HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SAMUEL CLEMENS

In celebration of Mark Twain's birthday  (November 30, 1835), I'm going to post a few pics of my summer visit to his house and museum in Hartford, CT.

 Chuck and I were in the area for a family wedding this summer so we took in a few literary sites!

The museum incorporates lots of Twain's pithy quotes on its walls.  This one is a little blurry because we were following a high energy tour guide who was on the move! But I really like this quote.  Hmmm - I like most of Twain's quotes!

 So what do you think? Does my hubby look good in Mark Twain hair?

 For that matter -do I?

I'm actually more comfy in Becky Thatcher hair!

We weren't allowed to take pics inside the Mark Twain House - only in the museum. This lego model of the home built in the 1980s cost approximately the same as the real deal built a century earlier - $ 45,000.00!

Many of Twain's books were set in Mississippi, but were actually written from this house or most likely his summer home in Elmira, New York.

 When I was writing Healing Water I scoured Mark Twain's Letters From Hawaii which provided colorful descriptions of Hawaii from the very time period in which my story is set.

 

According to author/editor A. Grove Day, in 1884 Twain was writing a novel set in Hawaii.  A section of it was set in the leprosy settlement on Molokai where Healing Water takes place.  I, for one, am really sad this book was never completed.

Maybe I will be able to find the 17 pages of this novel online at Berkely's Mark Twain Papers & Project where I understand that they are housed. Off to check on that.

Note that Volume 1 of the Autobiography of Mark Twain is now available - 100 years after his death as he stipulated! What a guy - to give himself ( and us) this birthday gift!

Happy Birthday, Samuel Clemens!