Wedding Expo at the Twain House

One of the loveliest perks of being a popular and beautiful historic site is the adoration of the public. For years, we've had our guests and local residents beg to hold small weddings here. However, our staff was too small and the schedule too inflexible to take on any weddings. 

But hark-- that day is over! We are now taking requests for weddings at The Mark Twain House. To kick off this new era of romance, we're partnering with estOccasions to bring a full-scale bridal event to the museum center. They'll be bringing in vendors of all kinds-- florists, caterers, photographers, the whole shebang. If you get your ticket online, it's free, otherwise it's a $5 donation at the door (which goes straight to the Twain House, so it works out great either way). 

Come by and see if you love the Twain House enough to marry it. Whoops, we mean marry at it. Freudian slip there. We love you, Sam Clemens!

-- The Mark Twain House & Museum

The LA Comedy Shorts Film Fest

Did you know that two of the staff members of the Mark Twain House & Museum are firmly ensconced in the comedy world?

Jacques Lamarre, the Director of Communication and Special Projects, is not only a playwright, but co-writes sketches, plays, and movies with the hilarious Varla Jean Merman. Here's a sample of one of his co-creations.

Not only that, but Communications Associate Julia Pistell is a founding member of Sea Tea Improv, a professional theatrical company that focuses mainly on improv comedy. With other members of Sea Tea, Julia was featured in a Funny or Die video (written by Sea Tea Improv member Kate Sidley).

You'll have a chance to see more from Jacques, Julia, and many others this upcoming weekend. From Friday, February 24th through Sunday, February 26th,The Connecticut Film Festival presents three days of short, funny films, workshops, and parties.

When the festival was looking for a place to screen the best comic short films, the home of America's favorite humorist seemed like an ideal choice!

Join us Feb 24 through 26 for the funniest, naughtiest and downright crazy short comedies.

Tickets for this East Coast Encore of the LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival, supported in part by FunnyOrDie.com, are on sale now.

Purchase an all-access festival pass, day passes or individual screenings or workshops. Rub elbows at our industry mixer or be there when we honor Mike Reiss, the Peabody and Emmy Award-winning writer for The Simpsons. Friday night will also feature local filmmakers, including Hartford's newest sketch-writing team, Asylum Attic. They've cooked up a new movie: come by on Friday at 8:30 to see what they've come up with. Here's one of their oldies:

Visit ctfilmfest.com for the complete schedule, tickets and info. See you this weekend!

-- The Mark Twain House & Museum

Memoir Time!

So, you want to be a writer. In fact, you're "supposed" to be writing right now, but you're trolling the internet for your favorite literary sites (physical and virtual). Let us help you get back on the writing wagon by reminding you that the registration deadline for our memoir class with Lary Bloom and Suzanne Levine is coming up.

Call Steve Courtney's desk at (860) 247-0998 extension 243. He'll tell you all about the eight-week course, which runs on Wednesdays, March 7-April 25, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The class is held in the Mark Twain Museum Center, 351 Farmington Avenue, Hartford. One session will be held in Mark Twain's library in the historic house. (Feel the literary vibrations!)

Watching Lary Bloom and Suzanne Levine teach their extraordinary joint class in memoir writing is a study in complementary creativity -- each teacher's style is so different, yet each builds on the other's work with grace and precision.

First there's Bloom -- eloquent, reminiscent, funny, surprising, with a real skill at drawing out the stories that the members of the class have often kept within themselves. Then there's Levine, who will gently rein in her co-teacher and partner with a quiet reminder that puts the class back on track. She, it's clear, revels in his ebullience; he revels in her skill at keeping to the rails.

And both teachers apply themselves with diligence and generosity to the work of their students, whether novices or Connecticut Book Award winners. Participants make real progress. "My first drafts usually seemed to please people, so I didn't need to go any further," said one student after taking the class. "Now I have your voices in my head and they won't go away."

Bloom and Levine will offer their famed eight-week Class in Memoir once again this spring at The Mark Twain House & Museum, the third time around for this much-waited-for event.

In 2010 the memoir class started the museum toward the fulfillment of its long-held goal of being a center for writing. This effort -- Writing at the Mark Twain House -- has blossomed since, with classes in fiction and non-fiction, individual talks and workshops by a range of writers, and a Writers' Weekend planned for April 20-21 this year.

A Class in Memoir offers writing instruction and workshops at the home of one of the American masters of the craft. The class will include intensive, hands-on work on the craft, with the goal of producing a short work by the end of the session to be published on the Writing at the Mark Twain House Blog. It will explore such aspects of the memoir craft as scene-setting, dialogue, character development and narrative.

It's a particularly appropriate genre for the home of Mark Twain, whose Autobiography, released recently after a century under wraps, became a surprise bestseller.

Will we see you there?

-- The Mark Twain House & Museum

New Season, New Table Setting, New Exhibit

Our intrepid curator, Patti Phillipon, has changed the setting in the dining room table. We change the table settings often to reflect the season, or some historical element that we would like to highlight on our tours. This change is no exception. We thought you, dear readers, might like some inside knowledge on how and why we curate certain aspects of the house. Ready to put your history-caps on? (Then take them off-- you're going into a party with ladies, for heaven's sakes.)

The dining-room, where the party took place

The new table setup is based on a letter written by Margaret (Daisy) Warner to her father, dated Hartford, March 20th, 1887.

 “Susy Clemens was fifteen years old yesterday [March 19, 1887] and she had a lovely party.  The two Twichell girls, Mary and Hattie Foote, Cousin Lilly, Ward Foote, Hattie Whitmore, and Fannie Freese, and Lucy Drake, and I were all there to supper.  Mrs. Clemens had her beautiful big, round dinner table, and at each place was a lovely bunch of beautiful roses.  Three or four at each place, and we all put them on.  And also, at each place was a lovely little glass dish of candy, tied around with pretty ribbons and a little Japanese card with our names on it, on the top of the dish.  In the middle of the table, was a kind of pyramid of nasturtiums and then there were other vases, of roses.  And those tall silver candles were on the table, too and the whole thing was so lovely… We then had soup, then turkey, and with it some little potato-cakes and jelly – Then salad, and then straw-berries and ice cream, and cakes (lady-fingers etc.) and then the big birthday-cake was brought on, with fifteen lighted candles.  It was very pretty.  Of course we had some of it; and then we had fruit and candy.  After supper we danced and had charades.  Mr. Clemens read some “Uncle Remus” to us and Mama and Frank, and Aunt Lottie, came in after supper.  And altogether we had a DELIGHTFUL time."

The table is set for eight guests a la Russe.  This means that there would be no food on the table when the dinner guests arrived.  Food would be served either from the sideboard or brought out from the kitchen, and be presented to the diners.  In our setup, the turkey stands on a side table waiting to be carved and served.  The “little Japanese cards” on the table have the names of 8 of the children who attended the party – Susy, Daisy, Susan Twichell, Julia Twichell, Mary, Hattie, and Ward Foote, and Fannie Freese. We don't have quite enough room to fit all eleven mentioned place settings in-- if we did, there'd be no room for tours to go through. So if you're coming through this season you can simply imagine yourself as guest number nine. Don't touch the collection objects, though!

The dinner plates are Wedgwood bone china, dated approximately 1895.  The glasses are Bohemian cut crystal with etched poppy designs on the body, foot and rim.  They were purchased in Europe – not by the Clemens family -- during the 1880s or 1890s.  We are showing the water glasses on the table. 

The majority of the silverware is the Gorham “Rosette” pattern introduced circa 1867 and sold by Tiffany & Company.  They are engraved “Olivia L. Langdon” on the handles.  The knives, which are of a different pattern, have mother-of-pearl handles.   According to one source, “…knives were not always considered part of a flatware service before the 1890s…Knives, with mother-of-pearl, silver, ivory, or plastic handles, were often sold separately, although they could be obtained with a set.”  

A large cake for the dessert course is shown on the sideboard, which would have been typical for the time Cake and sweets were popular and often served at children’s birthday parties, as shown in both Daisy Warner’s letter and the attached photo of a Victorian children’s party.  Other parts of the dessert (strawberries and candy) are in the Butler’s Pantry waiting to be brought out.

In the library, on the small table to the left of the fireplace, is a copy of Uncle Remus.  Sam read excerpts from this book to the children following the dinner party. The reason we're putting up this table setting, and its accompanying details, a couple of months early is that we're talking about Uncle Remus in our upcoming exhibit, A Sound Heart and a Deformed Conscience. 

On the center table of the main room are all sorts of tools used to bake Susy’s birthday cake (mixing bowls, wooden spoons, eggs, egg whisk, and more).  On the small table under the windows is a basket of nasturtiums and roses that are also seen on the table.  There is an additional corsage of roses being put together.  On the stove, potatoes are boiling in a pot for the potato cakes. In the Scullery, there is a colander with lettuce and tomatoes draining to be used for the salad course. In the Butler’s Pantry, George is plating strawberries and candy for the dessert course.  The dessert plates are also waiting to be brought out.  They are polychromed, painted porcelain. 

As you can see, when we work on the interior details of the house, we try to make sure we do a complete job. This one little letter from a girl named Daisy allows us to accurately fill in details of nearly every room on the first floor of the house, and informs our exhibition programming. We're happy to share all of these historical tidbits with you today-- all because one little girl took the time to hand-write a letter to her dad.

-- Patti Phillipon, Chief Curator, and Julia Pistell, Communications Associate

Christmas Punch

Sometimes Christmas cheer can be a little grating, we admit. So we've cooked up a batch of Christmas punch for you this year:

CHRISTMAS PUNCH

An Evening of David Sedaris’ Holidays on Ice

featuring actress Debi Freund, 

actress Angie Joachim, 

The Hartford Courant's Frank Rizzo, 

WNPR's Chion Wolf 

and special guest TheCutMag.com's Tracy Wu Fastenberg

Directed by Jacques Lamarre

Tickets - $15 / $10 MTH&M Members & Let’s Go

(860) 280-3130 for tickets

The Mark Twain House & Museum spikes your Christmas punch with four tawdry tales from the semi-twisted mind of humorist David Sedaris. Drawn from Sedaris’ collection "Holidays on Ice," this one-night-only event will feature the Hartford Courant’s Frank Rizzo reading “Front Row Center with Thaddeus Bristol,” a vicious theatre critic’s reviews of children’s Christmas pageants. WNPR’s Chion Wolf will play a highly competitive gift giver who gives a whole lot more than he bargained for in "Christmas Means Giving." Debi Freund read's the story of a slick Hollywood mover and shaker shaking down a church full of country bumpkins called “Based on a True Story” rounds out the quartet. New Orleanian actor Angie Joachim tells the tale of a holiday homemaker turned into a homicidal hausfrau with an assist from Tracy Wu Fastenberg, a.k.a. "Asian Persuasion."

Chion Wolf is a voice actress, producer, photographer, songwriter, and is best known for her hijinks on Connecticut Public Radio’s “The Colin McEnroe Show.”

Debi Freund is a local actor and director, most known for her long-standing association with the Little Theater of Manchester. She appeared as the lead in Jacques Lamarre’s play "Gray Matters" and in 2009 was named to Manchester, CT’s Arts Hall of Fame for her dramatic work.

Angie Joachim is an actor recently transplanted from New Orleans to Connecticut. She has appeared in Market Street Theater's "The Clean House" and Hole in the Wall's recent "Jacques Lamarre Has Gone Too Far."

Frank Rizzo is the principal theatre reporter and critic for The Hartford Courant, where he has written on various arts beats for almost 3 decades. He is also the New England theatre critic for Variety and has contributed to American Theatre Magazine.

Tracy Wu Fastenberg is a contributor to the online journal of all things wack about Connecticut, thecutmag.com, as well as an occasional guest on The Colin McEnroe Show on WNPR.

Sherlock Holmes

Of all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's mysteries, we love this one best: how did the brilliant actor William Gillette have such an incredible impact on our 21st century idea of Sherlock Holmes?

This week at the Twain House we explore that question. The East Haddam Stage Company will perform a "Sherlock Holmes: From Page to Stage" directed by Kandie Carle. It will be performed here at our place, and is presented by The Mark Twain House & Museum and The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center.

We will find out: how did Hartford’s own William Gillette go from the well-heeled Nook Farm neighborhood of movers and shakers to the New York stage and beyond? How and why did this fine Victorian actor go from farce to historical drama to the defining role of Sherlock Holmes? Follow William Gillette from Hartford to San Francisco to New York and London as he played in and wrote quintessential Victorian comedies. Then hear how the stars aligned for the fateful meeting with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and how Gillette brought to life the super sleuth Sherlock Holmes.

The East Haddam Stage Company is known for producing original works and their motto of Minimal Set, Maximum Connection, is perfect for the intimate auditorium at the Mark Twain Museum. 4 actors portray 10 characters in the life of William Gillette, from boyhood to the opening of the play that would change his life forever!

Tickets - $20; Call (860) 280-3130

Holiday House Tours!

The Friends of  The Mark Twain House & Museum Annual Holiday House Tour

Sunday, December 4, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

One of the lovely homes decorated in 2009

Now that you're full up on your Thanksgiving feast, why not get into the holiday spirit with one of our favorite events of the year? Visit the Twain House in its holiday best, and get a unique chance to tour private homes decked out for the season as well.

The Mark Twain House is decorated with garlands and gifts, and area homes are open to your visit in a rare opportunity to savor architecture and décor usually kept behind closed doors. Visit some of the grand houses built by prominent local architects in the late 1800s, when Twain lived here, and the early 1900s; and wonder at a house filled entirely with trees. With music and festivity to go along with it, this event has been a Hartford holiday tradition for more than thirty holiday seasons. Organized to a T by our active Friends of The Mark Twain House & Museum group!

Gorgeous floral arrangements

Advance tickets are $30 each and can be purchased at The Mark Twain House and from several local businesses. Tickets will be $35 each on the day of the tour and can be purchased at the homes. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 860-280-3130 or visit www.marktwainhouse.org. Proceeds from the tour will benefit the continued restoration, preservation, and education programs of The Mark Twain House, which is a National Historic Landmark.

See you there! (Or here!)

The most wonderful time of the year!

We've got puppets!

We've been loving our Steampunk Bizzare: The Unknown exhibit, but our latest exhibit just adds to the thrills of visiting our museum center. We recently installed throughout our beautiful marble building a number of puppets from the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. Guess which Twain work they refer to?

That's right-- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. In 1996, the Connecticut Repertory Theatre mounted a large-scale puppet production of this Twain classic. We're lucky enough to host these fellows in our museum all the way until March 5th, 2012. The puppets range from royals to ordinary folks, like pig boy and his pigs.

If you haven't read Connecticut Yankee (and don't feel bad, lots of people haven't-- put it on your bucket list), you might not know that it's rife with familiar characters from King Arthur's Court. Grinning knights and sassy Morgana; and once in a while, Merlin pops up. 

Last Saturday was our "Free Hartford Day," and so we invited the fine folks from Ballard to come and give a live presentation of how the puppets work. They also spoke a bit about the design.

Thank you so much to the fine folks of the Ballard institute paying us a visit. Now we hope you will-- there are way too many amazing puppets to describe here! For more information on the exhibit and the museum, please visit our website.

-- The Mark Twain House

MICHAEL MOORE: ASKING FOR TROUBLE

By Jacques Lamarre

Shortly after my arrival at The Mark Twain House & Museum, I started brainstorming ideas for exciting speakers to have come to Hartford. As the Director of Communications and Special Projects, it is my responsibility to program two lecture series: The Clemens Lecture and A Pen Warmed Up in Hell Lecture. The Clemens Lecture series has brought distinguished leaders in the fields of the arts, journalism and letters including Hal Holbrook, Bob Schieffer, Morley Safer, David Baldacci, and, most recently, the legendary newsman Ted Koppel. A Pen Warmed Up in Hell is the bratty cousin of The Clemens Lecture. This series spotlights authors, artists and journalists who use their work and humor to address social issues in a provocative manner.

The title of the series comes from Twain himself. It appears in a letter written shortly after he completed his masterpiece A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court:

"Well, my book is written--let it go. But if it were only to write over again there wouldn't be so many things left out. They burn in me; and they keep multiplying; but now they can't ever be said. And besides, they would require a library--and a pen warmed up in hell."

In time, Twain would abandon such restraint and use his pen warmed up in hell to attack war, politics, hypocrisy, religion, and more. The Pen Warmed Up in Hell Lecture series provides audiences with the opportunity to meet modern day provocateurs who work in this same manner. Past guests include Spike Lee, Henry Rollins, Kinky Friedman, Charles P. Pierce, Andy Borowitz, and Rolling Stone’s national correspondent Matt Taibbi.

To my mind, there was one man I could ask who pretty much defines the spirit of this lecture series: Michael Moore. Has any contemporary filmmaker had a larger, ongoing impact on political discourse in this country? Five of his films - Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine, Sicko, Capitalism: A Love Story, and Roger & Me – appear in the list of the top 25 highest-grossing documentaries of all time.

When Moore released his first film in 1989, it was greeted with the following review from Vincent Canby in The New York Times:

“A Twainlike Twist for Flint, Mich.” by VINCENT CANBY
America has an irrepressible new humorist in the tradition of Mark Twain and Artemus Ward. He is Michael Moore, the writer, producer and director of the rude and rollicking new documentary feature ''Roger and Me.'' Much in the manner of those 19th-century forebears, Mr. Moore celebrates the oddities of the American frontier, once defined by the historian F. J. Turner as 'the meeting place of savagery and civilization, where democracy is strengthened.'

I started working on getting Moore to Hartford two years ago. We had a close call when he said “yes” at the time he was gearing up for the release of Capitalism: A Love Story. His promotional schedule ramped up and life got hectic for Mike, so he had to postpone. Subsequent attempts to schedule an appearance did not pan out, until recently. Mike emailed me out of the blue; he was book touring to support his new memoir Here Comes Trouble. Little did I know, the title of his memoir would be so apropos.

We knew that many of our valued sponsors would be leery about having Mike come here. We contacted them in advance and felt them out on the opportunity ahead of us. Without exception, they viewed the opportunity to present Michael Moore as a coup for the museum. Of course, we couldn’t expect them to sponsor his appearance, but they wouldn’t withhold their usual support for house preservation and restoration, our educational and other programmatic efforts. For their vision and generosity, we are most appreciative.

Not everyone at the museum is a Michael Moore fan. Some are quite the opposite. Same with our board. Again, without exception, they felt it was important to present him to the public.

When the announcement of Mike’s upcoming appearance hit the Hartford Courant, we received angry calls, letters, emails and comments on the Courant article. When we posted the event on our Facebook page, one MTH&M fan called him a “horrible man.” Many of the comments on the Courant page called him “un-American” and that the MTH&M was making a horrible mistake in bring Michael Moore to Connecticut. An email from a conservative fellow halfway across the United States, made sure that we were aware that he brought our betrayal to the attention of Rush Limbaugh. Many of the derisive comments surrounded Moore's looks, which is petty in the extreme and makes one wonder if the authors find the political views of supermodels more palatable. By far, we have taken more heat for this lecture than any that we have previously hosted (including Kurt Vonnegut, who let loose with his thoughts on the Iraq War only days after it began).

Have we made the wrong move in inviting someone who is so polarizing? Quite simply, Michael Moore is the epitome of our Pen Warmed Up In Hell series. You may not agree with his politics. Or you may believe he is a genius. You may think he is a hypocritical propagandist. Or you may find discomfort in his pointing out things we do not like to discuss. You may think he is a traitor who hates America. Or you may believe that he is a patriot exercising his free speech. But, ultimately, you could say many of the same things about Twain. Like Moore, Twain was no stranger to controversy.  One only need read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Moore's new memoir Here Comes Trouble even mirrors the non-linear approach Twain adopted for his own autobiography.  And both men use humor to set their scorching bonfires. Sure, bonfires produce smoke and make our eyes sting, but they also provide light and much-needed heat. The perfect environment for warming up one’s own pen in hell.

We welcome Michael Moore to the University of Connecticut’s Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, November 18th at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25-$45 and can be ordered by visiting jorgensen.uconn.edu or calling (860) 486-4226.  The lecture will be followed by a book signing.

Meet Mallory Howard

Name. Mallory Howard

Where are you from? New Britain, CT

What school did you go to? Central Connecticut State University

What is your job at The Mark Twain House & Museum? Museum Assistant

Were you initially drawn to the Mark Twain house because of an interest in Twain as a writer? I’ve always been a huge fan of Twain’s work and had visited the house many times over the years. I actually came to the Twain house initially trying to volunteer and perhaps get an internship since I was a history major in school. I ended up falling in love with the place and never left!

How long have you been working at the Mark Twain House? It will be 4 years in January!

What is your favorite part about working at the Mark Twain House? That’s a really tough question to answer. There are so many marvelous things about working at this place since there are always fascinating people to meet, stimulating educational programs or lecture to attend, and amazing events to enjoy. However, my favorite thing about working here are the truly incredible people I get to work with. Some of us are history geeks; some are talented writers, comedians, and playwrights. No matter what our individual strong points are we all respect each other for what we bring to the table. Everyone works together to make this museum a success and I’ve never met such wonderful hard working people.

Do you like Mark Twain more having worked here? I have always been a Twainiac and a fan of the amazing pieces of literature he has produced, but my love for him has drastically increased since working here. I know him more now as Sam. I love his family, his heart, and even his temper. I feel sadness and sympathy for him during tragedy and hard times. I am elated during his triumphs. I get defensive when he is attacked and proud when he is admired. He has become a huge part of my life and I’m lucky to have him.

Do you find yourself talking to friends and family about Mark Twain? I talk about Mark Twain constantly to my friends and family. I’m sure I drive most of them absolutely nuts! I find myself running into friends and the first thing they say is. “How are you? How’s Mark Twain?” He has suddenly become an additional best friend, parent, brother that everyone asks about. I never hesitate to fill them in on the latest and greatest in the Twain world. One of the best things that happened is my Dad’s deeper interest in Twain, his literature, and American history in general. I’ve turned him into a little history geek and that makes me proud!

What is your favorite room in the house? My favorite room in the house is the library. It is absolutely beautiful and there’s something so sweet, innocent and sentimental about it. I love to imagine the family sitting together listening to Twain tell a story, or enjoying a book while looking over the Park river, maybe even watching their butler George have a jungle adventure in the conservatory with the Clemens’ girls.

If you could make one improvement to the house or museum what would it be? I would love to have the mahogany room and 3rd floor guest room restored. Though I love our beloved museum center, I wish we had more noise control!

Based on your knowledge of his personality, do you think you and Mr. Twain would be friends? I truly believe that Mark Twain and I would be the very best of friends. I adore his wit, humor, little eccentricities, brilliant mind, and sarcasm. What else could you ask for in a friend? I often wish I could have one night to hang out with him. The drinks we would have, the conversations, the stories, I would beg him to tell me! I can’t think of anyone better!

What is the museum’s biggest challenge? I think the museum’s biggest challenge is trying to get people to come explore our site during an economic recession. I also think, though we’ve done an excellent job so far, we will have to constantly come up with new and exciting programs to bring in a different audience and to keep those who have been before always coming back.

What would you think Mark Twain’s comments would be on the management of his home and the museum? I would like to think that Mark Twain would be proud of us. Everyone here works extremely hard to make sure we are keeping his legacy alive in the most inventive, educational, and often humorous ways. He would appreciate our passion, dedication, and drive to making this museum a success.

What is your favorite Mark Twain piece? My favorite Mark Twain piece is tricky. I would have to say his personal book collection. We have over 200 books owned by the Clemens family in our archives, several of which have marginalia. Twain would often times scrawl opinions, thoughts, and even grammatical changes on the pages of the books he was reading. This gives us an insightful and personal look into his mind.

Statement from The Mark Twain House & Museum

STATEMENT FROM GREGORY BOYKO, PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE MARK TWAIN HOUSE & MUSEUM

August  5 ,2011

On June 22, 2010, The Mark Twain House & Museum discovered that a long term employee of the institution, the former controller, Ms. Donna Gregor, had been misappropriating funds for a number of years and shielding these misdeeds from detection by the auditors. 

Ms. Gregor was terminated by the MTH&M that same day.  Jeffrey Nichols, our Executive Director, notified me and I, in turn, notified the other Trustees. We immediately contacted law enforcement and notified the press. Following a review of the matter, we implemented additional controls to better safeguard our assets and put in place new financial reporting mechanisms. We contacted many of our donors and other supporters and are deeply thankful for their understanding and continuing support.

We hired a forensic auditing firm and shared its completed review with law enforcement.

We also filed an insurance claim in relation to the losses which resulted in a payment to the MTH&M of $500,000 which we received in October of 2010. This recovery was reported in the MTH&M’s IRS Form 990 and serves to restore all affected funds since 2008.  MTH&M continues to explore other potential claims and sources of recovery for the $580,000 of unrecovered funds from earlier years.  The total amount Ms. Gregor defrauded the MTH&M is approximately $1,080,000.

Concurrently with MTH&M’s efforts, law enforcement has been investigating this matter and we were advised of a guilty plea by Ms. Gregor today August 5^th in the Federal Court in Bridgeport, Connecticut. We understand her plea includes admissions of wire fraud and tax evasion. We also understand her plea agreement includes restitution to MTH&M.

The Trustees and the staff were devastated by this event, particularly in light of its occurrence during a period when hundreds of supporters and other committed people worked so hard and selflessly to bring the Mark Twain House & Museum from a large structural deficit just a few years ago to a current modest operating surplus.

Despite the significant unrecovered losses from 2002 to 2007, we want to assure everyone that our current financial condition is sound and we recently received an unqualified opinion from our auditors.

Because of the heroic efforts of our staff, a record number of visitors, 71,500, came to the House in 2010 vs. 59,000 the year before. And, we hosted more than 50 successful events to make the institution a key tourism destination in Connecticut.

Our mission is to preserve the home where Twain wrote his most important works and, more importantly, to preserve his place as America’s greatest writer. We are more committed than ever to this mission.

The trustees have noted and are deeply appreciative of the fact that throughout this past painful year, Executive Director Jeff Nichols and his entire staff of full and part time employees and volunteers have kept their single focus on what is good for the institution. They succeeded despite enormous distraction and pain.

Also, I must also commend the Trustees who have stepped up and been a resolute and determined force throughout this ordeal. To a person, they all stayed and supported the institution with funds, guidance and support.

On behalf of the entire Mark Twain House & Museum family, we want to thank our supporters and donors for their understanding and support and we pledge to continue to make the institution stronger for many generations to come.

MARK TWAIN: POTTY MOUTH

On Friday, August 5th and Saturday, August 6th at 8 p.m. at the Hole in the Wall Theater in New Britain, Sea Tea Improv will be performing R-RATED TWAIN – an evening of Twain’s naughtiest writings. The texts include speeches, poems and prose that cover such unsavory topics as masturbation, farting, sexual relations, among other unmentionables. We take a moment to consider how “The Lincoln of our Literature” occasionally took the low road…

It should come as no surprise that Samuel Clemens would have in his possession an impressive array of words. As an extremely prolific author with dozens of novels and hundreds of other written works (poems, plays, letters, speeches, articles and short stories), Twain had a prodigious vocabulary. His verbiage could be high-minded and eloquent, endearing him to the cognoscenti and literary elite. His writing also could effectively paint a portrait of the lowest echelons of society. His characters in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Pap and Huck being examples, exhibit his masterly grasp of colloquial terms and rough dialects. So, really, it should shock no one that Mark Twain had one hell of a potty mouth.

Twain stated in his Notebook, “If I can’t swear in heaven, I shall not stay there.” Since he was unsure how his salty tongue would be received in the afterlife, the author seemed bent on peppering his phraseology here on Earth. In his letters to William Dean Howells, Twain did not help his case in making it to Heaven when he wrote:

“Sir to you, I would like to know what kind of goddam government this is that discriminates between two common carriers and makes a goddam railroad charge everybody equal and lets a goddam man charge any goddam price he wants for his goddam opera box.”

Phew! Alfred Bigelow Paine’s biography of Twain quotes the vitriolic master as saying, “In certain trying circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances profanity furnishes a relief denied even to prayer.” Apparently he was overcome by many desperate circumstances in his home as his daughter Clara quotes him in her book My Father – Mark Twain with the following invective: “By the humping, jumping Jesus!” His lovely wife Livy put his lips on lockdown when it came to swearing, but even she was not able to keep the consummate master of cussing from unleashing his tongue in the house. Paine recounts how Twain, who generally curbed his tongue around his wife, let fly with some scorcher of a curse that occurred within earshot of Livy. She confronted him by repeating his remark to which Twain responded:

“Livy,” he said, “did it sound like that?”

“Of course it did,” she said, “only worse. I wanted you to hear just how it sounded.”

“Livy,” he said, “it would pain me to think that when I swear it sounds like that. You got the words right, Livy, but you don’t know the tune.”

Twain’s potty mouth also translated to a potty pen when he created some filthy fun in some of his private writings. The bawdy burlesque 1601, an imaginary gathering of Tudor England’s elite getting blown away by a fetid odor, was written by Twain for his best buddy Rev. Joseph Hopkins Twichell. A letter to a group of wealthy men who enjoyed fishing turns into a downright naughty tribute to male endowments. A speech written for a Parisian group, The Stomach Club, goes South of the border with a salute to self-gratification.

Considering his rough-and-tumble Tom Sawyer-esque adolescence, his career on riverboat docks and his time out in the Wild West, it should not be a shock that Twain could be so shocking. To be honest, we love this stuff and we are delighted to take a time to salute the type of things Twain wrote and said that you wouldn’t learn in school. We hope you join us for an evening of R-Rated Twain that would make your mama wash your mouth out with soap.

Tickets for R-RATED TWAIN are on sale now and can be ordered by calling (860) 229-3049. Tickets will also be available at the door at the Hole in the Wall Theater, 116 Main Street in downtown New Britain.  The performance includes West Hartford playwright David Ryan Polgar’s short comedy Mark Twain: Ladies Man. Tickets are $15.  Info and directions:  www.hitw.org.

Meet Beth Miller

Name. Beth Miller

What is your job at the Mark Twain House & Museum? Director of Development

How long have you worked at the Mark Twain House & Museum? A year and five months

Where are you from? Rocky Hill, CT

Where did you go to school? Trinity College, BA ’00 & MA’03

Why did you decide to work at the Mark Twain House? I was attracted to the Mark Twain House & Museum for a few reasons. It's an important local and national cultural institution, and the staff is talented. The leadership at the organization has combined frugality with creativity and invested in marketing and events to increase stability and success. The momentum here is palpable and it is a very exciting place to work.

What is your favorite Mark Twain Book? Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but I have lots more to read still.

How did you become interested in Mark Twain? The wit and satire of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn made me very interested in Mark Twain – that he wrote this book, in the way he wrote it, at the time he wrote it. It is stunning and very, very important.

What is the strangest fact you know about Mr. Twain? That his voluminous moustache and that he seldom smiled were to hide his bad teeth (according to his daughter, Clara.)

Hopes for the future of the House. There are many specific projects I would like to see happen with the historic properties – and all of those projects could be realized if we had a more substantial endowment.  What I hope to see in the future is a $20 million endowment so we have the operating expenses to focus on raising funds for projects in the house.

Favorite room in the house. A beautiful little room: the butler’s pantry.

Favorite Tour Story. I love the story of the Scottish fireplace mantel: it was found because a tour-goer heard the tale of the missing mantel and realized his family had it in their barn.

Have you ever received a question you have yet to find the answer to? What did George Griffin look like?

How did you learn everything you know about Mark Twain, his life, and his house? I am reading, asking questions, and listening all the time.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about Mr. Twain? I think because Twain was such a great humorist there is a perception that he had a very jolly and happy life. Parts of it certainly were, but he suffered a stunning amount of tragedy at all stages of his life and from all quarters. For all his fame and notoriety, Twain was very human – he suffered and was as flawed as any of us.

Do you like Mark Twain more having worked here? Yes – getting to know him as a husband, father, and friend has made me admire him even more.

Do you find yourself talking to friends and family about Mark Twain? I think they are all really getting annoyed with all the Twain quotes I lob into any conversation at the slightest provocation.

Based on your knowledge of Twain’s personality, do you think you and Mr. Twain would be friends? Yes, but he might have turned on me at any point.

What do you think Mark Twain’s comments would be on the management of The Mark Twain House & Museum? He would say that we have kept pace with his struggles and success, but he would have said it way funnier than that. 

Meet Jes Silva

Name. Jes Silva

What is your job at the Mark Twain House & Museum? Sales Associate (Tickets & Store!)

Where are you from? Born and raised in Berlin, CT. I currently live in the village of East Berlin, CT. And we all know that Mark Twain said: “Human nature cannot be studied in cities except at a disadvantage--a village is the place. There you can know your man inside and out--in a city you but know his crust; and his crust is usually a lie.”

Where did you go to school? I have a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Eastern CT State University. Although it’s not a Masters Degree, just like Sam Clemens, “It pleased me beyond measure when [Eastern] made me a [Bachelor] of Arts, because I didn't know anything about art.”

Were you drawn to the Mark Twain house because of an interest in Twain as a writer?

Actually no. I am more of a fan now than I was before working here.

Do you like Mark Twain more having worked here? Yes, since working here, I have developed a great love for Mark Twain. And since I drink a lot of water and his books are like water… I don’t know, I’ve got nothing…

How long have you worked here? 4 years

What makes you come back the following year? Oh-my-god, I love it all; the people, atmosphere, and the history. This is the best place to work. 

Do you find yourself talking to friends and family about Mark Twain? I do! I quote him often! I talk about his family and the house to anyone who is willing to listen!

Hopes for the future of the House. I would love for the house to continue to be successful as well as see the Mahogany bedroom completed.

Favorite room in the house. I love the library. I love the look and the feel of the room. It’s so warm and welcoming that it makes me want to (don’t worry Patti, I won’t) cozy up in a chair by the fire and read, or listen to Sam tell stories.

Favorite tour story. A member of the band, The Doors, was along on one of my tours; I thought his bodyguard was the celebrity from West Coast Choppers, but little did I know that it was a member from the band and the bodyguard was only a bodyguard.

Based on your knowledge of his personality, do you think you and Sam would be friends? Totally! I could see us in the Billiard Room, playing pool and joking around. I think we have a similar sense of humor, since I subscribe to the notion that “the funniest things are the forbidden.”

What do you think is the Museum's biggest challenge?  I think getting the word out that we are here is probably our biggest challenge. No one “vacations” to Hartford, Connecticut. Trying to make Hartford a destination spot is a hurdle to get over.

What do you think Sam’s comments would be on the management of his home and the museum? I think he’d think we are doing a fine job. We are not only educating the young and old about his life and times, but we are preserving his memory, and keeping him alive through that. He would like us to remember (and share with our visitors) “To us our house was not unsentient matter--it had a heart & a soul & eyes to see us with, & approvals & solicitudes & deep sympathies; it was of us, & we were in its confidence, & lived in its grace & in the peace of its benediction. We never came home from an absence that its face did
not light up & speak out its eloquent welcome--& we could not enter it unmoved.”

Favorite Twain piece. I don’t think I can name just one. My first Mark Twain book was A Connecticut Yankee, and I am quite partial to it. The Diaries of Adam and Eve and stories about the McWilliamses are among my favorites, but I also love The War Prayer.

Playwright David Ryan Polgar turns Twain into a Ladies Man for R-RATED TWAIN

Late in 2011, actor Michael Eck approached The Mark Twain House & Museum with a script for a short play by his friend, David Ryan Polgar.  We found the comedy, Mark Twain: Ladies Man, funny, but at 10 minutes in duration, a little difficult to build into a full event.  Fortunately, we were already planning an evening of R-RATED TWAIN with Sea Tea Improv in January and Polgar's play was a perfect fit.  When performed in City Steam's Brew Ha Ha Comedy Club, Mark Twain: Ladies Man brought the house down (as did the rest of Twain's smuttiest material).  Because of popular demand, we are re-presenting R-RATED TWAIN on Friday, August 6th and Saturday, August 7th at 8 p.m. at the Hole in the Wall Theatre in New Britain.  As Mark Twain: Ladies Man is back on the bill, we asked the West Hartford native to share the genesis of the play.

The Making of Mark Twain: Ladies Manby David Ryan Polgar

I started writing Mark Twain: Ladies Man for a Connecticut-themed short play contest. When I think of Connecticut, he’s the first thing that comes to mind. If Maine has lobsters and Massachusetts has clam chowder, our residents have a taste for Twain.

After deciding that he would be my “Connecticut theme,” I came up with a title. Truthfully, I love to work backwards. It’s like the new movie Cowboys & Aliens—it’s a novel idea that throws you for a loop. Mark Twain as a lothario just seemed to jump out at me. Maybe it was his wit (which the ladies love), or perhaps it was his mustache. He seemed much cooler than Tom Selleck, and women fawned over him in the 80s. Next I started to imagine scenarios where the author was brought back to life and hanging out in a bar. What would he be like?

That’s the idea I played with and expanded on. What if Twain were brought back to life for the sole purpose of helping men pick up women? Would he be a good wingman or a conniving rascal? To keep the material grounded in some semblance of truth, I decided it would be fun to have every utterance of Twain be words he actually said. It’s remarkable how current Twain sounds. Twisted the right way, he can be both snarky and poetic. Of course, the quotes are taken completely out of context. This is by no means a PBS special; it’s more like a trip down the rabbit hole.

After showing an early version of the script to Jacques Lamarre and Julia Pistell at the Mark Twain House & Museum, I received a great deal constructive feedback that I used to polish up the play. For example, some of the quotes I had used turned out to be misattributed to Twain. In addition, Jacques and Julia helped me clarify how exactly Mark Twain would be wind up in a bar. Instead of spending twenty pages discussing cryogenics (and besides, a lot of times they just freeze your head), I went less sci-fi and more absurdist—he can be rented online. Take that, Craigslist.

I always like to learn something with everything I watch. So do most people, I figure. We have armchair lawyers and detectives watching Law & Order and CSI. People like small bits of knowledge delivered in a non-academic way. While the Twain in Ladies Man is a complete caricature, you do leave with a great taste of his wit. I hope that besides laughing, people also get the urge to dig deeper into Twain’s life and writings (with his recent autobiography, there is plenty to dig). It certainly made me appreciate him more.

R-RATED TWAIN, an "adults only" evening of Twain at his most ribald, is Friday, August 5th and Saturday, August 6th at 8 p.m. at the Hole in the Wall Theater, 116 Main Street, downtown New Britain.  Tickets are $15 and can be purchased by calling (860) 229-3049 or at the door.  www.hitw.org

Meet Ross Ariola

Name. Ross Ariola

What is your job at the Mark Twain House & Museum? Tour guide.

Where are you from? Western Connecticut

Where did you go to school? I am still working on it.

What is the most memorable question you have ever been asked on tour? Who the heck is Sam Clemens? And what kind of person was he in private?

What is your favorite room in the house? The billiard room is my favorite. Second is the library. “The library is where my girls and I can be children together.”

Why did you decide to work at the Mark Twain House? I wanted to have a job that made myself and others happy.

What is your favorite Mark Twain Book? Huckleberry Finn and his autobiography.

How did you become interested in Mark Twain? There are a few ingredients which made me interested in Twain. The first was my initial studies of American history and seeing how much he appears in it. Second was my re-reading of Tom and Huck a few years ago. And the final ingredient was a tour I took with Grace a couple years ago.

What is the strangest fact that you know about Mark Twain? Well there are a few that I always remember. One is the fact that his two of his best friends were a preacher and a robber baron. Another is that he predicted his own time of death during Halley’s comet. "Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together." But the strangest fact is that there is so much to learn about the man, that people make a career learning about his life.

How long have you been giving tours here? I have been here for about two years.

What makes you come back the following year? I keep coming back because of all the people. The employees, guests, and the Clemens’s make it a special, happy place. And, “You cannot enter it without being moved.”“The average American loves his family. If he has any love left over, he generally selects Mark Twain.”-Edison

What do you hope to see happen to the house in the future? I would like to see the Mahogany room, 2nd floor hallway bath, and the Artist friends room restored.

Do you have a favorite tour story? I like the story of his and Livy’s courtship. But with Twain, you can’t just hear one story. I have different favorites depending on the group.

Have you ever received a question you have yet to find the answer to? Yes. But I can’t think of one off hand.

What do you think is the biggest misconception about Mr. Twain? I think the biggest misconception is that some people think he was a racist. Another misconception is that he was only about Tom, Huck, and the Mississippi.

Do you like Mark Twain more having worked here? Yes, and I think he would have

actually liked the tour guides here, Unlike how he felt about tour guides elsewhere.

Other Thoughts.  I believe he would have liked how the museum is today. He loved this house and management has once again allowed him to be center stage. “I can’t stand the sound of anyone else’s voice but my own.” He would have loved to see that we still love his family and are keeping their happy years alive. One of my favorite quotes is, “The trouble isn’t that there are too many fools, but that lightning isn’t distributed right.” I also like, “Just once I would like to see a Wagner opera done in pantomime.” However, I could go on and on with quotes.

"I AM NOT AN AMERICAN; I AM THE AMERICAN."

With Independence Day upon us, Mark Twain House & Museum Director of Communications Jacques Lamarre questions whether or not Mark Twain was “the American.”

The quote “I am not an American; I am the American” has been popularly misattributed to Mark Twain. It even trips up the most astute Twainiacs. Ken Burns uses the quote in the superlative documentary that we show in our museum center and on the cover of the soundtrack and DVD of his full Twain miniseries. Twain did write the phrase in a notebook that he took with him on his European travels in 1897, but he was, in fact, quoting his friend Frank Fuller. Over time, the quote has become more and more synonymous with Twain, and that is not really surprising. For many of us, Mark Twain is the quintessential American. A bigger question might be: how American was he? By a lot of modern measures of patriotism, Twain could be called downright un-American.

• When afforded the opportunity to provide military service for his country, Twain helped to form the Marion Rangers, a group of Confederate irregulars. After two weeks of “service,” he decamped and went westward away from the Civil War fighting that was consuming the nation.
• He was unreserved in his contempt for politicians. He wasn’t afraid to let fly with snappish quotes like “Fleas can be taught nearly anything that a Congressman can” (What is Man?) and “Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself” (Mark Twain, A Biography)
• He didn’t hold back in his criticism of President Theodore Roosevelt: “We are insane, each in our own way, and with insanity goes irresponsibility. Theodore the man is sane; in fairness we ought to keep in mind that Theodore, as statesman and politician, is insane and irresponsible.” (letter to Joseph Hopkins Twichell)
• Many Americans equate patriotism with God-fearing Christianity, but Twain openly questioned God and Man’s ability to relate to the deity: “To trust the God of the Bible is to trust an irascible, vindictive, fierce and ever fickle and changeful master.” (Mark Twain, A Biography). “I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.” (Mark Twain in Eruption)
• He could not maintain allegiance to one political party and openly questioned the two-party system: “Look at the tyranny of party -- at what is called party allegiance, party loyalty -- a snare invented by designing men for selfish purposes -- and which turns voters into chattles, slaves, rabbits, and all the while their masters, and they themselves are shouting rubbish about liberty, independence, freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, honestly unconscious of the fantastic contradiction; and forgetting or ignoring that their fathers and the churches shouted the same blasphemies a generation earlier when they were closing their doors against the hunted slave, beating his handful of humane defenders with Bible texts and billies, and pocketing the insults and licking the shoes of his Southern master.” (“The Character of Man”)
• He questioned American foreign policy, particularly our Imperialistic forays into the Philippines: “There were the Filipinos fighting like blazes for their liberty. Spain would not hear to it. The United States stepped in, and after they had licked the enemy to a standstill, instead of freeing the Filipinos they paid that enormous amount for an island which is of no earthly account to us; just wanted to be like the aristocratic countries of Europe which have possessions in foreign waters.” (Interview with The Baltimore Sun).

With all this stacked against him, how could Twain be considered “the American?” Precisely because he enjoyed the freedoms that America provides. He used our freedom of speech to question our leaders, mock hypocrisy and praise those he deemed worthy of praise. He used the freedom of the press to tell the truth, stretch the truth and create his own truth. He created the embodiment of American childhood with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He exposed our institutionalized racism that denied rights to African Americans in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson. He was a Capitalist who started his own businesses and earned his own wealth. Twain also, like many Americans, faced debt and imminent foreclosure. He voted his conscience and used his freedom of religion to pursue his own path toward understanding and challenging the Immortal. He embraced the American ability to invent yourself. How else would a Samuel Clemens become a Mark Twain? Of course, he was born in America, but he also represented America across the globe.  In turn, he brought the world back to American shores through his travel writing, helping us become global citizens. He became an internationally-renowned celebrity, something American culture craves.  And finally, his books engendered all of the liberties that we hold dear – books that are widely read in countries where those freedoms are denied. As such, maybe Mark Twain is “the American.” Even if he didn’t say so.

How to Plan Tom Sawyer Day: Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life for Me!

Good morning, folks. Everyone get a good sleep last night? Caffeinated? I hope you’re ready, because this morning we’re going to work on tying up all the little bits and bobs of this year’s Tom Sawyer Day—our free family day in conjunction with Connecticut Open House Day.

I’m kidnapping you and making you my first mate so you can help me with every little task associated with this year’s fun and games: Yo Ho, the Pirate’s Life for Me! Yes, pirate themed. The festivities run from 10-4 on Saturday, June 11th.

Now, maybe you came over last year for Tom Sawyer Day, and in that case you will recall the torrential downpours that made our guests want to stay inside rather than enjoy the high seas. Silly landlubbers. But we want everyone dry, so your first order of business is to:

Do a no-rain dance! Maybe that means sitting at your computer quietly, like I am. Whatever it means to you. All I’m saying is, dear Zeus, please let it not rain, because we have three bands who are dying to play outside. So therefore, your second task is to:

Listen to the music of the Red Mollys, Horizon Blue, and Dan Stevens. All three of these bands are really wonderful, and we can’t wait to have them. They are also really nice people, which we like in musicians.

Speaking of really nice people, your next job is to prepare some silly pirate jokes to swap with the Bawdy Buccaneers. They are a roving pirate duo with three levels of bawdiness (it’s going to be at family-level next Saturday).

Also, start doing some finger yoga for our arts and crafts area. You want to make an eyepatch? A flag? Get a tattoo (temporary, of course)? Bloody up some coloring books? You are going to be a blackbeard of terrifying proportions by the time you finish with our Great Hall.

But don’t leave the Museum Center without making testing the stability of your hand-made boat with The Children’s Museum. Their staff will be on hand to show you how to make an unsinkable ship.

Steel up your courage, because you’re also going to meet a real pirate in the form of professional clown and performer Joe Barney. He’s the best. And actually won’t be scary at all, just really fun.

If you’re getting tired from all this, you can also prepare to take a break and watch some or all of the classic film Treasure Island, because we’ll be showing it on loop in our auditorium all day long!

Wait a minute. We forgot to assign you the most important thing! We have animals visiting and we need you to get excited about them! Not only do we have the fabulous Beardsley Zoo bringing Caribbean wildlife, but we’ve also got A Wing & A Prayer Parrot Rescue visiting to demonstrate how amazing parrots are. We’re really excited about both.

Not enough for you? How about the pirate scene from Tom Sawyer acted out by the fantastic performers of Hartford Children’s Theater? All you have to do for that one is sit back, relax, and enjoy.

Once you’ve had enough to walk the plank, you can swim over to our neighbors at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center and enjoy their Bicentennial Celebration!

What do you think, mateys? You up for it?

--- The Pirates over at The Mark Twain House & Museum

P.S. And yes, of course, there will be a treasure hunt.

We've got Blue Stars in our Eyes

Hi everybody,

As Memorial Day approaches, we've decided to become a Blue Star Museum: one of more than 1,000 museums nationwide offering free admission for active military personnel and their immediate families from Memorial Day, May 30, 2011, through Labor Day, September 5, 2011.

The free admission program is available to any bearer of a Geneva Convention common access card (CAC), a DD Form 1173 ID card, or a DD Form 1173-1 ID card, which includes active duty military (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard), National Guard and Reserve members and up to five immediate family members. Immediate family members include the spouses and children of active duty military.

Spouses of military who are deployed are eligible for free admission with their children, up to a total of five visitors. To receive free admission, spouses should bring a DD Form 1173 ID Card or DD Form 1173-1 ID Card for active duty military family members.

Blue Star Museums is a partnership among Blue Star Families, the National Endowment for the Arts and the individual museums. For details on the program, including a list of participating museums, visit http://www.nea.gov/national/bluestarmuseums/index.html.

Enjoy Memorial Day with your loved ones, and come on by for a visit-- we'll be open.

- The Mark Twain House & Museum