“We are perched on a hill top that overlooks a little world of green valleys, shining rivers, sumptuous forests and billowy uplands veiled in the haze of distance. We have no neighbors. It is the quietest of all quiet places, and we are hermits that eschew caves and live in the sun.”
~ Mark Twain
ABOUT THE CENTER FOR MARK TWAIN STUDIES
Mark Twain wrote his most famous works in an octagonal study overlooking Elmira, NY, the hometown of his wife, Olivia. For more than two decades the Clemens family summered with Olivia’s siblings at Quarry Farm. All are buried at the nearby Woodlawn Cemetery. In 1983, both Quarry Farm and the study, since relocated to the Elmira College campus, became part of the Center for Mark Twain Studies. CMTS is dedicated to serving an international community of scholars interested in a approaching Mark Twain Studies from a variety of different approaches and disciplines.
RECENT ARTICLES
Quarry Farm Conversation on Twain in the 21st Century Now Available
The 2025 Fall Trouble Begins Lecture Series presented by the Center for Mark Twain Studies (CMTS) continued its lecture series on October 16, 2025. The Trouble Begins and The Park Church Summer Lecture Series are made possible by the support of the Mark Twain...
Driscoll’s Trouble Begins Lecture Now Available
The 2025 Fall Trouble Begins Lecture Series presented by the Center for Mark Twain Studies (CMTS) continued its lecture series on October 15, 2025. The Trouble Begins and The Park Church Summer Lecture Series are made possible by the support of the Mark Twain...
Driscoll Continues the 2025 Fall Trouble Begins Lecture Series
The 2025 Fall Trouble Begins Lecture Series presented by the Center for Mark Twain Studies (CMTS) begins at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, October 15 in the Quarry Farm Performance Barn, Located at 131 Crane Road, Elmira, the lectures are free and open to the public and...
2026 QUARRY FARM FELLOWSHIP GUIDELINES
VISITING THE MARK TWAIN STUDY
2025 Fall Trouble Begins Lectures
“ENERGY STUDIES”
TWELFTH QUARRY FARM SYMPOSIUM
MARK TWAIN DAY BY DAY
TROUBLE BEGINS
LECTURE ARCHIVES
ONLINE RESOURCES
AND INFORMATION PAGES
FOR MARK TWAIN STUDIES
THE MARK TWAIN ARCHIVE
PHOTO GALLERY
RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS & STUDENTS
PAST QUARRY FARM FELLOWSHIPS
“FROM THE STUDY”
CMTS POST INDEX
PAST CONFERENCES & SYMPOSIA
KEEP MARK TWAIN’S LEGACY ALIVE
Upcoming Events & Calls for Papers
CFP: “Stowe in Context & Conversation: Understanding Harriet Beecher Stowe in her historical context and ours”
Stowe Center for Literary Activism and Special Issue of New England Quarterly
CFP Deadline: October 17, 2025
CFP: “Formats and Institutions of American Literary Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century”
The volume is projected to appear in 2027 in the ANGLIA book series published by De Gruyter (Berlin)
CFP Deadline: October 31, 2025
Mark Twain Panel at 2025 South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference
November 6-8, 2025 – Atlanta, Georgia
CFP: “Periodicals, Period: Humor and Nineteenth-Century American Newspapers and Magazines”
Special Issue of Studies in American Humor
CFP Deadline: January 1, 2026
Upcoming Fellowship Opportunities at
American Antiquarian Society
Application Deadline: January 15, 2026
CFP: “Mark Twain and Adaptation” Paper Panel at PAMLA
November 20-23, 2026 – San Francisco, California
CFP Deadline: “First Come, First Serve” Basis
CFP: W.D. Howells Society Panels at
2026 ALA Conference
May 20-23, 2026 – Chicago, Illinois
CFP Deadline: January 19, 2026
“Twainian Regeneration: Adaptations of the Works, Life, and Legacy of Mark Twain” at NEMLA
2026 Northeast Modern Language Association Conference
Pittsburgh, PA – March 5-8, 2026