November 7 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Mr. Griswold. “I shall be very glad indeed to do it. You forgot to enclose the piece of paper. You will best know the size & kind of paper you desire, so I will wait, if I may, until I hear from you again” [MTP].
Back to Riverdale DBD
November 8 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “New York / ‘Huck Finn’ / Mark Twain League man 5 p.m. here. / WEDDING 3 / Books should bear all the copyrights—Webster Dic. / Can Mrs. C. or heirs renew?” [NB 45 TS 33]. Note: neither the MT League man nor the wedding notation (3 p.m.?) are identified, though the latter may refer to Julia Langdon’s pleading letter for him to come to her wedding on Nov. 29 in Elmira..
November 9 Sunday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Charles Bancroft Dillingham, whom he had planned to accompany to Hartford to see the first performance of Lee Arthur’s HF play.
November 10 Monday – W. Harlan wrote from New Whatcom, Wash. to Sam, asking for a list of his books and which were the funniest; he wanted to recommend them to his patients. A doctor? Or a quack, Harlan believed in the power of vibration, which he called “Vibraopathy” [MTP]. Note: Clemens wrote on the env. “Curiosity”.
November 11 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook : “Take 2 p m. train for Hartford. / Bought …180 ½ Chi. Milwaukee & St. Paul, common 8% & 5 shs purchasable at par” [NB 45 TS 33]. Note: Sam decided not to go to Hartford due to Livy’s worsening condition [Nov. 9 to Dillingham].
In N.Y.C. William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.
November 12 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote per Isabel V. Lyon to Franklin G. Whitmore.
Mr. Clemens wishes me to say that yesterday Mrs. Clemens was better and otherwise, but mainly otherwise.
Mr. Clemens also says that if the encumbrance on the property could be reduced as you suggest it would be a great relief.
Further that he is ready to put up the property for sale at auction, just as soon as Mrs. Clemens is well enough to say “Yes” to any business proposition.
November 13 Thursday – Sam had promised Edward W. Ordway he would be at the Anti-Imperialist League meeting at 4p.m. [Nov. 2 to Ordway].
In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to William Dean Howells.
I am glad you sent me the short story from Texas. I wonder if you have much of this luck. That little story is a meal for a male; a male who has been living on Huyler’s Candy for a week, and wants something with bones and blood and gristle in it.
November 14 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Emily S. Hutchings, advising her what to do with rejected manuscripts.
November 15 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow.
Welcome!—welcome!—and again and again welcome to these foreign shores, you well beloved alien’! You should be arriving today by my count.
Mrs. Clemens is abed and in the osteopath’s hands, but she will get well as soon as she can, for she wants you to come up here and eat before you go off lecturing.
We make our reverence to your father, and join in kind regards to all the blood [MTP].
November 16 Sunday – In N.Y.C. William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.
(the way you look now)
Of course I should like to help pry that money out of Heriot [sic Harriott], but I think it will take more than fence-rails to do it. Poor Stoddard wrote me to the same effect as he wrote you, and wrung my heart so that I have not yet braced up to show that I had one. “This d—— human race!” You were well out of that dinner last night. Oh, but the clack was dull [MTHL 2: 750].
November 17 Monday – Emily S. Hutchings replied from St. Louis to Sam’s Nov. 14, thanking him for his “good and helpful letter,” which she’d rec’d this morning. She related a quick history of a novel she’d written on the Civil War when she was 20, and of Gen. Lew Wallace’s opinion, her decision not to publish it with Munsey, etc. Her lament was that so many other “oars” were in the water when it came to getting a book to the right publisher. She wished Livy better health [MTP].
November 18 Tuesday – Sam gave daughter Jean the following book, which she inscribed with her name and this date: Arthur Radclyffe Dugmore’s Nature and the Camera. How to Photograph Live Birds and Their Nests, Animals, Wild Game [Gribben 205].
Sam’s notebook: “Strachey dinner 8 p.m. Arr. Grand Central at 8. Col. Harvey 1 W. 72d” [NB 45 TS 34].
November 19 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to John M. Dickey in Indianoplis, Ind.
Dickey had evidently asked for copies of letters to and from James Whitcomb Riley the “Hoosier Poet”.
November 20 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to David A. Munro of the North American Review who wrote on Nov. 19: “Mr. Franklin’s count may be right but it falls short of my estimate by about 4000 words. Did he count 35 pages of reprint? That much of the reprint has never been published” [MTP].
In N.Y.C. William Dean Howells wrote to Sam, having rec’d a letter from Charles W. Stoddard.
November 21 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Jean fainted to-day—the first time in 16 weeks & 1 day” [NB 45 TS 34].
M.C.B. Hart wrote from NY to ask Sam for his autograph on a clipping or a book of articles [MTP].
David A. Munro wrote to Sam, deeply regretting that a “blunder” had been made on word count (evidently pointed out by Sam); and enclosed an additional $105 check [MTP]. Note: see Nov. 19 from Munro.
November 22 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edward W. Bok, editor of the Ladies’ Home Journal. “It is a long look ahead but it is good wisdom any way. I haven’t broken with the Harpers yet, and I see no prospect of it, but if it should happen I should be quite willing to talk Christmas Story with you” [MTP].
November 23 Sunday – M.J. June wrote from Detroit, Mich. to Sam, heading it “Obituary.” This was for the “obituary contest,” which Mark Twain solicited in the Nov. 15 issue of Harper’s Weekly [MTP].
November 24 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote two notes to Franklin G. Whitmore, the first per Isabel Lyon.
Mr. Clemens asks me to write you to “poke up” Dr. Porter with regard to the property question.
November 25 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote a draft of a letter to Frederick C. Harriott in response to Howells’ urging of Nov. 24.
November 26 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Carl Thalbitzer, a Danish writer, who, after reading “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg,” wrote to Sam on Nov. 13 asking if Sam put his personal views into such stories.
November 27 Thursday – Livy’s 57th birthday.
Harry Freeman wrote from NY to Sam offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest [MTP].
Georg Becker wrote from Berlin, Germany (in German) offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest [MTP].
W.T. Leslie wrote from NY to Sam offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest [MTP].
November 28 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Train at 7.07. / 7.07 / Birth-day, dinner (not the 29th or 30th) Train leaves here at 7.07. / Wounds our conventions rather than our convictions. The convictions of one age are the conventions of the next” [NB 45 TS 34]. Note: evidently there had been some changes of the birthday dinner date; Sam entered a few things to say at the event in his Nov. 30 NB entry, and specified there it was to be the 29th; it wound up being this day. The 29th he was in Elmira at his niece’s wedding. The Nov. 30 entry:
November 29 Saturday – In Elmira, Sam, Jean Clemens and likely Katy Leary, attended an evening wedding in the Langdon home between his niece Julia Olivia Langdon (Julie) (1871-1948) and Edward Eugene Loomis (1864-1937) [Nov. 30 to Livy]. Note: Loomis was the First Vice President of the Delaware and Lackawanna Railroad.
November 30 Sunday – Sam’s 67th Birthday. He wrote from Elmira to Livy, with a proviso to daughter Clara at the top of the letter. “Clara dear, this is to your mother, but you must not risk showing it to her without reading it first yourself.”
December 1 Monday – Sam, daughter Jean, and Katy Leary were in Elmira, N.Y. [NB Dec. 3; 45, TS 34].
an unidentified person wrote from St. Louis to Sam offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest [MTP].