The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day

December 13 Monday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam inscribed an aphorism in a copy of PW to Bernand Walker. “Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker may be sorry.—Page 77. Truly Yours, Mark Twain. With kindest regards to Mr. Bermand Walker. Bermuda, Dec. 13, 1909” [MTP: Parke- Bernet catalog, 4 May 1938, No. 38, Item 90].

December 14 Tuesday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote to Frances Nunnally in Atlanta.

Francesca dear, I received your last just before I left home, & was glad to see you were carrying on as joyously & as turbulently as ever I hope there has been no abatement, & that there won’t be any while you are young.

December 17 Friday — In Hamilton, Bermuda Sam wrote a Bermuda postcard to Elizabeth Wallace. “Merry Christmas / & affectionate greeting / to Betsy / SLC / Blanche has been close-clipped & looks elegant—even spiritual” [MTP). Note: Maude was the donkey used in the earlier visit; Blanche may have been another.

December 18 Saturday — Clemens and Albert Bigelow Paine sailed on the Bermudian bound for New York. In his Dec. 19 to Marion Schuyler Allen (Mrs. William H, Allen) Sam wrote, “We plunged into heavy seas before the waving handkerchiefs & the flag were an hour out of sight...”.

December 18-20 Monday — On board the Bermudian Sam wrote to Helen Schuyler Allen in Hamilton, Bermuda.

December 19 Sunday — On board the Bermudian Sam wrote to Marion Schuyler Allen (Mrs. William H. Allen) in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Dear Mrs. Allen:

I don’t know how to thank you & Mr. Allen enough for the perfectly charming time you have given me. I have never had a lovelier time, & I can’t get over being sorry that it had to come to an end.

December 20 Monday — The Bermudian arrived in New York City. Jean Clemens met Sam and Albert Bigelow Paine. According to Paine, Jean continued on to Redding, Conn. while Sam stayed “a day or two later.” He described Jean as “blue and shivering with the cold,” and felt “she should not have come.” Likely she was accompanied by Katy or one of the servants [MTB 1547].

December 21 Tuesday —- The New York Times, p. 1, ran an article on the arrival of Mark Twain from Bermuda and Sam’s declaration that he would do no more work:

MARK TWAIN DONE WITH WORK

Humorist Says There'll Be No More for Him in This World.

“I am through with work for this life and this world,” said Mark Twain on his arrival yesterday from Bermuda. He had said a good word for the suffragettes, and his reply came when he was asked whether he intended to lecture for the cause of votes for women.

December 22 Wednesday — Sam left NYC for Redding by this day, according to Paine [MTB 1547].

Frederick A. Duneka wrote from NYC:

“You may recall that we had a talk not very long ago about making some school books from your writings. | talked the matter over with Paine yesterday. The school book plan seems a good one in so far as it teaches the young where to go for the most limpid English.

December 23 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote a short note to the Manager, Associated Press that ran in the NY Times (and possibly other newspapers) on Dec. 24, p.6, “Twain’s Merry Christmas.”

“I hear the newspapers say I’m dying, The charge is not true, I would not do such a thing at my time of life. I am behaving as good as I can, / Merry Christmas to everybody! / Mark Twain” [MTP].

See Paine’s recollection of dinner this evening with Jean Clemens, in Dec, 24 entry.

December 24 Friday — In the morning Jean Clemens died in the bathtub. Dr. Ernest H. Smith, the examining physician of the county ruled Jean’s death was due to drowning, evidently during a seizure [Hill 253]. The New York Times ran the sad story on page one, Dec. 25:

MISS JEAN CLEMENS FOUND DEAD IN BATH

She Was Overcome by an Epileptic
Seizure an Hour Before Her Body Was Discovered.

HAD PLANNED A HAPPY XMAS

December 25 Saturday — In Redding, Conn. Sam sent the same reply (telegram) to Annie Moffett Webster at 55 W 10th St N.Y. [MTP]

Paine writes of Christmas day:

December 26 Sunday — Sam drafted instructions to a printer for a card he wished printed for answering the many dozens of letters that poured in expressing sorrow and condolence upon the death of Jean Clemens.

December 27 Monday – Redding, Conn, Sam wrote to Mai H. Coe.

December 28 Tuesday — In Redding, Conn, Sam wrote to Harriet E. Whitmore.

December 29 Wednesday — In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to daughter Clara .

O, Clara, Clara dear, I am so glad she is out of it & safe—safe!

I am not melancholy; I shall never be melancholy again, I think.

You see, I was in such distress when I came to realize that you were gone far away & no one stood between her & danger but me—& I could die at any moment, & then—oh then what would become of her! For she was wilful, you know, & would not have been governable.

December 30 Thursday - More letters and telegrams of condolence were sent by:

December 31 Friday - More letters and telegrams of condolence were sent by:

“I am still rich” — Bermuda Solitude — Wanting to Die at Stormfield

[SLC used mourning border for most letters from Jean's death on.]

January 1 Saturday — Sam signed a typewritten letter to an unidentified person concerning the appointment of Albert B. Paine as his secretary and manager of his affairs [MTP: American Arts Association-Anderson Galleries catalogs, No. 4346, 11-12 Nov. 1937, Item 89].

Sam also wrote to Elizabeth Wallace.

Dear Betsy: / I cant write. For I am ill with a cold—the first one I have had in two years. The pain in my breast has come back—so I am leaving for Bermuda next Wednesday, for an indefinite stay.

January 3 Monday - Albert B. Paine wrote to William H. Allen in Bermuda, advising them of Sam’s preferences during his stay there. Paine’s protectiveness of Clemens is quite evident:

For Mr. Clemens, I want to say that he is more than anxious to go to your house [Bay House] during his stay in Bermuda, for he does not like hotel life... but he feels he could not take advantage of this generosity on your part for any length of time without some compensation....

January 4 Tuesday — D. Hoffman writes: “Clemens took the train to New York on Tuesday, January 4, and had dinner that night with Howells and Paine at the home of Edward Eugene Loomis, who was married to Livy’s niece, Julia O. Langdon” [144]. (Editorial emphasis.) Note: it would be the last time Howells and Clemens met. Though the date is off by one day, MTHL carries the following note: 

January 5 Wednesday — Sam sailed “unexpectedly” for Bermuda on the Bermudian. Paine did not accompany him; instead his valet, Claude Benchotte [Paine to Quick Jan 17; D. Hoffman 158]. Note: Paine also had written the Allens that Sam would likely make another trip during the winter to Bermuda; Sam, down with a cold on New Year’s Day, planned to leave on this day for Bermuda, so just how “unexpected” the trip was, it may have seemed so to Paine.

January 6 Thursday — Sam was at sea on the Bermudian headed for Bermuda. It would be his last stay there and last 95 days, his longest [D. Hoffman 158].

Albert Bigelow Paine wrote from Redding to Clemens: “Matters are going well. Mrs. Paine & I are sending out the cards, and I shall order two hundred more bought. Already there are over three hundred letters and telegrams and a number came in today—one from Helen Keller, which I enclose to you” [MTP].

January 7 Friday — Sam arrived in Hamilton, Bermuda, where he wrote from the Allen’s Bay House, Pembroke Parish, to Frederick A. Duneka or Frederick T. Leigh at Harper’s.

Dear Duneka 
or The Major: 
Please get for me with good dispatch, & send to me to the above address, these things, to-wit, and charge to me: 
“Old Rose & Silver,” by Myrtle Reed; 
“Their Heart’s Desire” (illustrated by Harrison Fisher;) 
“The Master’s Violin.” hy Myrtle Reed

January 8 Saturday — Amy C. Hayes wrote from Molokai, Hawaii to offer condolences from her and her son, Dr. Homer H. Hayes [MTP].