Tag: Samuel Clemens

The Best Defense is a Good Offense: False Virtue, Fake News, & Mark Twain’s Birthday Roast of Ben Franklin

Posted on by Matt Seybold

On this date in 1856, Samuel Clemens, at barely twenty years of age, gave what was likely the first of the improvised comedic toasts for which he would, as Mark Twain, become widely renowned. The occasion was an impromptu celebration of the sesquicentennial of Benjamin Franklin’s birth. As the Keokuck Daily Gate City reported it, a group of local printers, including Orion Clemens, who ran the Ben Franklin Book & Job Office, […]

Mark Twain: Lovesick at Christmas

Posted on by Matt Seybold

On December 18, 1868, Mark Twain resumed his “American Vandals” lecture tour after the briefest respite. He had traveled overnight and throughout the day to arrive in Elmira following a performance in Scranton. Less than 24 hours later he boarded the first in the series of trains which would make a circuitous day-long journey to Fort Plain, where he was scheduled to appear on the evening of the 19th. There were […]

Upcoming Dates for Hal Holbrook’s Mark Twain Tonight!

Posted on by Matt Seybold

As Hal Holbrook is quick to point out, he has been Mark Twain for longer than Mark Twain was. Holbrook premiered Mark Twain Tonight! in 1954. He has been performing a constantly evolving version of the show for over sixty years. Samuel Clemens bore his eponymous alter ego for less than fifty. Holbrook, who will turn 92 in February, will visit the following select cities over the next six months. […]

Mark Twain, Gore Vidal, & The Nadirs of U.S. Electoral History

Posted on by Matt Seybold

“History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”                                                               – The Apocryphal Twain In November 1973, Gore Vidal’s Burr debuted at #4 on the NYT Best Seller List. The novel spent the next 39 weeks in the top ten, including 21 […]

Judith Yaross Lee to Conclude the Fall 2016 “Trouble Begins at Eight” Series

Posted on by Joe Lemak

Samuel L. Clemens pioneered a modern understanding of the new information economy emerging in the U.S. in the years after the Civil War because he understood and marketed Mark Twain as a brand-name comic commodity. Judith Yaross Lee explains how Clemens managed the Mark Twain brand by extending it to some activities, excluding it from others, and exploiting its modern conception of the self in his public performances.   Judith […]

Mark Twain’s Personal Style Subject of Lecture by Martin Zehr

Posted on by Matt Seybold

The Trouble Begins at Eight lecture series continues on Wednesday at Quarry Farm with a lecture by Martin Zehr entitled “Dressing for Success: Mark Twain Fashions an Image to Suit His Disguise. While famous for the attention-getting white linen suits he donned in his later years, Mark Twain was aware of the functional value of outer coverings throughout his life. A survey of Sam Clemens’s wardrobe choices underscores his sensitivity […]

Fireplace Tiles at Quarry Farm Inspire Storytelling

Posted on by Aaron Kather

The parlor of Quarry Farm has a fireplace decorated with antique ceramic tiles based on Aesop’s Fables. The tile framed fireplace is a striking feature of the house that is often commented on by visitors. Much as he did with the bric-a-brac atop the mantel at their home in Hartford, Samuel Clemens would weave a tale for his daughters each night, inspired by the scenes on the tiles they chose. […]