Mid-September 2014 eNews

SEPTEMBER EVENTS

For more details on any of our events, please visit our website.


BOOK/MARK: Trackrat with Bob Englehart Jr. and Special Guests

Tuesday, September 16, 7:00 p.m.

 

The Hartford Courant's Bob Englehart will discuss his new book Trackrat in a panel with other racecar celebrities. The panel will consist of: CTRaceDay.com's Shawn Courchesne, and local racing legends Sean Foster, Renee Dupuis, and Ed Flemke Jr. What compels a young man or woman to spend ungodly amounts of money driving a racecar every weekend at the local track, risking life and limb at 150 miles an hour, entertaining friends and total strangers?  Trackrat: Memoir of a Fan is about love of family in spite of the complexity and confusion it may involve and the author's working class heroes on the track. This isn't NASCAR; this is your neighbor.  Followed by a book sale and signing.

 

This is a free event. Reservations are recommended. Please call (860) 280-3130 or click here.

 

 

Base Ball in Twain's Time: A Panel Discussion by Five Leading SABR Experts

Wednesday, September 17, 7:00 p.m.

 

Five leading experts from the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) will engage in a lively panel discussion of "base ball" during the 19th century.  The moderator will be Mark Twain House & Museum's Education Manager, Craig Hotchkiss, who is a former vintage "base ball" player and frequent presenter of the museum's community outreach program Base Ball as Mark Twain Knew It.  The SABR panelists are John Thorn (Major League Baseball's official historian), David Arcidiacono, Gary O'Maxfield, Joe Williams, and Bill Ryczek. Followed by a book sale and signing.

 

This is a free event. Reservations are recommended. Please call (860) 280-3130 or click here.

 


 

MEOW-ZA! CAT WRITERS COME CLEAN

Saturday, September 20, 7:00 p.m.

 

When these three ladies get together to talk, the conversation is bound to get catty! Come to The Mark Twain House & Museum for an event full of cattitude.  Allia Zobel Nolan, author of over 200 titles including Cat Confessions: A Kitty Come Clean Tell-All Book; Clea Simon, author of 16 cat detective books, including the Dulcie Schwartz Feline mystery series; and Darlene Arden, Certified Animal Behaviorist Consultant and author of dozens of dog and cats books, including The Complete Cat's Meow, will purrtake in a panel discussion on writing successful feline novels and how they've created gripping, believable, and entertaining fiction with characters who sleep 20 hours a day. Followed by a book sale and signing. 

 

This is a free event.  Reservations are recommended. Call (860) 280-3130 or click here.

 

 

CLUE Tours!

Saturday, September 20, Tours step off every 15 minutes beginning at 7:00 p.m. 

 

Who killed that varmint Pap Finn??? Play our live-action version of the classic game CLUE in the Mark Twain House. Was it Becky Thatcher with the revolver in the Conservatory? The Prince (or was it the Pauper?) with the knife in the library? This hour long tour features SEA TEA IMPROV as Twain's beloved characters/suspects and all the murder, mayhem and merriment one would expect from Sam Clemens!  Featured on the Travel Channel show "Wackiest Tours!"  One night only!  Tours step off every 15 minutes.  Reservations required.


 
$22 with discounts available for members and children. Please call (860) 280-3130 for more information & ticketing or click here.

 

 

Book/Mark: DREAM NATION by Maria Acosta Cruz

Tuesday, September 23, 7:00 p.m. at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center

 

Over the past fifty years, Puerto Rican voters have roundly rejected all calls for national independence. Yet the rhetoric and iconography of independence have been defining features of Puerto Rican literature and culture.  Mar�a Acosta Cruz investigates the roots and effects of this profound disconnect between cultural fantasy and political reality. Presented in collaboration with the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. Followed by a book sale and signing.

 

This is a free event.  Reservations are recommended.  Please call 860-522-9258, Ext. 317.

  


THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION: 50 Years of Conspiracy! with Jerome Corsi, Patrick Nolan and Peter Janney

Wednesday, September 24, 7:30 p.m.

 

2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the Warren Commission, President Lyndon B. Johnson's investigation into the assassination of his predecessor, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Was it the CIA?  The Russians?  LBJ?  Or was it Lee Harvey Oswald acting completely on his own?  Authors Jerome Corsi, Patrick Nolan and Peter Janney will be discussing their conspiracy theory books on one of the most controversial subjects in American history. Followed by a book sale and signing.

  

This is a free event. Reservations are recommended. Please call (860) 280-3130 or click 

 

  

The Trouble Begins at 5:30: Ben Tarnoff on "Mark Twain and the Bohemians"

Wednesday, September 24, 5:00 p.m. reception; 5:30 p.m. talk (note this is not the usual second Wednesday of the month)

 

Tarnoff's new book, The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature, brings to life Twain's early journalistic days in San Francisco and his contemporaries there: golden boy Bret Harte; struggling gay poet Charles Warren Stoddard; and beautiful, haunted Ina Coolbrith, poet and protector of the group.


The series is supported by Connecticut Explored magazine, Hot Tomato's restaurant and The Friends of The Mark Twain House & Museum. ASL signing for the lectures is provided courtesy of students of the Interpreting 1 Class in Northwestern Connecticut Community College's Interpreter Preparation Program. 

 
This is a free event.  Reservations are recommended.  Please call (860) 280-3130 or click here.

 

 

Book/Mark - MAKING A MUSICAL: THE CIRCUS IN WINTER by Cathy Day

Thursday, September 25, 7:00 p.m. 

 

Wicked. Oliver! Les Miserables. These award-winning and beloved musicals were all novels in their first incarnations. The Circus in Winter written by Cathy Day, is another book to get the stage-treatment. Join Day and Ben Clark, lyricist and composer of the upcoming show, for this event that will look at the process of turning text to theater. This fun event will include performances of tunes from Clark's adaptation that will be featured at Goodspeed Musicals'  Norma Terris Theatre, October 23 - November 16!

 

This is a free event.  Reservations are recommended. Please call (860) 280-3130 or click here.

 

  

 

TAPPING INTO TWAIN! Our Oktoberfest 

Friday, September 26, 5:30-9:30 p.m.

 

It's the party of the year--featuring over twenty regional breweries, micro-breweries and home brewers, plus over a dozen local restaurants and music!

 

Prices include food, beverage and a collectible pint glass!

  

Don't miss out on the event the Hartford Advocate has called "absolutely, positively, without any doubt whatever, one of the best charitable events Hartford has beheld in quite some time." 

 

 

Advance Price: $45, Door Price: $50, MTH&M Member Price: $40, Designated Driver: $20. Tickets: call (860) 280-3130 or click here.
 

 

 


OUR BIGGEST EVENT OF THE YEAR!


 

 

Don't miss out!  Please visit TwainMarkMyWords.com for information and tickets. 


 

 

Sponsors include The Hartford, Wish You Well Foundation, Progress: A Digital Agency, Hoffman Auto Group, Hartford Steam Boiler & Inspection Company, Reid & Riege, P.C. and Pullman & Comley, LLC; with additional support provided by Candlewick Press, R. J. Julia Booksellers, Nelson DeMille, and Bauman Rare Books.

 


 



FALL WRITING WORKSHOPS & COURSES 

Get creative this fall! 

 

 

Finding an Agent: A Writing Workshop with Susan Schoenberger

Saturday, September 20, 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm, $40.

 

500 Words or Less: A Flash Fiction Writing Workshop with Alison Devers

Saturday, September 20, 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm, $40

 

Writing Fiction: A Course with Susan Schoenberger

Wednesdays, October 1 through November 12, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm, $265

 

Writing Political Poetry: A Course with Edwina Trentham

Wednesdays, October 1 through November 12, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm, $265

 

Freelance Writing: A Course with Theresa Sullivan Barger

Wednesdays, October 1 through November 12, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm, $265

 

Travel Writing: A Course with Mary Sharnick

Wednesdays, October 1 though November 12, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm, $265

 

Writing Nonfiction: A Course with Susan Campbell

Thursdays, October 2 through November 12, 6:00 - 8:00 pm, $265

 

Writing from Found Texts (Fiction & Creative Nonfiction Writing Class)

Thursdays, October 2 through 23, 6:00 - 8:00 pm, $199

 

 

For more information about any of these writing programs, please visit the Events section of our website here.

 

To register for any of these writing classes and workshops, please call (860) 280-3130 or email Julia Pistell, Director of Writing, at [email protected].

  

 


NOW YOU CAN BUY YOUR TOUR TICKETS ONLINE!

  

The Mark Twain House & Museum is pleased to be able to now offer online pre-sales for tour tickets.  

 

Online tickets must be purchased at least one day in advance.

 

Tour tickets that are available to purchase online are offered at various times during the day, which you can learn more about here. This web page also includes some of the conditions for buying tickets online.

 

Of course, walk-in tours are still available on a first-come, first-served basis.

 

We hope you'll enjoy this new option for planning your visit!

 

  


JOIN The Mark Twain House & Museum!

 

Enjoy the special insider benefits of membership in The Mark Twain House & Museum. And there's the sheer joy of being part of the legacy of Mark Twain, whose wit and insight remain alive today in 2014 -- over 150 years after Sam Clemens took on his famous pen name and entered history.

 

Submit our easy-to-use, secure online membership form or simply call 860-280-3112.

 

Make a DONATION Today!

 

Your donation to The Mark Twain House & Museum has a major impact on our ability to preserve this beautiful home, provide crucial educational programs for thousands of schoolchildren, offer mind-stimulating and spine-tingling events for adults, and welcome thousands of visitors each year. 

 

 ...and make your donation count double: Find out if your employer has a Matching Gift program.

 

Donate online, call 860-280-3112, or send your donation to: The Mark Twain House & Museum, Development Department, 351 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut 06105.

 

Join the FRIENDS!

 

The Friends of The Mark Twain House & Museum offer wonderful speaking events, social gatherings, and fun volunteer opportunities. Pony up $30 and you'll get it all, too!

 

It's the volunteer organization that has supported the museum for more than 50 years. To join, call Membership Co-Chairs Chuck Paydos, 860-242-4825, or Dee Peters, 860-233-4066.

 

 

 

The Mark Twain House & Museum has restored the author's Hartford, Connecticut, home, where the author and his family lived from 1874 to 1891. Twain wrote his most important works there, including Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. In addition to providing tours of Twain's restored home, a National Historic Landmark, the institution offers activities and educational programs that illuminate Twain's literary legacy and provide information about his life and times. The house and museum at 351 Farmington Ave. are open Monday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., and Sunday, 11:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m. For more information, call 860-247-0998 or visit us online. Programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are supported by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts, and the Greater Hartford Arts Council's United Arts Campaign.

 

David Cash, Publicist and Publications Editor 

Mark Twain House & Museum

 

 

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