I haven't seen the exact "club" reference, but here are a few possibilities from Selected Mark Twain-Howells Letters:

Howells to Clemens 13 September 1896 (310-311)

I remember how you came in one day when we were bleeding from the death of Winnie and said to me, "Oh did I wake you?" because I suppose my heavy heart had gotinto my eyes, and I looked sleep broken . . . We join in love to you which has known the same sorrow as yours.

Clemens to Howells 24 September 1896 (311)

Yes, you two know what we feel--but no others among our friends.  They have lost children, but the proportions were not the same.  As Mrs. Clemens says, "they have lost a daughter, but they have not lost a Susy Clemens." 

Clemens to Howells, 22 January 1898 (317-318)

Look at those ghastly figures.  I used to write it "Hartford, 1871." There was no Susy then--there is no Susy now.  and How much lies between--one long lovely stretch of scented fields, & meadows, & shady woodlands; & suddenly Sahara!  You speak of the glorious days of that old time --& they were.  It is my quarrel--that traps like that are set.  Susy & Winnie given us, in miserable sport, & then taken away. . . . If you were here I think we could cry down each other's necks, as in your dream.  For we are a pair of old derelicts drifting around, now, with some of our passengers gone & the sunniness of the others in eclipse.

These aren't really the "club" reference, though, which does sound familiar.


Donna Campbell
Associate Professor of English
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99164
http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/index.html

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On Apr 16, 2013, at 3:09 PM, Martin D. Zehr wrote:

> Perhaps in the 2-volume Twain-Howells letters, Harvard/Belknap Press, circa=
> 1960?=0AMartin Zehr, Kansas City=0A=0AFrom: Hal Bush <[log in to unmask]>=0ATo=
> : [log in to unmask] =0ASent: Tuesday, April 16, 2013 2:11 PM=0ASubject: MT &=
> WDH =3D members of the "club"=0A=0A=0AFriends;=A0 I'm sorry to bother y'al=
> l at this busy time of year.=A0 I tried=0Areally hard to turn this up witho=
> ut the kindness of this LIST.=A0 But alas,=0AI'm banging my head against th=
> e bookshelf, trying to locate an old quote or=0Apassage that seems to have =
> either disappeared completely from my=0Anotes/digital files; or else is sim=
> ply something I once encountered in the=0Anether world of dreams . . . .=0A=
> =0AI believe there is, perhaps in a letter, a passage where Twain tells=0AH=
> owells, after Susy's passing, that they were both now members of the=0A"clu=
> b" that nobody ever wished to join.=A0 Or the club nobody wanted to=0Ajoin.=
> =A0 Or something along those lines.=A0 Of course, Twain witnessed=0AHowells=
> 's own encounter with that club, about 7 years earlier...=A0 meaning,=0Athe=
> club of parental grief.=0A=0ADoes that ring a bell for anyone?=A0 Perhaps =
> it's WDH saying it to Twain.=0ABut anyway, any help or guidance much apprec=
> iated.=A0 I've grown weary and=0Aembarrassed by my own inability to turn th=
> is one up!=0A=0A-hb=0A=0A-- =0AProf. Harold K. Bush=0AProfessor of English=
> =0A3800 Lindell=0ASaint Louis University=0ASt. Louis, MO=A0 63108=0A314-977=
> -3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)=0A<www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>