The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day

August 1 Wednesday – William Dean Howells wrote from Kittery Point, Maine to Sam.

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 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 10 Wednesday – Sam went to N.Y.C. Sam’s notebook: “New York. Clara here, sick— never well since June 5. Jean is at the summer-home in the Berkshire Hills, crippled” [MTB 1224: NB 47 TS 17]. Note: Clara was recovering from a nervous breakdown suffered after Livy’s death. Sam stayed in the City until Aug. 16 when he left for Great Neck, N.Y. on Long Island to stay with the Broughton family.

August 10 Friday – Melvin L. Severy wrote from Arlington Heights, Mass. to ask if he might quote from Sam’s “King Leopold’s Soliloquy” for a publication he was preparing [MTP]. Note: The MTP catalogs Sam’s reply as “on or after 10 August.”

Clemens’ A.D. this day included: Clipping from Westminster Gazette, criticizing statement in “Diary of Eve” and calling it irreverent—Clemens replies to this—Calvin Higbie‘s MS— Clemens’s reply to him—Extract from Higbie’s essay [MTP: Autodict2].

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 10 Monday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to George B. Harvey.

To-day I have written as follows

To Clara Clemens in Europe:

1. “By the original understanding with Paine I was to edit the Biography, with power to approve & disapprove with finality. But I have turned that editing over to Col. Harvey, & he has accepted the job.

August 10 Tuesday — The New York Times, p.7, noted the end of one of Mark Twain’s passions:

END OF CHILDREN’S THEATRE.

East Side Playhouse Dissolved Because of Lack of Funds.

August 11 Thursday –

Mary Dunham in Lenox, Mass. wrote a short note of condolence to Sam [MTP]. Note: She signed it York Harbor; the postmark is Lenox.

Candace Wheeler wrote a short note of condolence to Sam, “to break the silence.” She felt Livy was a “freed soul” [MTP].

Sam’s notebook: “2 years ago Livy was stricken, at York Harbor, 7 in the morning. From that time until the fatal 5th of June, 1904, she never saw a well day” [NB 47 TS 17].

August 11 Saturday – Of the selections from Twain’s A.D.’s, DeVoto selected about half of the materials not chosen before by Paine to be included in Mark Twain in Eruption (1940); among DeVoto’s choices, was commentary, dictated this day, on a newspaper clipping this day of a humorous letter Sam had written years before to Andrew Carnegie asking for money to buy a hymnbook [35]. Sam also discussed Rudyard Kipling, his reputation and his first trip to Elmira to meet him in 1889; the segment of A.D. was selected for MTE [309-310].

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 11 Tuesday – In Redding, Conn., Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to an unidentified person.

“Mr.Tallman should keep in touch with Mr Robert Collier in order that he may keep what Mr. Collier & Mr Clemens have done in the Accident Insurance matter from going astray.

August 11 Wednesday — Sam’s new guestbook:

August 12 Friday – Jervis Langdon II wrote to Sam.

August 12 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

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 12 Wednesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Susan L. Crane.

August 12 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to George B. Harvey.

Dear Colonel: / It was lovely of Mrs. Harvey & Dorothy & Jessica to come & see me, & it would be lovely if you & Dunneka or the Major would do the same. I can shelter two of you any week-end, or week-middle.

August 13 Monday – Sam’s A.D. of this day (untitled) declared his admiration for the work of Rudyard Kipling, especially Kim; this A.D. segment was selected for MTE [310-12].

Clemens’ A.D. this day included: Rudyard Kipling’s 1889 visit to Elmira continued—Some of his books mentioned [MTP: Autodict2].

Isabel Lyon’s journal:

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 13 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Helen S. Allen in Bermuda.

To   Helen Allen, M. A. (Member of the Aquarium).

August 13 Friday — Edward Eugene Loomis for the Delaware, Lackawanna Railroad wrote to Sam.

“I return herewith the 300 shares of Plasmon Milk Products Company stock you left with me sometime since, also correct Power of Attorney I have just succeeded in getting, authorizing me to sign for the other shares of the stock of this company that are due you” [MTP].