The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day

September 16 Monday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: This morning the King went away on the 11:50 train to be met by Ashcroft and go by the New Bedford boat “Maine”, up to Fairhaven to see Mr. Rogers, who has been a very ill man. The King looked very handsome in his pale grey travelling suit. I was left as I always am, with a great sense of loneliness, as the jigger went noisily away.

September 16 Wednesday – Dorothy Butes wrote from England to thank Clemens for his autograph:

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 17 Saturday – In the morning, the Kanawha arrived in Fairhaven, Mass. With Mark Twain, and Mr. and Mrs. H.H. Rogers. The New York Times, Sept. 20, p.1 reported:

H.H. ROGERS IS ILL. ——

Dedication of Fairhaven Church Postponed—Indisposition Slight.

Special to The New York Times.

September 17 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: This afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Learned came in for a dish of tea, and then Mr. Pearmain and Mr. Montague came in too later—and the 3 of them sat and talked in front of the open fire, and they smoked. Jean went off to the Henderson’s and Mr. Clemens read an article to me that he has been working on lately. Oh its about the Interpretation of the Deity, so wonderful and strong, and true like every bit of that wonderful brain of his [MTP TS 98, 100].

September 17 Monday – Sam, likely in Fairhaven, Mass., inscribed a picture of a house to an unidentified person. “No, it is too stylish, it is not my birthplace” [MTP: MS facsimile: Paine’s 1912 Mark Twain: A Biography].

September 17 Tuesday – Sam left on the steamer Maine for New Bedford, Mass. to be a guest of H.H. Rogers at his Fairhaven home. Rogers was quite ill after a stroke [NY Times, Sept. 18, p.1].

H. H. ROGERS DRIVES AUTO.

———

Has Mark Twain as Guest—Said to be Crippled by Apoplexy.

Special to The New York Times.

September 17 Thursday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Charles Gilman Norris (1881- 1945), author and playwright (see notes) in Toronto.

September 18 Sunday – Sam was in Fairhaven, Mass.

September 18 Monday – In Dublin, N.H. Sam wrote a sketch unpublished until 2009: “The Privilege of the Grave” [Who Is Mark Twain? xxvi, 55-60].

In Dublin, N.H. Sam also replied to the ca. Sept. 15 from Mrs. Minnie Maddern Fiske (1865-1932), born Marie Augusta Davey in New Orleans, leading actress from childhood on, and also a playwright and activist for artistic freedom.

September 18 Tuesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

AB came back today, came back tired & brought me “Madame Butterfly”. He’s a thoughtful creature. I was so glad to see him—so very glad for when the King is away the loneliness of this place can be screaming, because I’m not alone. I can endure myself. It’s the rest of the world that chokes me so—a certain spirit world that is disastrous to me [MTP TS 120-121].

September 18 Wednesday – Sam was in Fairhaven, Mass. visiting the Rogers family.

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “T replied to the poem” [MTP TS 106].

Helen M. De Muth wrote from Crofton, Pa to Sam, sending him a photo of her (which also included Dorothy Quick) taken on the Minnetonka, [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter, “Answd. Sept. 18, ‘07”

September 18 Friday – At 12:30 a.m. two burglars, Charles Hoffman and Henry Williams, broke into Sam’s home in Redding, Conn. They were surprised by Isabel Lyon as they were removing silverware. As they were fleeing Claude Benchotte the French butler fired shots at them, and a neighbor, Harry A. Lounsbury, followed them.

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 Monday – Sam was in Fairhaven, Mass. Ralph W. Ashcroft wrote two letters to Sam. “Wheeler went to St. Louis with Hammond. / I enclose amended Second page of my ‘defence’ which please attach to the other pages, & destroy (or return to me Wednesday) the page it supplants.” His second letter discussed The International Spiral Pin Co. and stock which Sam might purchase. “On behalf of my uncle, Capt. W.D. Garside, of Melbourne, Australia, I hereby offer you all or any part of $6,000. of the preferred shares…” [MTP].

September 19 Tuesday – In Dublin, N.H. Lyon sent Sam’s biographical sketch by Moffett to the Knickerbocker Publishing Co. Sam’s letter with enclosure is not extant but referred to in the Publisher’s Sept. 20 letter [MTP].

September 19 Wednesday – Sam left Fairhaven, Mass. on the Kanawha for New York City. On board he read 10,000 words of Charlotte Teller Johnson’s play [Sept. 20 to Lyon].

In the evening Sam spoke at the Associated Press Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in N.Y.C. The NewYork Times, Sept. 20, p. 4 reported on the event:  

SPELLING AND PICTURES AND TWAIN AT DINNER

The Associated Press Men Hear a Plea for Phonetic Forms.

September 19 Thursday – Sam, in Fairhaven, Mass., wrote the date and his signature in a book for blottings, “The Ghosts of My Friends”—possibly to General and Mrs. Edward McCook [MTP].

Isabel Lyon wrote to Dorothy Quick 

September 19 Saturday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Marjorie Breckenridge, in Brooklyn.

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 – Sometime during the month, Clara Clemens checked herself into a sanatorium in Norfolk, Conn. Note: Clara returned at the end of the month to Dr. Parry to “continue her recuperation” [MTOW 44].

September – Miss Carrie Rosenheim of Baltimore, Md. wrote to Sam, calling him a “dear” and asking for an autograph [eBay item 230470822748, May 5, 2010]. Note: not extant but referred to in sale of Sam’s Oct. 9 reply.

Joseph Gilder’s article, “Glimpses of John Hay,” ran in Critic p, 248-52. Tenney: “Briefly tells of an evening with MT, Hay, James Russell Lowell, and Henry Adams, in Washington, January 1886” [Tenney: “A Reference Guide First Annual Supplement,” American Literary Realism, Autumn 1977 p. 331].

September – The second of two installments of “A Horse’s Tale” ran in Harper’s Monthly, and included five illustrations by Lucius Wolcott Hitchcock. Harper’s would publish both segments as a 153-page book by the same name on Oct. 24, 1907.

September – Bookman (NY) ran a sour article, “Mark Twain’s Publicity R.I.P.” p. 9-10. Tenney: “‘Mark Twain’s work,’ said one British writer when British applause was at its loudest, ‘has absolutely no connection with literature,’ and some of it ‘has for sheer concentrated vulgarity never been beaten’; and it was a pity, said another, that Oxford did not honor Henry James instead. The American press reported only England’s praise when MT visited.

September – Sam inscribed a photograph of himself in his white suit sitting in a chair and holding a book, to Isabel S. Wayland (Mrs. John Elton Wayland): “Mrs. John Wayland, with the affectionate regards of Mark Twain, Sept/08”[Sotheby’s auction June 19, 2003, Lot 127]. The Waylands were logged into Sam’s guest book for the period Aug. 31 to Sept 2, giving their home as “Little Pumpkin Island.”