The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day

September 12 Sunday — Sam’s new guestbook:

September 13 Monday — The New York Times, p.8, reported a resolution to the Clemens-Ashcroft conflict and law suits:

MARK TWAIN SUITS ALL OFF.

All Litigation Between Him and the Ashcrofts is Finally Dropped

The differences between Mark Twain and his daughter, Miss Clara Clemens, on the one side, and his former secretary Mrs. Ralph Ashcroft, and her husband have been settled without an appeal to the courts. All criticism of the conduct of Mrs. Ashcroft has been withdrawn and all suits have been dropped.

September 14 Tuesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Melville E. Stone.

Dear Stone: / I have been a sick man for several months, & shut up in the house by the doctors, & you go & choose this time to have a banquet, when I can’t come! I am sorry. But I don't blame you—you couldn’t help it.

September 15 Wednesday - In Redding, Conn, Sam wrote to Margaret Blackmer in Lake Placid, N.Y.

You thoughtless little rascal, why didn’t you tell me where you were going to be, now? You are gone from Lake Placid by this time, & this letter won’t ever reach you.

September 16 Thursday — In Redding, Conn, Sam replied to the Sept. 13 from James Beauchamp (“Champ”) Clark in Bowling Green, Mo.

Dear Champ Clark:

I am glad I have made another convert. This makes two, for sure, for while I was at it I converted myself. Well, no—that happened earlier.

September 18 Saturday - Sam wrote across all columns of his Stormfield new guestbook:

September 18, anniversary.  A year ago the burglars broke into the house at midnight. They were condemned to terms of 4 & 9 years. Persons of their sort had been plying their trade in the house for a long time, but we were not aware of it. This 18th closed all falatious [2 illegible words].

September 19 Sunday — In Redding, Conn. Sam began a letter to Joe Twichell that he added a line to on Sept. 27.

Dear Joe— / Nine days ago it was all arranged, & the writings drawn & signed, & yesterday the last little details were accomplished which wiped the slate clean of all connection with that criminal couple & dismisse's them out of our lives. And by George! yesterday was an anniversary—the date that the two burglars broke into this house!

September 20 Monday — In Redding, Conn. Albert B. Paine wrote for Sam to Archibald Henderson.

September 21 Tuesday — Paine writes of a dream Sam related:

September 21. This morning he told me, with great glee, the dream he had had just before wakening.

He said:
“I was in an automobile going slowly, with ‘a little girl beside me, and some uniformed person walking along by us. I said, ‘I’ll get out and walk, too’; but the officer replied, ‘This is only one of the smallest of our fleet.’

September 22 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Mrs. Augusta M.D. Ogden in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.

September 24 Friday — J.M. Eddy for Rush of ’49 Committee, Stockton, Calif. wrote to invite Sam to the 60th Anniversary of the gold rush, beginning on Oct. 26 [MTP].

September 25 Saturday —- Sam noted in his after Sept. 25, 1909 letter that on this day, “Clara’s announcement,” of her wedding on Oct. 6 to Ossip Gabrilowitsch.

Sam’s new guestbook:

September 26 Sunday - Sam noted in his after Sept. 25, 1909 letter that on this day, “The final & absolute extinction of that sandhog, for $100.”

Sam’s new guestbook:

September 27 Monday — In Redding, Conn. Sam finished his Sept. 19 to Joe Twichell. “Sept. 27. Yesterday the lawyers settled everything that was in dispute” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Frances Nunnally.

Francesca dear, you are cert airily a scandalous little rascal! I suppose you have been within a mile of this house half a dozen times, lately, & yet you wouldn’t come & see a person. However, you have put in your time better, & so I forgive you.

September 29 Wednesday - In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Isabel S. Wayland (Mrs. John Wayland) in Stony Creek, Conn,

Dear Mrs. Wayland— / That bushel must be about due, now, & my mouth is watering, I thank you, thank you, thank you!

September 30 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Melville E. Stone, manager of the Associated Press. “Dear Stone: / This is a personal matter of great importance to me, & as I am not well enough to travel, these days, I am sending Albert Bigelow Paine, my secretary, to you with it. / With my love /...” [MTP].

Lotos Club wrote from NYC to invite Clemens to a farewell dinner for Melville E. Stone on Oct. 5 [MTP].

October — Clemens signed his copy of Trix and Over-the-Moon (1909) by Princess Amélie (Rives) Chanler Troubetzkoy (pseud. Amélie Rives) (1863-1945): “SL. Clemens / 1909 / Stormfield, October’’ [Gribben 714].

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 2 Saturday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Mrs. Helen Garth.

Dear Mrs. Garth: / Your letter left New York at noon Wednesday, & arrived here at breakfast this morning.
It probably went around by Louisville because it couldn’t get through the crowds of people you speak of.

I am very very sorry to lose your visit, but you will be coming east again by & by—you & Mrs. Annie—& then you must come.
With love to you both from the girls & me, / ... [MTP].

October 6 Wednesday — Clara Clemens married Ossip Gabrilowitsch at Stormfield. Joe Twichell performed the ceremony. The New York Times reported the event on Oct. 7, p. 9:

 MISS CLEMENS WEDS MR. GABRILOWITSCH 

Mark Twain, in Scarlet Cap and Gown, Sees His Daughter Married to Russian Pianist.

AVOIDS “CEREMONY DELAYS”

October 7 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Sam sent a telegram and then wrote a letter to Helen Schuyler Allen at the Hotel St. Andrew, N.Y.C. The telegram simply said: “Will write, wait for letter.”

Here is his letter:

October 9 Saturday — Sam’s new guestbook:

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote from London to Sam.

I know that you feel as I do about the Congo. You have magnificently proved it in your book.

I am sending you mine “The Crime of the Congo” which brings the facts up to date.

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 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 Tuesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Helen Schuyler Allen at the Hotel St. Andrew, N.Y.C.