December 2 Tuesday – Sam, daughter Jean, and Katy Leary were in Elmira, N.Y. [NB Dec. 3; 45, TS 34].
George B. Harvey forwarded to Sam copies of the regrets and acceptances for his 67th birthday celebration dinner [MTP].
John P. Hermann wrote from St. Louis to Sam offering an “obituary” for his Harper’s Weekly contest:
“He lies here still as he did before” [MTP].
December 3 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Jean, Katy & I returned from the Elmira wedding” [NB 45 TS 34].
Note: Sam dared not travel alone with Jean due to her epilepsy, and so took Katy along, who had family in Elmira.
December 4 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frederick C. Harriott who had coughed up part of the $500 owing Charles W. Stoddard. For weeks Sam and William Dean Howells had been acting in Stoddard’s behalf to recover money owed from Harriott, a literary agent in Boston.
December 5 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to William Denison McCrackan’s Dec. 4 letters:
I am glad to have the book and the other printed matter and I thank you. But as helps in “verifying or correcting statements of fact” in my articles they will not be of service to me. I have made no statements of fact that can require that sort of doctoring.
December 6 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Minnie Dawson, daughter or daughter-in-law of his old Hannibal schoolmaster, J.D. Dawson:
“I thank you very much for the pictures of the cemetery and the Brittingham Building. If the water melon had landed on John Meredith’s head instead of my brother Henry’s, I doubt if Henry would have shed any tears on that account” [MTP]. Note: see Apr. 14, 1847 and Jan. 13, 1885 entries, vol. I.
December 7 Sunday – Thomas B. Reed, Ex-Speaker of the House of Representatives, died in Washington. In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam telegraphed condolence to Susan P. Reed (Mrs. Thomas B. Reed).
“There is none who knew him but is stricken with you & mourns with you. He could have achieved the age of the patriarchs if his friends could have been privileged to spare from their lives to lengthen his. I beg to lay the homage of my deepest & sincerest sympathy at your feet” [MTP].
December 8 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “Get to Rices by 6.45. Julia Marlow[e]’s new play. Stay all night. Hot Scotch” [NB 45 TS 34]. Note: English-born actress Julia Marlowe, born Sarah Frances Frost (1865-1950), played the role of Charlotte Durand in
December 9 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Jean fainted again. Are these a result of the fall on the ice?” [NB 45 TS 34].
In Riverdale, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Franklin G. Whitmore.
“Mr. Clemens bids me send the enclosed check for one hundred dollars, to further say there is no special word except the very good one that Mrs.Clemens is getting on very nicely; each day sees a little improvement, which I know will make Mrs. Whitmore and you very happy” [MTP].
December 10 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. about this day, Sam wrote a note to Livy enclosing Henry Van Dyke’s “nice note” of Dec. 8.
December 11 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote one sentence to Connecticut Magazine. “It is a fine and great magazine and I feel a strong interest in it, and a strong pride as well” [MTP].
Sam also replied to Frederick W. Peabody’s Dec. 10.
I shall not be through with what I have to say in the N. A. Review about Mrs. Eddy & Xn Science until the April number.
Do you mean to tell me that my private letters are not safe in your hands?
December 12 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Daniel Carter Beard’s Dec. 10.
You are right—it is never too late to say the kindly word, when one can say it as heartily & cheeringly as you do. You have done great work in great causes, & I have walked by your side. We have our reward: the consciousness that your child (whom God preserve!) & my children will not be ashamed of us when we pass on.
Peace & prosperity be with you & yours always, Dan Beard. And my love therewith [MTP].
December 13 Saturday – Harper’s Weekly, p. 1943 -4 ran William Dean Howells, et al article, “In Honor of Mark Twain: Verses to be read at a Dinner Celebrating his Sixty -seventh Birthday. Included Howells’ “A Double- Barrelled Sonnet to Mark Twain (written to be heard, not read)”; John Kendrick Bangs, “Mark Twain (A Post-prandial Obituary)”; Henry Van Dyke, “A Toast to Mark Twain!” [MTJ Bibliographic Issue Number Four 42:1 (Spring 2004) p.8].
December 14 Sunday – In N.Y.C. William Dean Howells wrote a short note to Sam.
Stoddard’s story was rubbish of the sort that would appeal to a love-sick chambermaid; and I had to send it back to him. But I am ready to join you in another move on Harriot[t]. / Sorry to have been in Ohio when you came, the other day [MTHL 2: 754].
December 15 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to William D. McCrackan: “I thank you ever so much for your N. A. Review articles. I read them last night, with admiration & with profit” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Frederick W. Peabody, Boston attorney and outspoken critic of Christian Science.
December 16 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Frank Bliss.
“ I write at Mr. Clemens’s suggestion to ask if you will send me a list of his writings published by the American Publishing Co. Many letters come asking information about his books and the prices, and it will simplify matters greatly if you can send me such a list for reference” [MTP].
Marquis de Eguilles wrote from France to Sam—a short fan letter of appreciation [MTP].
December 17 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frederick C. Harriott, and gave the letter to William Dean Howells, who somewhat softened the language, then sent it on to Harriott the same day.
December 18 Thursday – Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904), Irish writer and suffragette, wrote from Bristol, England—a short, and mostly illegible note of appreciation to Twain [MTP]. Sam wrote on the env. “Preserve this (Frances power Cobb’s autograph.)” Two of Cobbe’s books are noted in Gribben, p. 149. Cobbe founded the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection. Her father banished her for rejecting her Calvinist upbringing.
December 19 Friday – Fatout lists an “unidentified dinner” speech in N.Y.C. for this date [MT Speaking 672].
December 20 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote per Isabel Lyon to Laurence Hutton.
I don’t lecture any more, otherwise I should say yes to that proposition, with pleasure. I never intend to stand on a platform again until the sheriff requires it.
December 21 Sunday – Sam also wrote a couple lines to Chatto & Windus: “My Xn Science man has backed out, and isn’t going to contribute to my book. I think he is right; it would offend his people, sure” [MTP].
December 22 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
I know of the bereavement which has befallen your house, & I wish there was some way whereby a friend could assuage a friend’s pain when a sorrow smites him, so that I might help you now; but there is none, & I can only offer my sympathy, freely & from the heart.
December 23 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “Miss Burbank, 73d. (Clara will give me the address.) Dinner—7.30. / [Horiz. Line separator] / I ate that dinner to-night. By mistake I went down to eat it last night. Stayed all night at Mr. Rogers’s; meantime Jean was hit (with a chill, Clara was completing her watch in her mother’s room & there was no one able to force Jean to go to bed. [)] / As a result, she is pretty ill to-day. Fever & high temperature” [NB 45 TS 35].
December 24 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to William Dean Howells’ Dec. 23 invitation for lunch at Moretti’s.
I’ll be there. Tell me who he is. [Henry Harland]
December 25 Thursday, Christmas – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frank Bliss.
You needn’t hurry, beyond the usual—I’m not asking that—but in a week or so when your check is ready, send it. Clara & I are still on deck, but otherwise the house is a hospital, & the expenses phenomonal. There is plenty of money, but it is in sound investments, & I do not wish to disturb it unless I must.
Merry Christmas to you! [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Emilie R. Rogers (Mrs. H.H. Rogers).
December 26 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Susan Crane.
Susy dear, I thank you ever so much for those cunning little conveniences. They will be ever so handy & useful.