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Autobiographical Dictation, 19 February 1908 ❉ Textual Commentary

Source documents.

SLC to JC      Facsimile of manuscript letter, SLC to Jean Clemens, 14 February 1908: ‘Dearest Jean . . . Father.’ (210.8–29).
TS1      Typescript, leaves numbered 2468–73, made from Hobby’s notes and SLC to JC and revised.

Clemens’s manuscript letter to Jean was sold at Christie’s in 1987; its current whereabouts are unknown. Our text is therefore based on a photocopy in the Mark Twain Papers; the variants inadvertently introduced by Hobby in TS1 have not been reported.

[begin page 210]
Dictated Februarytextual note 19, 1908

Mr. Clemens sails again for Bermuda threetextual note days hence—Copy of Mr. Clemens’s letter to Miss Jean about Miss Clemens’s musicale—The party at Sherry’s, the interesting people there, and the many dissipations which precede the second trip to Bermuda.

I sail for Bermuda three days hence, but not for my health. Last Thursday I had an energetic day, followed by an equally energetic and stirring night. I wrote Jeanexplanatory note about these wholesome dissipations next morning:

Dearesttextual note Jean, I must snatch a moment to tell you about Clara’s musicale of last night. It was very rainy, but no matter about 140 of the 160 guests invited cameexplanatory note to the show—and very choice people they were, too, bright, and cultivated. Clara was beautiful to look at, and her voice was in great form. She was a picture of grace, and ease, and conscious mastery of the situation. Sometimestextual note she was playful and cunning; sometimestextual note she was sweetly and eloquently moving and pathetic, sometimes she was a storm, sometimes she was a majestic tragedy queen; and in all her moods she was an expert in expression, and carried the house! It was a splendid triumph. Everybody praised her singingtextual note, praised it with enthusiasm, and praised her acting in the same measure. They couldn’t talk about anything else. Melville Stone, head of the Associated Press, was present, and he told Miss Lyon to furnish him any chance that might occur for him to be of service to Clara, and he would spread her merit from one end of the country to the other.

Miss Nichols played divinely, and she and Clara did a duet that so delighted the house that they had to do it all over again. And there were other encores. It was a great night.

At midnight I went to a big supper and ball at Sherry’s, and enjoyed it thoroughly till 4.05 a.m.explanatory note, when I came away with the last of the rioters.

I have been dictating, this morning, and am going to play billiards all the afternoon.

I hope you are well and happy. With evertextual note so much love, dear Jean—

Father.textual note

The party at Sherry’s was continuously interesting, from the beginning to the end. It was given by Robert Collier. He, and that sweet and beautiful girl, his wifeexplanatory note, were at Clara’s musicale, and we departed for Sherry’s in their automobile at midnight. It was a large company, and was made up of well-known names. Among them was John Hay’s poet-daughter, Mrs. Payne Whitneyexplanatory note. I had not seen her since she was a little child. Neither her mother’s nor her husband’s limitless millionsexplanatory note have smothered her literary gift or beguiled her into neglecting it. Among them, also, was her sister-in-law, Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney, who is likewise staggering under weightytextual note millions, but slaves daily and enthusiastically and faithfully at her statuary workexplanatory note, like the loftiest minded poor devotee of the great arts in the land. Twice, under the concealment of fictitious names, she has carried off the first prize in important public competitions. Prince Troubetskoi was [begin page 211] there, a fine man and diligent and successful artist. I have known him some time. His wife is Amélietextual note Rives, the poetexplanatory note. The lovelytextual note Ethel Barrymore, actress, was there. She is the sole support of her widowed mother’s family, and has been working hard and making and saving a deal of money these many months, and now misfortune has befallen her. A few nights ago, when she was absent at the theatre, a burglar entered her apartment and carried off every valuable thing she had in the worldexplanatory note, including her accumulated money, which she kept at home because in these disastrous and panicky days she was afraid to trust it in a bank. Nazimova, the illustrious Russian actress,textual note was there, a most interesting character; I had not seen her before, either on the stage or elsewhere. She talks in easy and flowing and correct English, and she was playing in it acceptably two and a half months after her tongue’s first contact with it. She said she was born and reared in Switzerland, and at eleven didn’t know a Russian word; then she took lessons and acquired her native tongueexplanatory note by the same laborious processes required in mastering a foreign one.

I was at home by half pasttextual note four in the morning, in bed at five, asleep at six, and ready for breakfast at eight—refreshed and ready for more activities. They were liberally furnished, and have been industriously carried on ever since. Yesterday I spent two pleasant and exciting hours witnessing a Ben Jonsontextual note masque performed at the Plaza Hotel by about twenty young and attractive creatures of the two sexes, and it was wonderfultextual note for rich and beautiful costumes, for excellent singing, and for acting which I had not seen approached before by amateursexplanatory note. I dined out in the evening at the Doubledays’textual note, and went from there to the Guinnesses’textual note, in Washington Squareexplanatory note. By eleven a great throng had gathered. There was fine instrumental music and fine singing. The illustrious Carusoexplanatory note was present. I had not seen him before,textual note off the operatic stage. It was a highly fashionable company, but I went in white clothes, because that is my custom, and because everybody approves it. That bright and engaging and untamed young Virginian, atextual note distant cousin of mine, Mrs. William Waldorf Astorexplanatory note, who is over from England on a visit to her people, was there, and at midnight she dragged me into the middle of the room and commanded the music to strike up and then she required me to dance with her. I was willing; I had never danced, but I always knew I could do it if I wanted to. Our performance brought down the house, as the phrase goes, and I privately thought it was rather unusually good myself—and I knew there was a sufficiency of life and activity in it, for one thing. We got an immense encore and responded to it, adding several fresh and hitherto unattempted and finely artistic variations. I promised to visit her in England next summer, and spend a few weeks at Cliveden. I probably can’t go, but I would greatly like to see that wonderful placeexplanatory note. Shortly after midnight I came away with Prince Troubetskoi and Peter Dunne (“Mr. Dooley”)explanatory note; many were departing, but many were arriving to take their places.

It is as I said, I am not leaving for Bermuda to build up my health, for there is nothing the matter with it; I am going because a change of scene and climate is absolutely necessary for H. H. Rogersexplanatory note, and he won’t go unless I go too. I have divested myself of engagements until the 16th of April.

Textual Notes Dictated February 19, 1908
  February ●  Feb. (TS1) 
  three ●  3 (TS1) 
  Dearest ●  Feb. 14/08. | Dearest (SLC to JC)  Dearest (TS1) 
  situation. Sometimes ●  situation. Sometimes (SLC to JC)  situation. ; . Ss Sometimes ‘situation. Sometimes’ altered to ‘situation; sometimes’ and then restored  (TS1-SLC) 
  cunning; sometimes ●  cunning, sometimes (SLC to JC)  cunning. S ; sometimes period mended to a semicolon  (TS1-SLC) 
  singing ●  sinih ging corrected miswriting  (SLC to JC)  singing. (TS1) 
  ever ●  every  (SLC to JC)  ever (TS1) 
  Father. ●  Father. | [paraph] (SLC to JC)  Father. (TS1) 
  weighty ●  prodigal weighty  (TS1-SLC) 
  Amélie ●  Ame élie (TS1)  accent added  (TS1-Hobb) 
  lovely ●  dear and lovely (TS1-SLC) 
  actress, ●  actress (TS1) 
  half past ●  half-past (TS1) 
  Jonson ●  Johnson (TS1-SLC) 
  wonderful ●  a wonder- | ful thing  (TS1-SLC) 
  Doubledays’ ●  Doubledays  (TS1-SLC) 
  Guinnesses’ ●  Guinnesses (TS1) 
  before, ●  before,  (TS1-SLC) 
  a ●  a  (TS1-SLC) 
Explanatory Notes Dictated February 19, 1908
 

I wrote Jean] Jean was living in Greenwich, Connecticut, under care for her epilepsy (see “The Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript,” note at 342.36–343.4).

 

Clara’s musicale of last night . . . 140 of the 160 guests invited came] Clara’s performance, with her accompanist, Charles Wark, and Boston violinist Marie Nichols, was at the Clemenses’ 21 Fifth Avenue residence on the evening of 13 February. The New York Times reported the event the next day, listing about sixty of the guests, including Mr. and Mrs. Henry H. Rogers, Mr. and Mrs. Henry H. Rogers, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Richard Watson Gilder, Mr. and Mrs. John Howells, Mr. and Mrs. Frank N. Doubleday (see the note at 211.20–21), and Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Carnegie (“Miss Clemens’s Musicale,” 14 Feb 1908, 7). In her journal Lyon called the concert “a great success” and noted: “There were some very lovely people here—140 I should say. And after everything was over I understood the hitches that occurred—the waiters got drunk” (Lyon 1908, entry for 13 Feb). Marie Nichols (1879–1954) had also performed at Clara’s 22 September 1906 professional debut in Norfolk, Connecticut, and on her New England tour in the spring of 1907 (see AutoMT2 , 240, 567 n. 240.6–8, and AD, 1 Mar 1907, note at 4.16–17). Nichols had a successful concert career of her own, touring the United States and Europe, appearing with the Boston Symphony and the Berlin Philharmonic, among other orchestras. After retiring from the concert stage, she taught violin and was director of music at Sarah Lawrence College (New York Times: “Miss Nichols of Boston Pleases Musical Berlin,” 1 Nov 1903, 4; “Violinist, 75, Is Dead,” 23 Nov 1954, 33; for Wark see AD, 6 Oct 1908, note at 267.36–37).

 

a big supper and ball at Sherry’s . . . till 4.05 a.m.] Lyon noted: “It was 4:30 this morning when the King came in from a Valentine party at Sherry’s. . . . I heard the mobile [automobile] come down the avenue like a tragic giant June-bug, & so I went to look over the ballusters & see the King come running up the stairs, like a happy exhilarated boy” (Lyon 1908, entry for 14 Feb). Sherry’s, named for proprietor Louis Sherry, was an elegant restaurant at Fifth Avenue and 44th Street, patronized by New York high society.

 

Robert Collier . . . and that sweet and beautiful girl, his wife] Robert J. Collier (1876–1918) was associated with his father, Peter F. Collier, in the management of their publishing house, P. F. Collier and Son, and had been the editor of Collier’s Weekly from 1898 to 1902. In 1909, upon his father’s death, he became head of the publishing house, and served again as the editor of Collier’s in 1912–13. In 1902 he had married Sara Steward Van Alen (1881–1963), a member of the Astor family (“R. J. Collier Dies at Dinner Table,” New York Times, 9 Nov 1918, 13; Mott 1957, 453–57, 462–65).

 

John Hay’s poet-daughter, Mrs. Payne Whitney] Helen Hay Whitney (1876–1944) married banker and financier Payne Whitney (1876–1927) in 1902. Between 1898 and 1910 she published several volumes of poetry under her maiden name. She later became prominent in horse racing, owning one of the largest stables in the world and producing two Kentucky Derby winners. She was also known for her extensive philanthropy.

 

her mother’s . . . limitless millions] Helen Hay Whitney’s mother, Clara Louise Stone Hay (1849–1914), was the daughter of Cleveland millionaire Amasa Stone (25 Feb 1874 to Fairbanks, L6, 49 n. 3).

 

Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney . . . slaves daily and enthusiastically and faithfully at her statuary work] Sculptor Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), great-granddaughter of the original Cornelius Vanderbilt, had married financier Harry Payne Whitney (1872–1930), brother of Payne Whitney, in 1896. She distinguished herself not only with her own sculpture, but also with her generous patronage of other artists through monetary awards and by establishing, in 1908, a gallery in her New York studio building where they could show their work. She went on to found the Whitney Museum of American Art, which opened in 1931.

 

Prince Troubetskoi . . . His wife is Amélie Rives, the poet] Portrait painter Prince Pierre Troubetzkoy (1864–1936), a member of an aristocratic Russian family, was the second husband of American novelist, poet, and playwright Amélie Rives (1863–1945).

 

Ethel Barrymore, actress . . . carried off every valuable thing she had in the world] Barrymore (1879–1959), a leading stage actress and later a supporting actress in films, was the daughter of actors Maurice Barrymore (1849–1905) and Georgiana Drew Barrymore (1856–93). She had recently ended a two-month run at New York’s Hudson Theatre in a play entitled Her Sister (“Theatrical Notes,” New York Times, 16 Feb 1908, 11; Kotsilibas-Davis 1977, 12). Barrymore had been robbed on 9 February:

The actress left her apartment to visit Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew, her uncle and aunt, on Sunday evening about 9:30 o’clock, and did not return until late at night. When she returned the window in her sleeping room was wide open.

The apartment had been completely ransacked and the bureau drawers were all open. The most serious money loss was an envelope containing $500 in cash and some smaller sums. The loss which Miss Barrymore felt more keenly, however, was a locket and necklace that belonged to her mother and some other pieces of jewelry she valued highly as keepsakes. (“Ethel Barrymore Robbed,” New York Times, 11 Feb 1908, 1)

Barrymore’s mother was never a widow, having predeceased her husband. Her uncle Sidney and his wife, Gladys, enjoyed moderately successful careers in the theater and were still performing; no evidence has been found that she helped support them or anyone else in the Drew family (Kotsilibas-Davis 1977, 319–20, 356–57, 425).

 

Nazimova, the illustrious Russian actress . . . then she took lessons and acquired her native tongue] Alla Nazimova (1879–1945) was born in Russia and educated in Switzerland before returning to Odessa to study the violin. She later studied acting in Moscow under Stanislavski and was already an established actress when she emigrated to New York in 1905. By 1906 she had learned English, and in that year made her first great success in the title role in Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler. She enjoyed a long career as a leading stage actress (particularly as an interpreter of Ibsen), became a popular star of silent films, and was still performing character roles in movies up until her death (“Alla Nazimova, 66, Dies in Hollywood,” New York Times, 14 July 1945, 11).

 

a Ben Jonson masque . . . acting which I had not seen approached before by amateurs] On 19 February 1908 the New York Times reported: “The eighth annual entertainment of the Junior League, formed of the season’s débutantes, yesterday afternoon at the Plaza was a brilliant success. Previous débutantes have never given a more beautiful and finished performance. Ben Jonson’s famous masque, ‘The Hue and Cry After Cupid,’ formed the setting for all that followed” (“Debutantes Give Charity Pantomime,” 7). The paper noted Clemens’s attendance with his daughter Clara.

 

I dined out in the evening at the Doubledays’ . . . to the Guinnesses’, in Washington Square] Frank Doubleday (see AD, 4 Sept 1907, note at 127.31–33) was married to the former Neltje De Graff (1865–1918), a naturalist and prolific nature writer under the pen name Neltje Blanchan. Benjamin S. Guinness (1868–1947), a retired British naval officer, had made a fortune as a Wall Street banker and business executive. His wife, the former Bridget Henrietta Frances Williams-Bulkeley (d. 1931), was the daughter of a baronet and a noted society hostess (New York Times: “Mrs. B. S. Guinness, Noted Hostess, Dies,” 6 Jan 1931, 25; “Benjamin S. Guinness,” 17 Dec 1947, 29). Lyon noted the occasion in her journal:

That queenly creature Neltje Blanchan Doubleday, talked to me again about Kipling, & said that he never puts a poem down on paper until he has gone over & over it in his head, & eliminated every superfluous word. When they were visiting him last summer in Sussex & motored about with him, his head was full of delightful verses that went in time to the rhythm of the mobile wheels, & he would recite them as they sped along.

The King put me down at the house & he went on to Mrs. Guinness’s where he stayed until past midnight. (Lyon 1908, entry for 18 Feb)

 

The illustrious Caruso] The famed tenor was appearing at the Metropolitan Opera House, most recently in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut on the evening of 17 February (“Cavalieri Falls on Stage,” New York Times, 18 Feb 1908, 7).

 

a distant cousin of mine, Mrs. William Waldorf Astor] Nancy Langhorne Astor (1879–1964) was a member of the prominent Langhorne family of Virginia. Clemens’s middle name was in honor of a friend of his father’s who evidently belonged to that same family. That did not, of course, make Clemens even a “distant cousin” to Nancy Astor. A famous beauty, she had become part of the British branch of the wealthy Astor family in 1906, when she married Waldorf Astor (1879–1952), son of William Waldorf Astor (1848–1919). In 1919 she would become the first woman to serve in the British Parliament. In February 1908 she was in New York to raise funds for the “ ‘poor whites’ of the Blue Ridge section of Virginia,” whom she described as “utterly poor, often hungry, and without the slightest means of educating themselves,” and forced to “live on a par with animals” (“Mrs. Waldorf Astor Pleads a Good Cause,” New York Times, 14 Feb 1908, 7; Lampton 1990, 96).

 

Cliveden . . . that wonderful place] The Astors’ mansion, with its hundreds of acres of gardens and woodlands, overlooked the Thames midway between Oxford and London. It was the site of lavish parties attended by politicians, writers, artists, and intellectuals of all kinds.

 

Peter Dunne (“Mr. Dooley”)] Humorist Finley Peter Dunne (see AutoMT2 , 619 n. 377.3).

 

leaving for Bermuda . . . absolutely necessary for H. H. Rogers] Rogers had suffered a stroke in July 1907 and, according to Lyon, was still “a sick sick man” when he joined her and Clemens on 22 February for the voyage to Bermuda (Lyon 1908, entry for 22 Feb). For more on the seven-week excursion, see the Autobiographical Dictation of 16 April 1908.