“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
The Invisible Home of Frederick Douglass, John W. Jones, & Mark Twain with Jill Spivey Caddell & Shirley Samuels
Originally posted by: Center for Mark Twain Studies on August 6, 2021Apple | Spotify | Google | Stitcher | TuneIn | CastBox | ListenNotesTo put an exclamation point on Emancipation Week, we offer this special episode of The American Vandal Podcast focused on the...
Even If He Weren’t My Friend: Frederick Douglass & Mark Twain
The following essay is published as part of Emancipation Week, alongside Frederick Douglass’s 1880 speech, “The Lessons of Emancipation to a New Generation,”delivered as part of Emancipation Day celebrations in Elmira, NY. In the following essay, Dr. Seybold assembles...
The Lessons of Emancipation To The New Generation
This following speech was delivered at “Hoffman’s Grove” (which is now called Grove Park) in Elmira on August 3rd, 1880, as part of a celebration of the August 1st anniversary of the adoption of the British Slavery Abolition Act in the West Indies, and the...
2027 QUARRY FARM FELLOWSHIP GUIDELINES
VISITING THE MARK TWAIN STUDY
2026 PARK CHURCH SUMMER LECTURES
Elmira 2026: The Tenth International Conference
on the State of Mark Twain Studies & Graduate Student Workshop
MARK TWAIN DAY BY DAY
TROUBLE BEGINS
LECTURE ARCHIVES
ONLINE RESOURCES
FOR MARK TWAIN STUDIES
THE MARK TWAIN ARCHIVE
PHOTO GALLERY
RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS & STUDENTS
QUARRY FARM TESTIMONIALS
“FROM THE STUDY”
CMTS POST INDEX
PAST CONFERENCES & SYMPOSIA
KEEP MARK TWAIN’S LEGACY ALIVE
Upcoming Events & Calls for Papers
CFP: ALA Symposium on the American Novel
CFP Deadline – July 20, 2026
November 5-7, 2026 – Sante Fe, New Mexico
Elmira 2026: The Tenth International Conference
on the State of Mark Twain Studies
July 30 – August 1 – Elmira, New York
The Second Quarry Farm Graduate Student Workshop: From Seminar Paper to Academic Article”
August 3 – August 7 – Elmira, New York
CFP: The Thirteenth Quarry Farm Symposium –
“Black Childhood and Children’s Literature in the Nineteenth Century”
October 16 and October 17 – Elmira, New York
Accepting applictions until roster is filled
Mark Twain Circle at 2026 PAMLA Conference
November 12-15, 2026 – Seattle, Washington