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Early November 2014 eNews
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FROM THE
| Getting a hug from Hal Holbrook after a performance in St. Louis: PRICELESS |
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR "For One Night Only. On account of imperative European engagements! Admission 25 cents; children and servants, 10 cents." - Mark Twain in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Dear Friends, When the King and Duke performed "The Royal Nonesuch" in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, they priced the show accordingly and promised a good time, adding "LADIES AND CHILDREN NOT ADMITTED" to the handbill. But when Hal Holbrook performs on his 90th birthday in "Mark Twain Tonight!" at The Bushnell on February 17, no such silliness is needed. This is the single most important event we have ever hosted, and everyone will be there! I've lost count of the number of times I've seen Hal perform as Mark Twain, but each performance is flawless, fiery, and funny. I most recently saw him perform two weeks ago in Elmira where he stunned the sold-out house with his brilliant portrayal of our most beloved author. Hal continues to research and memorize hours of new material. No two performances are alike, and in every single one he uses Mark Twain's own words to comment on events of the day. You will wonder if Mark Twain himself has time-traveled to the 21st century - the Connecticut Yankee arriving in the future instead of the past, and weighing in on every important topic with his unique insight. The Mark Twain House brings high caliber performances and speakers to Hartford on a regular basis, and you support our efforts with your attendance.I feel that with this event we are bringing you a once-in-a-lifetime experience that you'll never forget. Will you please join me to welcome Hal Holbrook on his 90th birthday performance in Mark Twain's hometown? You can't get hugged if you're not there! Cindy Lovell Executive Director |
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EARLY NOVEMBER EVENTS
For more details on all our events, please visit our website.
Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours November 1 and 14; at 6:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. We reprise our popular Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours for spooky fall chills. The Mark Twain House has been featured on Syfy Channel's Ghost Hunters and the Biography Channel's My Ghost Story. On these tours, participants will hear about these investigations -- and learn about Mark Twain's own interest in the supernatural. Filled with haunted history, dark tales and Victorian traditions surrounding seances and spiritualism, these nighttime tours are as educational as they are goosebump-inducing. Ghost tours sell out fast, so be sure to call soon to make your reservations! The tours are tsponsored by Tsunami Tsolutions, with additional support from the Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of Tourism.
$22 with discounts available for members and children. Please call (860) 280-3130 for more information & ticketing or click here.
BOOK/MARK: Eugene O'Neill - A Life in 4 Acts with author Robert Dowling Tuesday, November 4, 7:00 p.m. A major new biography of the Nobel Prize-winning playwright whose brilliantly original plays revolutionized American theater. "Dowling has written the single most complete and up-to-date account of O'Neill's life that we have....To call his scholarship 'sound' is vastly to understate it; his accomplishment in marshalling all this disparate and often obscure material into a well-organized and highly readable account is nothing less than astonishing."-Jackson R. Bryer, co-editor of Selected Letters of Eugene O'Neill. Followed by a book sale and signing.
This is a free event. Reservations are recommended. Please call (860) 280-3130.
Nook Farm Book Talk - The Children in Room E4: American Education on Trial with Susan EatonWednesday, November 5, 5:00 p.m. reception; 5:30 p.m. talk, at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center With our nation's urban schools growing more segregated every year, Susan Eaton set out to see whether separate can ever really be equal. An award-winning journalist, Eaton spent four years at Simpson-Waverly Elementary School, an all-minority school in Hartford, Connecticut. Located in the poorest city in the wealthiest state in the nation, it is a glaring example of the great racial and economic divide found in almost every major urban center across the country.
This is a free event. Reservations are recommended. Please call (860) 522-9258, Ext. 317.
An Evening with ANNE RICE & CHRISTOPHER RICE Wednesday, November 5, 7:00 p.m. at Hartford Stage, 50 Church Street, Hartford A hair-raising visit with gothic novelist Anne Rice and her son Christopher Rice, a New York Times-bestselling author in his own right. We celebrate Anne's return to the scene of her greatest success, Interview with a Vampire, with her new novel Prince Lestat. Christopher will also tell us about his new paranormal thriller, The Vines, set in the familiar gothic playground of their family's hometown, New Orleans. Of course, we hope to learn more than a little about their shared bond as writers and family. Followed by a book sale and signing. Author series sponsored by The Hartford.
Tickets: $35 / $30 for MTH&M Members and Hartford Stage subscribers. To order, call (860) 527-5151 or visit HartfordStage.org. A $1.50 facility fee and a $5.00 handling fee will be added.
BOOK/MARK: Leading Twain Scholar R. Kent Rasmussen on new editions of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn Thursday, November 6, 7:00 p.m. Never having been out of print, one would think that new editions of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, would not be much of a reason to celebrate. However, when R. Kent Rasmussen, Twain scholar extraordinaire, pens insightful new introductions to these two classics, we sit up and take notice! Also participating will be Twain scholar John Pascal, and Mark Twain House Executive Director Cindy Lovell. Join us for an evening exploring the best of American literature. Followed by a book sale and signing. This is a free event. Reservations are recommended. Please call (860) 280-3130 or click here.
BECK & CALL The Servants Tour (Directed by HartBeat Ensemble's Steven Raider-Ginsburg)
Friday, November 7, tours begin at 7:00 p.m.
The Final Night of these Tours! The servants at Mark Twain's House are expecting a full-on assault of overnight guests. With famous faces coming for an elegant dinner, three guest rooms to prepare and 25 rooms worth of dusting, the hired help may need a helping hand. With BECK & CALL, our fun, new interactive nighttime servants tour of The Mark Twain House, we offer a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to get the Clemens home ship-shape for overnight entertaining. You may even be asked to pitch in! With costumed interpreters appearing throughout the house, fans of "Upstairs/Downstairs" and "Downton Abbey" will love this look at the organized chaos that it took to cook, clean and care for the Clemens Family. Beck & Call is supported by the City of Hartford Arts & Heritage Jobs Grant Program, Pedro E. Segarra, Mayor.
$22 for adults with discounts for children and members. Reservations required. For tickets, please call (860) 280-3130 or click here.
Book Launch - Finding Dad: From "Love Child" to Daughter by Kara Sundlun
Tuesday, November 11, 7:00 p.m.
When she was younger, Emmy-winning TV journalist Kara Sundlun had never seen her father, Rhode Island Governor Bruce Sundlun, until one transformational moment when she awoke in the middle of the night as a TV news anchor announced his candidacy. One look at his picture and she knew she needed to find him. Her letters and phone calls went unanswered, so at seventeen, Kara hired a lawyer and announced her paternity suit before a packed press conference. In the middle of the media frenzy, Governor Sundlun did the unexpected and invited Kara to come live with him so he could get to know her better. Followed by a book sale and signing.
This is a free event. Reservations are recommended. Please call (860) 280-3130 or click here.
The Trouble Begins at 5:30: David E. E. Sloane, "Reflections on Mark Twain and Thomas Edison as American Cultural Icons"
Wednesday, November 12, 5:00 p.m. reception; 5:30 p.m. talk
David Edward Edison Sloane, professor of English at the University of New Haven, is a Connecticut treasure: an internationally recognized Mark Twain scholar who was recently named the first Legacy Scholar by The Mark Twain Journal. He is author of Mark Twain as Literary Comedian, Huckleberry Finn: American Comic Vision and other works -- and is the great-grandson of Thomas A. Edison. The Trouble Begins at 5:30 is The Mark Twain House & Museum's free, popular after-work monthly lecture series on Twainian subjects The series is supported by Connecticut Explored magazine, Hot Tomato's restaurant and The Friends of the Mark Twain House & Museum.
This is a free event. Reservations are recommended. Please call (860) 280-3130.
BOOK/MARK: Tinseltown with William Mann
Thursday, November 13, 7:00 p.m.
The Day of the Locust meets The Devil in the White City and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in this juicy, untold Hollywood story: an addictive true tale of ambition, scandal, intrigue, murder, and the creation of the modern film industry. By 1920, the movies had suddenly become America's new favorite pastime, and one of the nation's largest industries. Yet Hollywood's glittering ascendency was threatened by a string of headline-grabbing tragedies including the murder of William Desmond Taylor, the popular president of the Motion Picture Directors Association, a legendary crime that has remained unsolved until now. Connecticut native William Mann is the author of numerous Hollywood biographies, including those about Barbara Streisand, Elizabeth Taylor and Katherine Hepburn.
This is a free event. Reservations are recommended. Please call (860) 280-3130 or click here.
Write in Mark Twain's Historic Library
Sunday, November 16, 8:30 - 11:00 a.m.
Writers will be given uninterrupted silent time to write in the historic first-floor library of Twain's mansion. Writers will be given chairs and tables arranged throughout the historic library and will be allowed time to write either on laptops or with pencils and paper (no pens are allowed in the historic home). The program costs $50 and is only offered on a very infrequent basis.
Space is extremely limited--only fifteen people are allowed for this event. Register by calling (860) 280-3130.
PLUS: There are many more events coming up later in November! Check our website for details.
AND: We're excited to announce that Hal Holbrook will be performing his classic Mark Twain Tonight as a benefit for the Mark Twain House on February 17th at 7:30 p.m. at The Bushnell in Hartford. It'll be an unforgettable evening--it's Mr. Holbrook's 90th birthday, and he's been preforming as Mark Twain for 60 years! Tickets are on sale now for members, and will go on sale to the general public on Friday, October 31 at 10:00 a.m. Please call (860) 987-5900 or click here.
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For more information, please visit the events section of our website
and click on 'November,' or call Sarah Hawkes at (860) 280-3112.
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SING, SING A SONG WRITE, WRITE A SONG Writing Workshop, 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm, November 8, $40
Songwriting with Donna Martin: A Saturday Afternoon Writing Workshop
Although there are many components to songwriting, the focus of this class will be on lyric writing. We will cover meter and form, rhyme schemes, strong starts and development techniques. Skills of clarity, the use of imagery and metaphor will also be included. It will be helpful if students come prepared with several ideas about what they'd like to write about. There will be time to create a lyric and then share it in a caring workshop setting to explore how the work can be further developed. Students will need to bring their own writing materials.
Donna Martin is a performing songwriter who has been touring the Northeast for over two decades and has recorded six cds of original music. She has appeared on stage with many luminaries including Bonnie Raitt, Sarah McLachlan and Charlie Daniels. She receives radio airplay from coast to coast and abroad and her work recently earned her a three month artist residency with the Helen Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, New Mexico. She served on the faculty at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts for the last fourteen years where she also taught songwriting.
For full class and workshop descriptions, please visit our website. Note that there are discounts for members.
To register or for more information, please email Julia Pistell, Director of Writing Programs, at [email protected].
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(September 20 through October 22)
Joe Barker
Heather Bohacs
Kim H. Carpenter
Melissa & Mike Carrato
Joanne Donaghue
Clare & Chris Dowd
Louis Esler
Rita Estanol
Sharon & Lorence Gutterman
Bimmie Herget
Jo Hewlett
Ryan Hunt
MaryAnn Kelly
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Jen Lemus
Yan Ma
Elizabeth Malczewski
Mary K. McKone
Patti & Joe Philippon
Justin Schwaber
Kristin Shaw
Judy Stone
Charleen Taylor
Keri & Michael Vale
Judy Weatherbee
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THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS (September 20 through Oct. 22)
INDIVIDUAL
Leonard & Victoria Albert Vladimir Alexandrov Judith E. Askey John & Lisa Bermel Linda Biancalani Eunice J. Burnett James P. & Anne D. Carroll Mr. & Mrs. Dennis Dix, Jr. Louis Esler Ida Gall Kevin Gough & Paula Jones Donna L. Healy Derek Houliston Karen E. Kearns Norman & Cindy Landry Andrew & Genevieve Lattimer Thomas D. & Margah Lips Louise E. Mann Duby McDowell & Kevin G. Dubay Richard E. & Joan P. Mount Jeffrey & Donna Oller Kathryn Sherer Leslie Smith & Philip Wellman Theodore M. Space Michael G. & Margaret C. Wheeler Rose Worobel
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INSTITUTIONAL
Department of Economic and Community Development
Duclos Family Charity Trust Fund
The Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation
The Malkin Fund, Inc.
IN HONOR OF PATTI PHILIPPON'S TENURE AT THE MARK TWAIN HOUSE & MUSEUM
John & Tricia Boyer
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Make the most of your donation, be sure to ask your employer about matching gifts.
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Is your employer holding a United Way campaign this fall?
You can designate your giving to The Mark Twain House & Museum!
(UW of Central and Northeastern CT code: AG3020; please note other UW branches may have a different code.)
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SEEKING QUALIFIED APPLICANTS FOR THE CHIEF CURATOR POSITION AT THE MARK TWAIN HOUSE & MUSEUM
The Mark Twain House & Museum welcomes applications for the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Chief Curator position.
The Curator will direct the maintenance and preservation of historical properties, management of archives and collections, and exhibition of artifacts, aligned with the museum's mission, vision, and values.
Please click here for details on the position and the application process.
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34th Holiday House Tour Features Twain House and Area Homes
Don't miss an opportunity to visit several unique and distinctive Hartford and West Hartford homes during The Friends of The Mark Twain House & Museum's 34th Holiday House Tour on Sunday, December 7, 2014, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The tour will feature Mark Twain's 19-room home and The Hartford Club, where he was a member, along with several architecturally impressive homes. All will be decorated for the holidays and will feature live music and floral arrangements. The Twain mansion, at 351 Farmington Avenue in Hartford, will be decorated for a late 19th century Christmas with the Clemens family.
Once again, Viking Fuel Oil Company of West Hartford will be a sponsor for this benefit event. Advance tickets are $30 each and can be purchased by calling (860) 280-3130 or click here. Tickets will be $35 each on the day of the tour and will be available at the Mark Twain House & Museum. For more information, please visit www.MarkTwainHouse.org.
The Friends of The Mark Twain House & Museum is a volunteer organization that has supported the museum for more than 50 years. Proceeds from the tour will benefit the restoration, preservation, and education programs of The Mark Twain House, which is a National Historic Landmark.
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MARK TWAIN STORE FEATURED ITEM OF THE MONTH
A Family Sketch and Other Private Writings by Mark Twain, Livy Clemens, and Susy Clemens. Edited by Benjamin Griffin.
This book publishes, for the first time in full, the two most revealing of Mark Twain's private writings. Here he turns his mind to the daily life he shared with his wife Livy, their three daughters, a great many servants, and an imposing array of pets. These first-hand accounts display this gifted and loving family in the period of its flourishing. Mark Twain began to write A Family Sketch in response to the early death of his eldest daughter, Susy,but the manuscript grew under his hands to become an exuberant account of the entire household. His record of the childrens' sayings--"Small Foolishnesses"--is next, followed by the related manuscript "At the Farm." Also included are selections from Livy's 1885 diary and an authoritative edition of Susy's biography of her father, written when she was a teenager. Newly edited from the original manuscripts, this anthology is a unique record of a fascinating family.
Visit our store or click here to buy online.
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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 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 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, and the Greater Hartford Arts Council's United Arts Campaign.
David Cash, Publicist and Publications Editor
The Mark Twain House & Museum
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