The Man in the White Suit: Day By Day

September 9, 1904 Friday

September 9 Friday – At the Hotel Wolcott In N.Y.C. Sam wrote to Susan Crane.

Susy dear, the first time I ever heard “In the Sweet By and Bye,” a street-organ played it near the St. Nicholas in December 1867; & that was the first time I ever saw Livy Langdon, a sweet young slender girl & beautiful. In our engagement-year some of us often sang it, evenings, along with other songs. Present:

Father, †
Mother, †
Yourself,
Theodore, †
Mr. Slee, †
Hattie Lewis,
Livy Langdon †

How many are gone!

September 9, 1905 Saturday

September 9 Saturday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

September 9, 1906 Sunday

September 9 Sunday – Isabel Lyon’s journal:

Oh these days are too full & so my soul is not moved to anything. I can’t keep it up where it ought to be & so I cry & cry.

September 9, 1907 Monday

September 9 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Samuel E. Moffett. “Mr. Clemens asks me to thank you for sending to Washington for the lists for him.It was a pity you missed him so frequently, but we shall be back in New York about the first of November, not before I believe” [MTP].

September 9, 1908 Wednesday

September 9 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “We met Santa today at the Cunard pier.

Paine came in pale, and I begged him not to quarrel there. He had no intention of that though. Santa came right up here to Redding and finds it very beautiful” [MTP: IVL TS 64].

September 9, 1909 Thursday

September 9 Thursday — In Redding, Conn. Albert B. Paine wrote for Sam to Archibald Henderson.

Summer 1906

Summer 1906 – Sometime during his 1906 stay in Dublin (May 18 to Oct. 18, excluding a few trips), Sam met Ethel Barrymore, who was spending the summer at the artists’ colony in Cornish, N.H., where she posed for several paintings. The colony, active between 1895 and 1925, was spread out over Windsor, Vt., Plainfield, and Cornish. During its time nearly 100 artists, sculpors, writers, designers, and well-known politicians chose to live there, either for the full year or during summertimes. Barrymore would become a famous actress.

Summer 1908

Summer – Sometime during the summer of 1908, Clemens drafted his Constitution for the Angelfish. It follows:

THE AQUARIUM

Issued By THE ADMIRAL

INNOCENCE AT HOME REDDING, CONN. SUMMER-TIME 1908

Qualifications for Membership

Sincerity, good disposition, intelligence, & school-girl age.

Secrets of the Order

Members of the Aquarium are forbidden to divulge its affairs to any but their parents & guardians.

The Man in the White Suit

Livy had died in Florence, Italy. Her funeral was held in Elmira, New York July 14 of 1904. Sam would take residence in Tyringham, Massachusetts for four months before moving into an apartment at 21 Fifth Avenue, New York, where he would keep residence until June of 1908, when his final home, known as Stormfield, was built in Redding, Connecticut. Following the death of his youngest daughter, Jean, on December 24th of 1909, Sam likely found the solitary life in this house unbearable and took his final trip to Bermuda, January 7th of 1910. He stayed there until April 12. When he came to leave the Islands, he was too weak to be dressed. Wrapped in his coat and a few rugs, Clemens was carried in a canvas chair to the SS Corona, then taken by the tender to the RMS Oceana. He died from a heart attack on April 21, 1910, in Stormfield, one day after Halley's comet's closest approach to Earth

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