January 2015 eNews

HAPPY NEW YEAR!


FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 
Hal Holbrook surrounded by young fans after a performance in San Diego, California in March 2013
"I was seldom able to see an opportunity
until it had ceased to be one."

- Mark Twain's Autobiography

 

Dear Friends,

 

A new year is upon us, bringing change and challenge and opportunity. We have been busy planning an exciting 2015 here at the Mark Twain House, and what better way to start the year than by offering what is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - Hal Holbrook's 90th Birthday Performance of Mark Twain Tonight!

 

Will you please join me on February 17, 2015 at The Bushnell Center for Performing Arts to honor Hal Holbrook at this historic performance? This is a unique opportunity to be entertained and enlightened while honoring a living legend.

 

Mr. Holbrook's film and stage credits are vast, highly regarded, and well-documented. His immense contribution to preserving Mark Twain's legacy, however, is simply incalculable. Let's make this a sold-out event that not only benefits The Mark Twain House & Museum but shows our gratitude to the man who has kept Mark Twain in our hearts and on our minds for more than 60 years!

 

I'll see you at The Bushnell! 

 

Cindy Lovell
Executive Director


JANUARY EVENTS

For more details on all our events, please visit our website.

Eugene O'Neill - A Life in 4 Acts with author Robert Dowling (postponed from an earlier date)

Tuesday, January 13, 7:00 p.m.

This is a major new biography of the Nobel Prize-Winning playwright and Connecticut resident 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 or click here.


The Mark Twain House & Museum Offers Free Admission to Hartford Residents, Courtesy of The Hartford

Monday, January 19, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (last tour leaves at 4:30 p.m.)

 

Thanks to The Hartford, we are offering free tours to our valued neighbors -- the residents of the city of Hartford -- on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday. Bring along proof of residency, and take that long-planned tour of Mark Twain's House! 

 

Please call (860) 280-3130 for more information or visit MarkTwainHouse.org.
 

The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America by Amy Chua and Jed Rubenfeld

Thursday, January 29, 7:00 p.m.

 

Publishers Weekly says: "In their provocative new book, Chua (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) and Rubenfeld (The Interpretation of Murder)--Yale Law professors and spouses--show why certain groups in the U.S. perform better than others. According to the authors, three traits breed success: a superiority complex, insecurity, and impulse control. Only when this 'Triple Package' comes together does it 'generate drive, grit, and systematic disproportionate group success.' Supported by statistics and original research....This comprehensive, lucid sociological study balances its findings with a probing look at the downsides of the triple package--the burden of carrying a family's expectations, and deep insecurities that come at a psychological price."

 

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

 

 

R-RATED TWAIN -- Adapted by Jacques Lamarre & Julia Pistell with a special performance of Mark Twain: Ladies Man -- Performed by SEA TEA IMPROV

Saturday, January 31, 7:00 p.m.

The Mark Twain House & Museum spices things up with Mark Twain's most shocking works. This theatrical show will take the audience through the naughtiest puns, poems, parodies, and passages that Mark Twain wrote. Suffice to say the material covered by Twain in these writings is not suitable for most publications, family audiences or polite society.  As Twain said, "There are no people who are quite so vulgar as the over-refined," so the historic house is looking forward to letting its hair down and introducing the public to these hysterical and deliciously deviant lesser-known works.

 

Adults only please. Tickets are $20 / $15 for MTH&M Members. Please call (860) 280-3130. 


 


AND: We're excited that Hal Holbrook will be performing his classic Mark Twain Tonight! as a benefit for The Mark Twain House & Museum 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 performing as Mark Twain for 60 years! Please call (860) 987-5900 or click here.

 

 

 

 
THANK YOU TO OUR NEW & RENEWING    (November 19 through December 18)
 


 

Susan Ballek

Anissa Berasi

John Berman

Janet Booth

Sheree DiMario

Judith Eisenberg

Donald & Kathy Goldstein

Marilyn Guffey

Jeanne Ingle

Terry Kensler

Robert Lages

Carole MacKenzie

 


 

Kathryne Marinchak

William Mitchell

Donald E. Mullins

Robert Mumford

Jody Navitsky

Sally Nolen

Charles O'Brien

Brendan Reilly

R. Douglas & Lynne H. Ross

Barbara Sullivan

Darcy Topper

Katherine Wickham

 


 

  
THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS (November 19 through Dec. 18)
 
INDIVIDUAL 


Judith E. Askey

Timothy F. Bannon

Phillip & Ellen Blumberg

Dr. Sybille Brewer

Howard & Sue Carver

Coleman H. & Jo Champlin Casey

Jason Castonguay

Surendra & Ranjana Chawla

Adam & Cindy Cohen

Dr. William H. Cohn

Alison Coolbrith

Linda R. Cromwell

Ted & Mary Gawlicki

John & Kelly Giamalis

Margo Lynn Hablutzel

William J. & Susan K. Harris

Robert & Darlene Hermann

Gavin Hilgemeier

John & Marcia Hincks

Donald & Jeanne Hochstetler

Steven J. Hoffman

Robert Ignagni & Jen Dolan

Pat & Ann Kenny

Carolyn Lally

Jacques Lamarre & Arthur Galinat

Christopher & Janet Larsen

Frederick & Janet Leonberger

Coleman & Judie Levy

Alfred Maher

K. Patrick & Cathy I. Ober

Lewis P. & Judith C. Parker

Chuck & Carol Paydos

Samuel L. Schrager & Terry Gellin

Jonathan & Beverly Seymour

Barbara Sicherman

Gretchen S. Skelley

Tyler Smith & Lyn Walker

Deborah D. Sprague

Mark Steyn

Timothy & Geraldine Sullivan

Deborah & Jennifer Tarlow

Carolyn D. Vallieres

Judith A. W. Wawro

Brooke & Ted Whittemore

Susan L. Winter

Virginia Wolf


 

INSTITUTIONAL 


Aaron Hollander Fund


 

Berkshire Bank


 

The Hartford


 

The Katharine K. McLane and Henry R. McLane Charitable Trust


 

The Owenoke Foundation


 

The Shulansky Foundation, Inc.


 

Simon Hollander Fund


 

Sorenson-Pearson Family Foundation


 

The William & Alice Mortensen Foundation


 

 

 

  

IN HONOR OF SUSIE FREEDMAN'S BIRTHDAY

 

Ramani & Louise Ayer


 


 


 


 

 

  
 
 Make the most of your donation, be sure to ask your employer about matching gifts.


 

February 12 at 7:00 pm in the Auditorium at Aetna

An Evening with Writer, Actor and Director B.J. Novak


B.J. Novak is an all-around renaissance man--an actor, stand-up comedian, screenwriter, author, and director. He is most widely known for being a writer and co-executive producer of the beloved TV series The Office, in which he also starred.

 

We're pleased to announce that Mr. Novak is coming to Hartford to do a benefit evening for the museum. He will be talking about his life, career, and his recently published book One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories, which includes the short story "The Ghost of Mark Twain."  The event will be followed by a book sale and signing.

 

Tickets make a great holiday gift!  Prices are $30 ($25 for Mark Twain House Members). To purchase tickets, please call (860) 280-3130 or click here.


 

This program is supported by The Hartford.

  

 

 
MARK TWAIN STORE 
WINTER CLEARANCE SALE

30-75% Off Select Merchandise

 

From January 5 to January 26, The Mark Twain House & Museum Store will feature 30% to 75% off a selection ogifts, home d�cor, toys, and apparel.  Stop on by to take part in the after-holiday savings!



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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