Tuesday, March 21 at 7pm ET - Author Sabrina Orah Mark on HAPPILY: A Personal History With Fairy Tales with Charter Oak Cultural Center Executive Director Rabbi Donna Berman, PhD (Virtual)

Based on her acclaimed Paris Review column “Happily,” Sabrina Orah Mark will discuss her new memoir-in-essays which reimagines the modern fairy tale, turning it inside out and searching it for the wisdom to better understand our contemporary moment. She grapples with a loss of innocence of her son in “Sorry, Peter Pan, We’re Over You;” an unlikely communion with wicked wives and the roots of their bad reputation in “The Evil Stepmother;” and the hunt for a wigmaker in a time of unprecedented civil unrest in “Rapunzel, Draft One Thousand.” Set against the backdrop of our current age of upheaval, Mark locates the magic in the mundane and illuminates the surreality of life as we know it today. 

Virtual: $5 non-members and members. LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE. 

Thursday, March 23 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm - Join us for the in-person opening of FOR BUSINESS OR PLEASURE? TWAIN'S SUMMER SOJOURNS - Free In-Person Event!

Summer getaways were a favorite of the Clemens family. Follow their adventures as they hit the road to Elmira, NY; Old Saybrook, CT; Dublin, NH; and more! This informative and artifact-rich exhibition will include Twain items and glimpses of how the rich (and not so rich) enjoyed their summers in The Gilded Age.

In addition to this comprehensive and fun exhibition, we will be offering For Business or Pleasure?-related programming throughout the year. Our first event, a Paint & Sip Night, is on sale now. Information below!

This fun and durable travel mug not only keeps your coffee or tea piping hot, it has a handy map directing you to The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford.

The Mark Twain Store is having a March Madness sale with museum members receiving 25% off all purchases except books and sale items. We have a wide array of items ranging from custom items, houseware, apparel, jewelry, gifts, and, of course, special items for the Twainiac in your life. Visit our online store and enter your membership information to receive the discount.

Not a member? CLICK HERE to join and receive wonderful benefits including free house tours and access to wonderful members-only opportunities.

Visit The Mark Twain Store

Mark Twain, 1867: "I think I could write a pretty strong argument in favor of female suffrage, but I do not want to do it. I never want to see women voting, and gabbling about politics, and electioneering. There is something revolting in the thought."

Click through to read more and share your thoughts. https://marktwainhouse.org/sams-shorts/#short

Coming Next

journey to become the man who saved Yosemite

Tuesday, March 28 at 7pm ET - Dean King on GUARDIANS OF THE VALLEY: John Muir and the Friendship That Saved Yosemite with MTH&M's Rebecca Floyd (Virtual)

In June of 1889, John Muir meets face-to-face for the first time with his longtime editor Robert Underwood Johnson. Before long, the pair decide to venture to Yosemite Valley—the magnificent site where twenty years earlier, Muir experienced an awakening that would set the course of the rest of his life. Upon their arrival the men are confronted with a shocking vision: the defacement of “the grandest of all the special temples of Nature” by private industry. The story of the pact they form to fight back, told in Guardians of the Valley, is a timely and powerful “origin story” as the toweringly complex environmental challenges we face today become increasingly urgent.  

$5 per stream. LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Literary Hub and BookPage Most Anticipated Book of 2023

Thursday, March 30 at 12pm - A Lunchtime Conversation with Oliver Darkshire on ONCE UPON A TOME: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller (Virtual)

Once Upon a Tome is the colorful story of life in one of the world’s oldest bookshops, Henry Sotheran Ltd (est. 1761). Oliver Darkshire describes Sotheran’s brushes with history (Dickens, the Titanic), its joyous disorganization, and the unspoken rules of its gleefully old-fashioned staff, whose mere glance may cause the computer to burst into flames. Darkshire shares trivia about ancient editions and explores the strange space that books occupy in our lives—where old books often have strong sentimental value, but rarely a commercial one. Once Upon a Tome is love letter to the benign, unruly world of antiquarian bookselling, where to be uncommon or strange is the best possible compliment. 

$5 per stream. LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Thursday, April 13 at 6pm ET - PAINT & SIP NIGHT with Artist Julie Phillipps (In-Person)

The Clemens family spent two summers at artist colonies in the mountains – one at the Onteora Club in the Catskills, and one on the slopes of Mount Monadnock in Dublin, New Hampshire. The family’s circle of friends at both locations included well-known artists such as, Abbott Thayer, J. Carroll Beckwith, and Candace Wheeler.

Join the Mark Twain House and Julie Phillipps for an evening of art and cocktails. Tickets include supplies and instruction to paint a watercolor raven and two cocktail-tasting drink tickets. Additional cocktails can be purchased from the bar.

The cocktails served this evening will be a part of our “Hartford on the Rocks” mixology competition; winners to be announced at our October 19th Literary Cocktail Night.

This is one of many For Business or Pleasure events happening this year. Keep an eye on our website for more information.

In-Person Event! $50 / $45 for MTH&M Members. LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Come Visit!

Plan your visit to America's Best House Museum (Forbes Magazine, 2021) by CLICKING HERE.

PLEASE NOTE: The museum will be closed on Tuesdays through March. We will be open all other days from 9:30am to 4:30pm, with the final tour of the day stepping off at 3:15pm.

Upcoming Events

V = Virtual Event; IP = In-Person Event

March 21 - Happily: A Personal History -- With Fairy Tales with Sabrina Orah Mark (V)

March 28 - Guardians of the Valley: John Muir and the Friendship that Saved Yosemite with Dean King (V)

March 30 - Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller with Oliver Darkshire (V)

March 31 - Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours of The Mark Twain House (IP)

April 4 - Dispatches from Puerto Nowhere: An American Story of Assimilation and Erasure with Robert Lopez (IP & V)

April 11 - An Assassin in Utopia: The True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Sex Cult and a President's Murder with Susan Wels (V)

April 13 - MTH&M and the American School for the Deaf present After the Miracle: The Political Crusades of Helen Keller with Max Wallace (V)

April 16 - Paint & Sip Night with Artist Julie Phillipps (IP)

April 18 - Must Love Trees: An Unconventional Guide with Tobin Mitnick (V)

April 21 - The Bark Twain Bash...It's the Cat's Meow fundraiser with Kenway's Cause (IP)

April 25 at 12pm - The Unsealing: Gilded Age Love, Lust and Murder with Robert Brighton (V)

April 25 at 7pm - The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho with Paterson Joseph (V)

April 27 at 7pm - Advika and the Hollywood Wives with Kirthana Ramisetti (V)

April 29 starting at 7pm - Get a Clue Murder Mystery Tours with Sea Tea Improv (IP)

More to be announced soon!

To see all event information and registration, CLICK HERE.

To preorder books for our upcoming events, CLICK HERE. Signed books will be mailed after the event. Please note that we cannot ship outside of the U.S. at this time.