"...Mrs. Clemens was doing so well that she and her husband decided to make a trip to Elmira in July, leaving Clara and Jean in Riverdale. Clemens told the Huttons:
We carried Mrs. Clemens down the hill at 8:30 in the morning, at Riverdale; lifted her into the launch and all on board Mr. Rogers's yacht, out in the river; steamed down to the DL&W dock at Hoboken, carried the madam aboard the 10 A.M. train and came through to Elmira in the suffocating heat, arriving at 4:40...
July 1 Wednesday – At 8:30 a.m. Sam, Livy, and her trained nurse, Miss Margaret Sherry, left the Riverdale house and went down the hill to get on a launch. From the launch to Rogers’ yacht Kanawha, then down river to the Lackawanna R.R. dock at Hoboken, the group made the 10 a.m. train for the long ride to Quarry Farm in Elmira. They arrived at 4:40 p.m. Clara and Jean were to follow them the first week in August. In his July 2 to the Huttons Sam described the trip, and put it to this day:
July 2 Thursday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote two letters to daughter Clara, still in Riverdale. The first:
Clara dear, if you are sorry you neglected to offer a good-bye to Miss Sherry yesterday at the cars, write to your mother & say so, but don’t do it in such a way as to betray that you got a hint from here. Miss Sherry is hurt about something, & your mother thinks it was that. She feels sure it must have been that, & she is troubled about it.
July 3 Friday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam typed out a new proposition to Frank Bliss [July 4 to Jacobs].
Sam’s notebook: “Miss Sherry (the trained nurse) wheeled Livy beyond the barn & back. Livy is beginning to get rested from the journey / Finished framing & sent new prop. To Miss Murphy” [NB 46 TS 20]. Note: this last (see July 2 entry) a proposition about Collier selling sets; Miss Murphy was likely a typist. See also July 4 to Jacobs.
July 4, before – In Riverdale, N.Y. Isabel Lyon wrote for Sam to the Roycrofters, declining their invitation to dine on July 4 [MTP].
July 4 Saturday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote a postcard to Frederick A. Duneka, Harper & Brothers: “I am hatching another proposition for those Blisses people. This time I think it will go through, possibly” [MTP]. Note: see June 27 from Bliss; his initial plan was declined.
July 5 Sunday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to daughter Clara in Riverdale, N.Y., who was again suffering from a carbuncle.
Ah, you poor thing!—I am so sorry for you. And so sorry for your mother, too. It was heedless in me to send your letter to her—but I never once thought.
July 6 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “APHORISM / It was a narrow escape. If the sheep had been created first, man would have been a plagiarism. / In the make of his soul & in the movements of his spirit, man is nearer to the sheep than to any other creature” [NB 46 TS 20-21].
July 7 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook: “No answer from Jacobs. Telegraphed Collier (night dispatch, suggesting that he accept Am. Pub. Co. offer to sell out for $50,000, I taking 2/5 of it—& come up here & talk with me about it” [NB 46 TS 21]. Note: telegram not extant.
July 8 Wednesday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edward W. Bok. “Photographs ‘with practically no text’ are in my line. But I reckon you’ll have to come up onto this hilltop if the thing is urgent, for I shall be here stiddy for the next 6 weeks” [MTP].
July 9 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “No answer from Jacobs. Robt. Collier telegraphs he can’t come till next week. / Wrote details to Mr. Rogers of my project to have Colliers buy out Am. Pub. Co” [NB 46 TS 21]. Note: Collier’s telegram not extant.
July 10 Friday – Livy wrote to daughter Clara “about her admiration for [Louis] Agassiz’s fortitude in facing the prospect of blindness when he was a young man; he practiced the study of fossils by touch alone so that he would not be forced to give up his career [Gribben 12: MTP].
Sam’s notebook: “Telegraphed Collier he better get definite 10 day option to purchase from Bliss & stop any farming-out projects / The week with the Gov. Gen. of Canada” [NB 46 TS 21].
July 11 Saturday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to Hélène Elisabeth Picard.
“I thank you, with enthusiasm, for the moving & beautiful Joan pictures. They are a delight to the eye & an exaltation to the spirit. Thank you again!”
Sam then related the trip from Riverdale to Elmira and gave Livy’s status since arriving:
July 12 Sunday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to Samuel M. Bergheim, director of the Plasmon Syndicate, London. The letter is not extant but referred to in Bergheim’s July 29 reply.
July 14 Tuesday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to Daniel Willard Fiske, who had replied to Sam’s request for a villa near Florence. Fiske’s reply is not extant. Sam thanked Fiske and Mr. George Gregory Smith for their efforts, but was in a quandary over a choice between Villa Papiniano, and the one recommended by Mrs.
July 15 Wednesday – Sam’s notebook: “Wrote Sears I couldn’t do a Xmas story for Harper’s Weekly—no literary impulses in stock. / [Horiz. Line separator] / Collier has secured a purchase-option from Am. Pub. Co.” [NB 46 TS 21]. Note: Hamblen Sears was on the staff of Harper’s Weekly; see June 16, 1902 article on the Booksellers’ luncheon.
July 16 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Bok’s photograph[er] is to come to-day or to-morrow. By appointment” [NB 46 TS 21]. Note: see Sept. 1 to Bok.
July 17 Friday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to Edward W. Bok.
The pictures of this place, which has been our summer home for more than a generation, are finished, & Mr. Marr has just gone. Here we shall remain until we sail for Italy toward the end of October.
July 18 Saturday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y.: Sam’s notebook: “Sent cable / ROZIER, Florence, Italy. Please take Papiniano a year—put business in lawyers hands. / Clemens” [NB 46 TS 21]. Note: cable not extant.
Sam wrote to Edward W. Bok.
Please strike out the words about John T. Lewis which state that before the war he was a slave. Merely strike OUT—nothing need be inserted. I always supposed he had been a slave, but it turns out that this was a mistake.
… [over]
July 19 Sunday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to Daniel Willard Fiske with the results of his “Long-distance house-hunting ”and sailing plans.
Dear Professor Fiske: / You did us a great kindness when you furnished us Mr. Gregory Smith to lean on. He has stood the strain handsomely, & we look forward to thanking both of you in person in November.
July 20 Monday – Sam’s notebook: “I think Tabitha Greening’s pension ($10 a month) is paid, up to Sept. 1. Today sent $100 to Molly Clemens to pay it with, from Oct 1, to July 31, 1904” [NB 46 TS 22]. Note: Sam’s childhood friend, “Puss” Quarles (Tabitha Greening).
July 21 Tuesday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote a letter of introduction for George Daulton to the following gentlemen: Richard Watson Gilder, Henry M. Alden, George B. Harvey, Samuel S. McClure, John Brisben Walker, Walter Hines Page, Edward W. Bok, and Robert J. Collier.
July 22 Wednesday – In Kittery Point, Maine William Dean Howells wrote to Sam, needling him about a book lent.
July 23 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Harper—note about Tom Sawyer renewal of copyright (completing it) Sent it to Robert Collier” [NB 46 TS 22].
July 25 Saturday – At Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y. Sam wrote to William Dean Howells.
July 26 Sunday – Jean Clemens’ 23rd birthday. Sam inscribed a copy of Antonio Fogazzaro’s Il Mestero del Poeta: “To Jean Clemens on a Birthday. July 26th, 1903” [MTP: Howard S. Mott Inc. catalog, No. 177, Item 72. Also, Gribben 235].