Vol 3 Section 0592
July 6 Saturday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote to Florence Hayward, answering her question about a photograph of him made by H. Walter Barnett , London. “The photograph was made by Barnett, 1 Park Side, Hyde Park Corner. You need to authority from me; he will let you have it without that. / It was a good speech you made, & does you credit.” He closed by saying Livy thought she had one of the photos in question but they were stored in trunks in N.Y.C. [MTP].
Several photographs of Mark Twain, including one rowing a long canoe on Lower Lake Saranac, were taken this day. [MTCI 399: W.B. Northrup’s With Pen and Camera (1904)]. Note: Northrup’s interview with Twain ran on July 21 in the New York World.
July 7 Sunday
July 8 Monday
July 9 Tuesday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, about the planned cruise, a new house they’d leased at Riverdale, money rec’d from Frank Bliss, and a circular to be used by F.R. Underwood and R.G. Newbegin in the marketing of his Uniform Edition. Sam wanted Rogers to approve the circular.
Your telegram hasn’t reached the Ampersand Hotel yet (5 P.M.), but I shall send over there again this evening.
I take it Judge Howland is going. If he backs out we can write Sloane. Sailing day is Saturday, Aug. 3, —is that it? I shall go to New York one or two days before that, & do errands, for we have taken Mr. Appleton’s furnished house at Riverdale on the Hudson, 25 minutes out of town by rail—for a year, beginning Oct. 1, with option of a second year at the same rate—$3,000 [MTHHR 465].
Note: William Milligan Sloane (1850-1928), professor of Columbia University. On Mar. 7 Sam read his unpublished story, “The California Friend,” at Sloane’s home for his Thursday Evening Club. See July 17 to Rogers. The residence of the late William Henry Appleton (1814-1899), American publisher, was on the Hudson River between 248th and 252 nd Streets. He was the son and successor of Daniel Appleton [MTHHR 466n3]. See also Aug. 27 entry for information on Appleton’s house.
July 10 Wednesday
July 11 Thursday
July 12 Friday
July 13 Saturday – In Saranac Lake, N.Y. Sam wrote to Frank Bliss about the flap caused by Harpers calling their issues of Sam’s Uniform Edition as his “lastest & best.” He pointed out that this was Harpers’ claim, not his, and that R.G. Newbegin would say that very same thing about the American Publishing Co.’s versions. Sam wrote he was going to New York within ten days and would talk to Harpers [MTP].
Sam also wrote to unidentified men, (perhaps to the R.G. Newbegin Co.):
I shall be glad if, in offering the Collected Edition of my books to the public you will claim for it on my part only this and no more: that I have prepared it with care, and that it is the only complete collection of my works that has been made.
Any books that I may yet write will be added to it [MTP].
Note: only Harper & Bros. and R.G. Newbegin Co. were offering his books to the public, and Sam had already declined to object to Harper’s claims for the books in their set; Newbegin had objected to Harper’s use of the “latest & best” description.
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.