Andrew Hotel, N.Y.C.

My child! Your letter arrives late. I must rush a line to you right away, or you will be gone to New York before this reaches Albany.

I guess I will send this to New York—then it will be sure to reach you. Tell me, dear, when you & your mother can come after the 7th of October. The house will be empty, then, for two or three days right after the 7th. Will you drop me a line & give me your earliest date?

October 10 Monday – Edmund Dene Morel, co-founder of the English Congo Reform Assoc. first wrote to Sam. Morel announced that he was sending by express messenger a packet of Congo literature: “…it includes …a special copy of the Memorial, which I would like you to keep and show to any friends as a document of perhaps unique historical interest…” [Gribben 472: MTP].

October 10 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

October 10 Thursday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: Headache. / Mr. and Mrs. Deacon, Father Fitz [William Fitz-Simon],  Mr. and Miss Sampson dined here and all day I was so ill, but I wouldn’t give in. I saw Mr. Willing who has charge of the syndicating of the autobiography; Mr. Ashcroft arrived at 3 o’clock; I secured a notary public to come out with the Plasheon lawyers who came at 5:30. I superintended the decorating of the dinner table. I gave the King all of my presence that he required, I played Hearts for an hour, just as I was going up to lie down for that hour.

October 10 Saturday – Sam wrote an aphorism to an unidentified person: “We ought never to do wrong when people are looking. / Truly yours / Mark Twain” [MTP: Superior Auction Galleries catalog, Oct. 15, 1991, Item 1832].

In Redding, Conn., Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Laura Hawkins Frazer, his childhood sweetheart.

October 10 Sunday - William Henry Bishop wrote from NYC to Sam after reading of Clara's wedding and noting in the article Sam mentioned a “troublesome pain in the breast” Bishop also suffered from such a pan that the doctors said wasn’t heart problems nor consumption. “Would you send me a word about yours [pain] on the chance that the nature of this trouble may be explained” [MTP].

October 10-16 Tuesday – Sam wrote two aphorisms to Henry Darracott Allison, of saving work for tomorrows, and of being better to deserve but not receive credit than the other way around [MTP: from Allison’s Dublin Days Old and New: New Hampshire Fact and Fancy (1952) ].

October 11 Thursday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam began a letter to Mary B. Rogers that he added to on Oct. 12, 13, and 16.

Thursday. 6 pm

Dublin, Oct. 12/06.

It isn’t right to pelt you with a letter so soon, dear pal, but there’s been a cloud-lift today & I’ve got to jubilate with somebody or expire with satisfaction. Next, I will write Clara, & between you two I expect to quiet down & become rational again.

October 11 Friday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam replied to the Oct. 7 from Mary B. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers, Jr.).

Mariechen dear, Flower of Nieces, it was my purpose to thank you for your letter in person, but the court had a more different story about it, & it forbade Fairhaven, & furnished me a couple of days’ testifying to do.

October 11 Sunday – Cunard line Commodore Daniel Dow ended his weekend stay at Stormfield. Sam returned his coat and cap worn in the insert photo, likely taken this very day (see Oct. 12 to Nunnally).

October 11 Monday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to William Henry Bishop in N.Y.C.

My dear Bishop: / You have located my pain exactly—“the centre of the breast bone”—but the one in the lung is your private property. I lack it. A distinguished allopath referred mine to the heart, & began to empty drugs into me—(& I have a horror of drugs.) At the end of a fortnight it was plain that the drugs only relieved, they didn’t reduce the number of attacks per day; so I stopped drugging.

October 12 Wednesday – At the Grosvenor Hotel in N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Isabel V. Lyon in Lee, Mass. to address all Harper letters to “Col. Harvey, Personal”, and never to send them to another.

October 12 Friday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam added to his Oct. 11 to Mary B. Rogers.

Next Day, 11a.m.—Friday.

What a useful creature you are, Saccharin! When I’ve lost my sleep & can’t dictate coherently & have to quit trying, I can turn for relief to you—I can entertain myself with scribbling incoherently to you, & you have to put up with it. Clara likewise.