August 18 Tuesday – In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote an aphorism to Margery H. Clinton.
It is a poor old maxim, & nothing in it: anybody can do it, you don’t have to employ a dog.
“Let a sleeping dog lie.”
Truly yours / Mark Twain
To Miss Margery Clinton
(August 18, 1908, at Redding, Conn. ) [MTP].
August 18 Wednesday - Sam's new guest book:
| Name | Address | Date | Remarks |
| Miss Lyons | New York | Aug 18, 1909 | |
| FA Duneka | New York | " " | (Both sober) |
August 19 Friday – Albert Bigelow Paine wrote to Sam. “Proofs with two extracts from your letters to Nast just came in. I enclose slip— / I think there are one or two more, later” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “These are unobjectionable”; the enclosed sheets with MT’s letter excerpts to Nast, are not dated in the text, but from the cues are: “Nast, you more than any other man have won a prodigous victory for Grant,” which is letter of Dec. 10, 1872; and “The Almanac has come,” letter of Dec. 17, 1872.
August 19 Sunday – Frederic Chapin wrote from Oak Park, Ill. to Sam concerning existing rights of dramatization for P&P, possible claims by Daniel Frohman, and of Elisabeth Marbury’s position as Sam’s agent. Frank Pixley, a good friend of Chapin’s who wrote The Burgomaster (1901), King Dodo (1902), The Prince of Pilsen (1903), etc. was to write the play and lyrics, but objected to having to share royalties with Marbury [MTP]. Note: Frank Pixley (1867-1919), librettist, collaborated with Gustav Luders on popular musicals; he is not Frank M. Pixley, Am.
August 19 Monday – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. in the morning, Sam added to his Aug. 17, 18 to Dorothy Quick.
“Just a WEEK” since I saw you! Why, you little, humbug, it is over 3 months; even Miss Lyon, who never gets anything straight but corkscrews & potato peelings & things like that, concedes that its’s upwards of two months. What is the matter with your veracity-mill?
===
Night.
August 19 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Mr. Lounsbury is ill, a fistula caused by a strain in moving Santa’s piano. AB and his nice old father came up for billiards. I entertained his nice old father and gave him tea on the loggia. He called the dear little cedar trees ‘volunteers’” [MTP: IVL TS 60]. Note: Paine’s father is shown as Samuel E. Paine in the Aug. 24 original guestbook entry.
August 19 Thursday — David Rutherford wrote from London, offering to illustrate for nothing:
Dear Sir, / In the “Idler” of February 1898 there appeared an article by Robert Barr in which he exposed a “system” advised by you for those in want of work and which had been acted upon very successfully in a number of instances by those who applied it. [...]
August – Sam’s notebook: contains the title of Joseph C. Lincoln’s book, Cape Cod Ballads and Other Verse, by Joe Lincoln (1902), and a stanza from the poem [Gribben: 410: NB 46 TS 33]
“Italian With Grammar” ran in the Aug. issue of Harper’s Monthly [Camfield’s bibliog.].
The Plasmon Co. of America was nearly insolvent. John Hays Hammond was now the general manager of the company and took steps to revive things. From a 1910 decision on ensuing lawsuits:
Late July and August – Sam’s A.D. sessions continued weekdays, for two or more hours each day. During this time, after his return from England, his dictations dealt almost exclusively with his time in England and Oxford [MTE 320-46].
August – In Tuxedo Park, N.Y. Sam wrote his aphorism about honors deserved to E.M. Bowney [MTP: Philip C. Duschnes catalogs, No. 183, Item 98].
August – In Redding, Conn. Sam inscribed a photo of him seated (by Underwood & Underwood) with “best wishes” and the month/year to Jeannette Cholmeley-Jones [MTP].
Sam also inscribed a copy of JA to Mrs. Niehaus: “Truly Yours / Mark Twain / To Mrs. Niehaus, / the dear & valued friend of my daughter Jean—with my gratitude. / SL Clemens / August, 1908” [MTP].
August 1908 to February 1909 — Sometime during this period Albert I. Frye wrote from Brooklyn, NY to inquire of Sam a “less expensive method to insure copyright” [MTP]. Note: In the file a note by the MTP staff: “Since MLH, Mary L. Howden, is SLC’s stenographer from Aug 1908 to Feb 1909, this letter must have been written during that time”; the same note is in several letter files.
August — Current Literature published an anonymous article, “Mark Twain from a New Angle” [Tenney 46]. In his third supplement, Tenney adds: Summarizes and quotes Henderson’s ‘Mark Twain’. ..; also, quotes INDEPENDENCE BELGE...where ‘Jacques Lux refers to Prof. Archibald Henderson’s study as one of rare consciousness and singular force. ‘The Yankees,’ he says, ‘are as proud of possessing a Mark Twain as their fathers were ashamed of acknowledging Edgar Poe as their fellow-countryman.
August 2 Tuesday – Sam was in New York City, likely staying at the Grosvenor Hotel.
Otto Spengler for Argus Pressclipping Bureau sent a form letter to Sam, enclosing an article (not in the file) “certainly of interest to you,” and solicting they might serve him with others [MTP].
Amy S. Hutton wrote from Tyringham, Mass to Sam. She had heard of Jean’s accident. A trained nurse, she offered her services and a wish for a “speedy recovery” [MTP].
August 2 Wednesday – Isabel Lyon’s journal: “I walked with Miss Greene up to the top of Oak Hill” [MTP TS 83].
Helena Gilder wrote from “Four Brooks Farm,” Tyringham, Mass. to Sam, expressing it “a great pleasure to have Clara and find her like her old sweet self.” She was glad Sam and Jean liked Dublin. Her handwriting is somewhat inscrutable [MTP].
August 2 Thursday – Frederick W. Wile wrote from the Berlin Bureau of the Chicago Daily News:
August 2 Friday – Chatto & Windus wrote to Sam enclosing a check for £160:7:2 in royalties [MTP].
Frederick A. Duneka wrote to Sam after hearing from Harvey that Sam would give them a story for the Christmas Magazine [MTP]. Note: Lyon wrote on the letter: “Sent him Wapping Alice”
August 2 Sunday– In Redding, Conn. Sam wrote to Charles M. Fairbanks.
Dear Charley— / Will you please entrust temporarily to the hands of the bearer, Mr. W. R. Ashcroft, such of my old letters and original (unpublished) MSS as your mother left in the family’s possession, so that he may have copies made of them for me. I have empowered Clara to publish a book of my letters for her bread-&-butter’s sake, (after my death.) / Sincerely Yours [MTP].
August 2 Monday — Sam’s new guestbook:
| Name | Address | Date | Remarks |
| Dr. George Helmer | New York | August 2-3 |
August 20 Saturday – In a letter of July 14 Cecilia Beaux, the famous portrait artist, wrote to her friend Dorothea Gilder (dau. Richard Watson Gilder) asking to arrive this evening “for a few days.” Beaux had met Sam in London on June 1, 1900 when traveling with the Gilders (see entry). No mention of Twain appears in correspondence between the two friends, but if Beaux did in fact visit, it’s likely Sam and Cecilia saw each other sometime during the next few days [Cecilia Beaux to Dorothea Gilder Aug.
August 20 Sunday – In Norfolk, Conn. Sam began a letter to Isabel V. Lyon that he added a PS to on Aug. 21, this about the rent payment needed by Renwick on 21 Fifth Ave., since a new heating system had been installed. “If you need money, get it of Miss Harrison. Send Renwick the money, & a word hoping he is well” [MTP].
August 20 Monday – Sam referred to his What Is Man? As his “Gospel.” 250 copies of What is Man? was privately, and anonymously published by DeVinne Press, NYC.
August 20 Tuesday – The New York Times, p.3, announced “on good authority” that Rudyard Kipling was chosen for the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1907, and that Mark Twain had been suggested for same.
Joseph T. Brown for Knickerbocker Trust wrote to acknowledge Sam’s “note of the 18th,” placing an order for 1,000 shares of Utah Consolidated [MTP].
August 20 Thursday – In Redding, Conn., Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to Katharine B. Clemens.
“Mr. Clemens asks me to thank you for the photograph which he is very glad to have, & also for your note containing the very pleasant news that you will probably be able to spend a Sunday here.
“Mr. Clemens is better, & asks me to convey his love to you” [MTP].
Sam’s new guestbook:
Name Address Date Remarks
Jervis Langdon Elmira, N.Y. August 20 (My nephew).
August 21 Sunday – Miss Ella McMahon in NYC wrote a short letter of condolence to Sam, enclosing a typed verse, “Not Thou But I,” by blind English poet Philip Bourke Marston (1850-1887) [MTP]. File says Margaret McMahon; Ella may have been a nickname.