Vol 3 Section 0927
How many “Roughing It.”?
How many “Gilded Age”?
How many “Tom Sawyer”?
How many “Sketches”?
How many “Tramp Abroad”?
How many “Equator”?
How many “Puddn Head Wilson”?
Set the figures down opposite each book as he gives them to you, and hand them to me when I come. Ask the most intelligent and level-headed of Bliss’s directors to come and see me at your house during
Wednesday afternoon or in the evening. Tell him I ask this only because I have only a short time to stay and I don’t want to be seen on the streets, and be obliged to go around and pay calls.
If you do not know which is the most capable director, don’t ask Bliss, but ask Bliss’s lawyer, Gross.
I may want to talk with the other directors privately and separately, but I will determine as to that after talking with the one above specified. / Sincerely Yours. …
Whether I go to Hartford, or don’t—I will send you an unsigned telegram [MTP].
Sam’s notebook: “Sweet Alice, Ben Bolt. I met the author once at the Authors Club in his age. He looked it.
Alice was a poor thing, & Ben was a cad” [NB 46 TS 18]. Note: Gribben identifies Thomas Dunn English (1819-1902) as the author of this song, “Ben Bolt, or oh! don’t you remember” (1848). A line in the song asks, “Don’t you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt?” [223].
Will M. Clemens wrote on a March 3, 1903 reply of Isabel Lyon from Clemens, putting his proposed payments of $ 500 for a 2 hour interview, $1,000 for a 3,000 word short story [MTP]. Note: just whay it took over two months for Will to reply, when before he expressed urgency for a “client” is not clear.
June 2 Tuesday – In Riverdale, N.Y. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Franklin G. Whitmore, advising that Sam had sent a check for $70 to John O’Neil, the Clemenses old gardener, who was packing up belongings in the Hartford house. Sam didn’t expect O’Neil to do anything for the money beyond completing his work which might take three or four days [MTP].
Sam’s notebook: “Afternoon—here—Col. Harvey & Duneka” [NB 46 TS 17].
June 3 Wednesday – Sam went to Hartford, planning to arrive there just after noon. He stayed at the Whitmore home [June 1 to Whitmore].
Thomas F. Gatts wrote to Sam.
Your esteemed favor of May 30th, received this morning. I assure you that we give due consideration to every word and sentence of your letter.
While we would very much like to develop the National Mark Twain Association into local and State reading clubs; but we humbly bow to the will and desire of the man whose name we all love to honor.
We feel yet that there may be some way to have a day set apart as a Mark Twain Day at the great fair in St.
Louis to celebrate the Louisiana Purchase [MTP].
June 4 Thursday – Sam’s notebook: “Hartford. Interview, 4 p.m. with Ward Jacobs” [NB 46 TS 18]. Note: Ward Jacobs was a major stockholders in Am. Publishing Co. Sam sought his support for his buy-out plan. See June 5 NB entry.
In Hartford Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers, probably referring to the tribute he’d written to Rogers, who objected to it being published.
SLC used mourning border for most letters from Susy’s death on, then from Livy’s death on.