“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
Sam & Livy Clemens: Married & Buried in Elmira
Originally posted by: Matt Seybold on February 1, 2017Mark Twain described his Autobiography as an “apparently systemless system…a complete and purposed jumble,” and so it is, though it is not wholly without method. Over the course of its composition Twain relied...
Put The Reader Through Hell: In Memory of Toni Morrison, Twain Scholar
Originally posted by: Matt Seybold on August 6, 2019 Toni Morrison died today. It addition to being one of the most renowned writers of the past century, Morrison was an incisive critic and passionate reader of Mark Twain’s works. The Twain Studies community of...
On April 21st, Easter Sunday…
Originally posted by: Matt Seybold on April 21, 2019Easter Sunday fell on April 21st in 1867. It seems likely that Samuel Clemens observed the holiday largely alone at the Westminster Hotel. He stood on the precipice of lasting fame. His “Jumping Frog” story had been...
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
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ONLINE RESOURCES
AND INFORMATION PAGES
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THE MARK TWAIN ARCHIVE
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PAST QUARRY FARM FELLOWSHIPS
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KEEP MARK TWAIN’S LEGACY ALIVE
Upcoming Events & Calls for Papers
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