Back to Riverdale DBD

May 30 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam replied to Thomas F. Gatts (1863-1915), attorney for the 1904 St. Louis Fair. (Incoming letter from Gatts not extant; see June 3 from Gatts, June 8 to Gatts.)

May 31 Sunday – Sam’s notebook: “Bergheim here—lunch. / [Horiz. Line separator] / Take him to Lotos— / [Horiz. Line separator] / Leave him there & go to Mr. Rogers & show him Collier proposal” [NB 46 TS 18].

May 4 Monday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam, still laid up, wrote to Brander Matthews.

I haven’t been out of my bed for 4 weeks, but—well, I have been reading, a good deal, & it occurs to me to ask you to sit down, some time or other when you have 8 or 9 months to spare, & jot me down a certain few literary particulars for my help & elevation. Your time need not be thrown away, for at your further leisure you can make Columbian lectures out of the results & do your students a good turn.

May 5 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Susan Crane.

God is very good to us, when He can’t think up anything fresh. Jean is so much better this morning that Katy calls her almost well; I am so much better that I have suspended the tiresome poultices till afternoon; Livy is so much better that she bombards me right along with urgent notes about business; Clara is so much better that there is nothing the matter with her, & hasn’t been. For these mercies, &c., &c., &c.

May 6 Wednesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote a note to Franklin G. Whitmore.

“Mrs. Clemens left the enclosed out, thinking they would not sell for anything, but I think they will help pay the taxes. / Make no report to Reeves. Take the whole commission. If he complains I will settle with him myself” [MTP]. Note: See May 2.

May 7 Thursday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote on the top of a May 6 letter regarding a poet-humorist convention, to William Dean Howells.

May 8 Friday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam added to his Apr. 7 to John Y. MacAlister that he discovered this day he’d forgotten to post.

May 8. Great Scott! I never mailed this letter! I addressed it, stamped it, put “Registered” on it—then left it lying unsealed on the arm of my chair, & rushed up to my bed quaking with a chill. I’ve never been out of the bed since—oh, bronchitis, rheumatism, two sets of teeth aching, land, I’ve had a randy time for 4 weeks. And to-day—great guns, one of the very worst!

May 9 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore concerning items in the Hartford house that should be sold loose: “3 or 4 sets of billiard balls,” worth about $50 per set; the old safe in the cellar Sam had purchased for $200, “painted windows…made in England after the house was finished.” Sam noted that the seller of the Tarrytown house had ripped out built in bookshelves “when our back was turned” [MTP].

November 1 Saturday – In Riverdale, N.Y.: Sam’s notebook: “Miss Lyon came. / A reading in private house for Mrs. Bartholomew’s charity. / The Duel. Watermelon / Old Ram. Ornithorhyncus. / Mex. Plug. Russ. Passport. / Xms. Whistling. Golden Arm” [NB 45 TS 33]. Note: this is the reading canceled on May 1, 1902. Evidently he gave another reading for this charity on Dec. 20.

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 – Critic ran a brief review of “A Double-Barrelled Detective Story” on p.479. In full:

November 2 Sunday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edward W. Ordway, secretary of the Anti-Imperialist League: “Although I cannot do any of the work myself, I shall be mighty glad to advise others what to do; therefore, accidents not preventing, I shall be at 501 at 4 p.m.” Nov. 13th” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to commiserate with Sir Thomas Wardle on the loss of his wife, Lady Wardle:

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].