March 13 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Harper & Brothers.
Concerning the copyright of my works. With a view of having it clearly understood, please take notice that my preference is that you should copyright in my name always.
In regard to the Double Barrelled Detective story, and the Hadleyburg, copyrighted in your name and which you have assigned to me, I will be glad if you will have same recorded at Washington [MTP].
March 14 Saturday – Sam’s notebook : “Delenda est Chicago—(must be blotted out.) APH / Sailor (?) that used to tell us about his murders & piracies, & do fool sailor-talk & incorrect—from books” [NB 46 TS 12].
March 15 Sunday – Celia B. Whitehead wrote from Denver, Colo. to Sam, asking in melodramatic language where she might send the enclosed MS (not extant, probably returned) for publication. The MS had been rejected by The Outlook—why did he think that was? [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the letter, “Why should she suppose I had time for such drudgery?”
March 16 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “APH / Mrs. J.L. Mott / 7 p.m. / 17 E 47th. 6.16 train / Life consists of thinking. The matters thought of & the manner of treatment determine the character of the resulting life” [NB 46 TS 12]. Note: this entry suggests Sam wrote a subject for a talk at the evening gathering at the Mott residence. See prior Mott entries, esp. Dec. 9, 1900.
March 17 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Helen Keller, who had sent him an inscribed copy of her autobiography The Story of My Life (1903) on Mar. 10.
I must steal half a moment from my work to say how glad I am to have your book, & how highly I value it, both for its own sake & as a remembrancer of an affectionate friendship which has subsisted between us for nine years without a break, & without a single act of violence that I can call to mind.
March 18 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Laurence Hutton, now in Hot Springs, Ariz.
Mr. Rogers has lent me your letter of the 8th, & I am going to try to reach you with a line. You will be gone from Hot Springs, but maybe the P.O. will know your new address. By gracious I am very sorry you & Mrs. Hutton have gone so far to fare so ill, very very sorry. But let it rejoice you to know that we who have remained have not fared better—at least not all the time. …
March 19 Thursday – At Delmonico’s in N.Y.C. Sam attended a 1 p.m. luncheon given by George C. Riggs for Colonel Herbert J. Foster [NB 46 TS 12], where he signed a letter to Laurence Hutton taken down by J.D. Jerrold Kelley veteran of the U.S. Navy and author of The Ship’s Company and Other Sea People (1897) see Gribben 366. The group drank to Hutton’s health and return, and besides Sam and Kelley included: Herbert J.
March 20 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Lawrence J. Anhalt, theatrical manager and producer who was seeking an interview.
March 21 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edward Day in Springfield, Mass., clarifying his stance against Christian Science’s founder, Mary Baker Eddy.
March 22 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Brisbin [sic] Walker—dinner. train 2.40 from River[side]” [NB 46 TS 12]. Note: John Brisben Walker.
Addie C. Irish wrote from Marietta, Ohio to Sam, complimenting him on his Christian Science articles in the NAR, and also on his other past works, JA, FE, and had urged her minister to read “Was it Heaven? Or Hell” [MTP].
March 23 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Charles Hopkins Clark, still editor of the Hartford Courant: “Do not trouble about me, I am prepared to go. I have laid in a long supply of heavy clothing. Also a fan” [MTP].
Sam also wrote to an unidentified woman, who had sent him a MS. He thought well enough of it to have carried it to Harpers on Mar. 19.
March 24 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook:
Every man is a slave & a slave-holder; every man is a king & a subject; no man knows any but a fictitious independence. The foreman of a squad of offal-carts possesses all the essentials of those insolent & squalid vanities, nobility & kingship. It is self-conceited man that has placed the reptile at the bottom of animated nature. It is like his presumption.
March 25 Wednesday – Muriel M. Pears wrote from Menton, France to Sam. “Our Golden Dear Magician. Don’t please Don’t let the papers put in that sort of ‘joke’—it isn’t a joke to us, it’s the sort of thing that brings down a sudden feeling on one’s head of being chilly and forlorn…” [MTP]. Note: she didn’t specify.
March 26 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Hutchinson, 114 W. 32d / Ask Julie to go. 4 p.m” [NB 46 TS 13].
Laurence Hutton wrote from Phoenix, Arizona to Sam, replying to Sam’s Mar. 18; it was hard for them to think of Livy as an invalid and wanted to shout out their love for her. “Phoenix is about as cheerful a spot as is the Wailing Wall of the Jews at Jerusalem…” [MTP]. Much of Hutton’s backhand scrawl is illegible.
March 27 Friday – Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Franklin G. Whitmore.
“Mr. Clemens wishes me to say that he is very glad to know you have the wills, and would like to have you send them to him by registered mail.
“Mrs. Clemens continues to improve a little, and sat up today for quite a while” [MTP].
March 28 Saturday – Sam’s notebook: “Andrew Carnegie’s / 2 E. 91st st. 8 p.m. / to meet Sidney Lee. / [Horiz. Line separator] / John P. Jones / 237 Stuyvesant / Bet. 16 & 17th & 2d & 3d ave” [NB 46 TS 13].
March 29 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Geo. Riggs, lunch—& Jean with me?” [NB 46 TS 13].
March 30 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to David Rowland Francis, President of the 1904 St. Louis Fair. The letter ran in the New York Times, Mar. 31, 1903 p.9.
RACES ON THE MISSISSIPPI.
Mark Twain’s Suggestions for Repetitions at the
Fair of Old-Time Contests Between Steamboats.
March 31 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Lawrence J. Anhalt’s Mar. 30.
April – Mark Twain’s humorous article “Instructions in Art” first ran in Metropolitan Magazine this month and in May, 1903. In part, with some of his drawings (inserts).
April 1 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Robert Collyer, who descended from the forge to the pulpit. Mr. Rogers puts a bust of him in Cooper Institute. / (C’s daughter objects to ‘Preacher…Blacksmith,’ wants the latter suppressed in the inscription” [NB 46 TS 13]. Note: Rev. Dr. Robert Collyer, pastor of Rogers’ NY Church of the Messiah; see prior entries.
April 2 Thursday – An unspecified doctor and specialist conferred and concluded that Livy would recover fully. They “ordered” her to go to Italy for the next winter. Clara Clemens wrote a Florence friend to locate a villa nearby [Apr. 7 to MacAlister].
Sam’s notebook: “Harry Rogers [illegible number?] pm / 38 E. 38. / Mr. Rogers put up monument to Drake in the oil regions (1902)” [NB 46 TS 13].
inserts: Drake monument.
April 3 Friday – Sam’s notebook: “Plasmon, 11.30. / John Bergheim. English Co. has declared 5% div. / 6 Founders Shares. / When do you issue stock?” [NB 46 TS 13].
April 4 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote a note to Livy.
April 5 Sunday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote two notes to Franklin G. Whitmore.
Our common everyday & absolutely unavoidable expenses are now $4,000 a month. For the Lord Jesus H. Christ’s sake sell or rent that God damned house. I would rather go to hell than own it 50 days longer. / Yours ever …