2022 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award Winner Announced!

Out of 60 eligible titles published in 2021 submitted for consideration this year and after months of deliberation, The Mark Twain House & Museum is excited to announce Dawnie Walton's THE FINAL REVIVAL OF OPAL & NEV as The 2022 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award Winner!  

The 2022 Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award (MTAVL) honors an exemplary work of fiction from the previous calendar year that speaks with a distinctly  American voice about uiquely American experiences, much like Twain’s masterwork, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Join MTAVL sponsors David Baldacci and Bank of America as we honor Dawnie Walton at The Mark Twain Museum Center on Friday, November 4 at 6pm for the American Voice Award Celebration. We will have a sumptuous multi-course gourmet meal, hear remarks by New York Times-bestselling author David Baldacci, and enjoy a reading by Dawnie Walton.

For more information & to RSVP, visit: MarkTwainHouse.org/MTAVLCelebration/

Monday, October 24 at 7pm ET - CALLING THE SPIRITS: A History of Seances with Lisa Morton and MTH&M's Dr. Erin Bartram (Virtual)

Calling the Spirits?investigates the eerie history of our conversations with the dead, from necromancy in Homer’s?Odyssey?to the emergence of Spiritualism—when Victorians were entranced by mediums and the seance was born. Among our cast are the Fox sisters, teenagers surrounded by “spirit rappings”; Daniel Dunglas Home, the “greatest medium of all time”; Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whose unlikely friendship was forged, then riven, by the afterlife; and Helen Duncan, the medium whose trial in 1944 for witchcraft proved more popular to the public than news about the war. The book also considers Ouija boards, modern psychics, and paranormal investigations, and is illustrated with engravings, fine art (from beyond), and photographs. Hugely entertaining, it begs the question: is anybody there . . . ?

FREE virtual event! LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Tuesday, October 25 at 7pm ET - STAY TRUE: A Memoir with Hua Hsu and Juhea Kim (Virtual)

From The New Yorker staff writer Hua Hsu, STAY TRUE is a memoir on friendship and grief.?At eighteen years old, Hua became friends with Ken—even though the only thing they had in common was that American culture doesn’t seem to have a place for either of them. Their friendship blossomed over three years until it came to a sudden stop with the death of Ken during a carjacking.?Determined to hold on to all that was left of one of his closest friends—his memories—Hua turned to writing. STAY TRUE is the book he’s been working on ever since. 

FREE Virtual Event! LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE. 

Thursday, October 27 at 7pm ET - TESLA AT WAR: The Genius, the Particle Beam Weapon, and the Pursuit of Power with Marc J. Seifer and Cynthia von Buhler (Virtual) 

Marc J. Seifer, author of the award-winning international bestseller?WIZARD: The Life & Times of Nikola Tesla, delves deeper into the groundbreaking ideas and astonishing mind of one of the greatest geniuses of modern times with author and artist Cynthia von Buhler (MINKY WOODCOCK: The Girl Who Electrified Tesla).

Drawing on forty years of research and a treasure trove of new information,?Tesla: Wizard at War?provides a comprehensive view of Tesla’s discoveries, which continue to influence today’s military technology and diplomatic strategies. One of the world’s leading Tesla experts, Marc J. Seifer offers new insight into the brilliant scientist’s particle beam weapon (aka the “Death Ray”) and explores his military negotiations with pivotal historical figures—including his links to Joseph Stalin, Vannevar Bush, General Andrew McNaughton, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

FREE virtual event! LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE. 

10pm Tours Added by Popular Demand

Due To Overwhelming Demand We've Added 10pm Tours On Select Dates!!!

GRAVEYARD SHIFT GHOST TOURS of The Mark Twain House are on sale NOW! These hour-long journeys into the Twain House are filled with haunted family history, Victorian traditions surrounding Spiritualism and death, and stories of unexplained phenomena. Come discover where SyFy's "Ghost Hunters" did three investigations of this National Historic Landmark!

Register Here!

Next Week

Tuesday, November 1 at 7pm ET: The MTH&M and Amistad Center for Art & Culture present BEATRICE'S LEDGER: Coming of Age in the Jim Crow South (In-Person Event)

The Mark Twain House & Museum and the Amistad Center for Art & Culture are proud to present an in-person event with local authors and scholars (and mother and daughter!) Dr. Ruth Martin and Dr. Vivian Martin discussing Ruth’s new memoir BEATRICE’S LEDGER: GROWING UP IN THE JIM CROW SOUTH with UCONN History Professor Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar. Rounding out this family affair will be a special musical performance by Maxine Martin.

In?Beatrice’s Ledger, Ruth R. Martin brings to life the stories behind her mother’s entries in a well-worn ledger, from financial transactions to important details about her family’s daily struggle to survive in Smoaks, South Carolina, a small town sixty miles outside of Charleston. Once the land of plantations, slavery, and cotton, by the time Ruth was born in 1930 many of the plantations were gone but the cotton remained. Ruth’s family made a living working the land, and her father owned a local grist and sawmill used by Black and white residents in the area. The family worked hard, but life was often difficult, and Ruth offers rich descriptions of the sometimes-perilous existence of a Black family living in rural South Carolina at mid-century.

Tickets only $5! In-Person Event. LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Thursday, November 3 at 7pm ET - RETAIL GANGSTER - The INSANE, Real-Life Story of CRAZY EDDIE with Gary Weiss and Dan Haar (Virtual)

Before Enron, before Madoff, before?The Wolf of Wall Street, "Crazy Eddie" Antar’s corruption was second to none. The difference was that it was a street franchise, a local place that was in the bloodstream of everyone’s daily life in the 1970s and early ’80s. And Eddie pulled it off with a certain style, an in-your-face blue collar chutzpah. Despite the fact that then U.S. Attorney Michael Chertoff called him “the Darth Vader of capitalism” after the extent of the fraud was revealed, one of the largest SEC frauds in American history after Crazy Eddie’s stores went public in 1984, Eddie was talked about fondly by the people who worked for him. They still do–there are myriads of ex-Crazy Eddie employee web pages that still attract fans, and the Crazy Eddie fraud scheme is now taught in every business school across the United States.?

You'd be INSANE to miss this FREE virtual event! LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Book Your Visit!

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

Upcoming Events

V = Virtual Event; IP = In-Person Event

October 24 - Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances with Lisa Morton (V)

October 25 - Stay True - A Memoir by Hua Hsu (V)

October 27 - Tesla: Wizard at War -The Genius, The Particle Beam Weapon, and the Pursuit of Power with Marc J. Seifer (V)

November 1 - MTH&M and Amistad Center present Beatrice's Ledger: Growing Up in the Jim Crow South with Dr. Ruth Martin and Dr. Vivian Martin (IP)

November 3 - Retail Gangster: The INSANE, Real-Life Story of CRAZY EDDIE with Gary Weiss (V)

November 4 - Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award Celebration (IP)

November 7 - My Government Means to Kill Me with Rasheed Newson (V)

November 8 - Virtual Gallery Talk with Printmakers' Network of Southern New England (V)

November 10 - H.W. Brands on The Last Campaign: Sherman, Geronimo and the War for America (V)

November 15 - This Victorian Life: Modern Adventures in Nineteenth-century Culture, Cooking, Fashion, and Technology with Sarah and Gabriel Chrisman (V)

November 17 - The MTH&M and the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum present a lunchtime conversation with Women of the American West with Katie Hickman and April White (V)

November 29 - Amistad Center & MTH&M present The Grimkes: The Legacy of Slavery in an American Family with Kerri K. Greenidge (V)

December 1 - Amistad Center & MTH&M present Radical Lives: Four Abolitionists with Linda Hirshman and Lydia Moland (V)

December 7 - The Trouble Begins at Home: Susy Clemens' Final Years (V)

December 8 - Requiem for the Massacre: A Black History on the Conflict, Hope, and Fallout of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre with RJ Young (V)

December 12 - Peniel E. Joseph on The Third Reconstruction: America's Struggle for Racial Justice in the Twenty-First Century (V)

December 13 - The Magi: Who They Were, How They've Been Remembered, and Why They Still Fascinate with Eric Vanden Eykel (V)

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.

Your donation to The Mark Twain House & Museum helps us meet our mission to preserve the home and legacy of Mark Twain. Thank you for your generosity!

Support the House

Author programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are sponsored by Connecticut Public Broadcasting and the Wish You Well Foundation. Virtual author programs are supported by Suzanne Hopgood in the memory of former MTH&M Trustee Frank Lord.

Programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are made possible in part by support from CT Humanities; the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts; Ensworth Charitable Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee; the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign; The Hartford; The Mark Twain Foundation; The National Endowment for the Humanities; and Travelers.