2018: The Year In Review

There are big changes coming to MarkTwainStudies.org in the early months of 2019, but for now we look back on 2018, which was another busy year at the Center for Mark Twain Studies. Here are a few of our most popular posts.

January

150 Years Ago Mark Twain Celebrated New Years Eve By Debating How Drunk He Had Been During The Preceding Year & Listening To Charles Dickens Read David Copperfield With His Future Wife by Matt Seybold

The sesquicentenniaries are coming in fast, starting with the first meeting between Samuel and Olivia Clemens.

March

When Will We Listen? Mark Twain Through The Lenses of Generation Z by Jocelyn Chadwick

21st-Century Students Respond To Sensitive Texts by Jocelyn Chadwick & John Grassie

Jocelyn Chadwick, of NCTE and Harvard School of Education, responds to the most recent controversies over Huckleberry Finn in secondary school curriculums and also premieres part of documentary project about how contemporary students respond to reading Mark Twain.

Travelin’ Man by Ron Powers

The award-winning critic, historian, and Twain biographer returned to Elmira to put an exclamation point on our Spring lecture series.

April

Building A Model of Huck & Jim’s Raft by Peter G. Beidler

A fascinating supplement to Dr. Beidler’s acclaimed new book, Rafts & Other Rivercraft in Huckleberry Finn (U. Missouri Press).

May

The Legacy of Lawrence I. Berkove by Joe Csicsila

Following the passing of a beloved Twain scholar, the Mark Twain Journal generously allowed us to reprint this tribute from one of his students and collaborators.

June

Quarry Farm's new rug

Quarry Farm Carpet Leaves For Thirty Years, Goes To Turkey, & Comes Back Home by Frances Millard

This carpet, older than the State of California, was worn bare by the feet of long-dead literary luminaries, abolitionist ministers, fugitive slaves, and four generations of Langdons, Clemenses, and Cranes, until, in 1988, it was in danger of dissolving underfoot. A tremendous story of restoration and patronage.

July

The Calculated Incivility of Anson Burlingame, The Only Congressman Mark Twain Could Tolerate by Matt Seybold

One of our most popular posts of the year features a nearly forgotten abolitionist icon who Twain befriended and idolized.

August

2018 Undergraduate Quarry Farm Fellows Interview Filmmakers Aaron & Adam Nee About Their Adaptation of Tom Sawyer by Mona Beydoun & Samantha DeRosia

Our first class of undergraduate fellows went deep on one of the most entertaining contemporary adaptations of Twain’s work.

September

A current plaque outside the kitchen at Quarry Farm recognizes the generosity of local donors to our last preservation campaign, in 1983!

150 Years of Mark Twain in Elmira: Dickens Holidays, The Gospel of Revolt, & The Quarry Farm Style by Matt Seybold

At the sesquicentennial celebration of Twain’s first visit to Elmira we also launched the Quarry Farm Legacy Preservation Campaign.

October

Quarry Farm Symposium Poster

2018 Quarry Farm Symposium: American Literary History & Economics In The New Gilded Age

Most of the proceedings from our semi-annual weekend symposium are available to read or listen to in our archives.

Virtual Tour of Quarry Farm, Mark Twain Study, & Woodlawn Gravesite by David Coleman

This year’s updates to our popular virtual tour, created by SmallTown360, include the family plot at Woodlawn Cemetery and interactive objects.

Happy Halloween!: Twain’s Favorite Ghost Story & Twain Speaks From The Netherworld by Dwayne Eutsey

A spooky investigation of “The Golden Arm.”

November

The Apocryphal Twain: “Politicians Are Like Diapers.” by Matt Seybold

An Election Day edition of the series which reached over 32,000 readers in 2018 alone.

New Documentary Focuses on Twain’s Time in Buffalo by Thomas Reigstad

Dr. Reigstad shares footage and feedback from a new documentary based on his book.

Look forward to much more in 2019!