Women's History Month at Twain - Great In-Person Author Events Celebrating Women's Stories Told by Women

Thursday, March 7 at 7pm
Carola Lovering on BYE, BABY: A Novel with Bridget Quinn (In-Person)

Every friendship has its shadow...

On a brisk fall night in a New York apartment, 35-year-old Billie West hears terrified screams. It's her lifelong best friend Cassie Barnwell, one floor above, and she's just realized her infant daughter has gone missing. Billie is shaken as she looks down into her own arms to see the baby, remembering—with a jolt of fear—that she is responsible for the kidnapping that has instantly shattered Cassie’s world.

Once fiercely bonded by their secrets, Cassie and Billie have drifted apart in adulthood, no longer the inseparable pair they used to be in their small Hudson Valley hometown. Billie knows the worst thing Cassie has ever done, and she will do whatever it takes to restore their friendship…

Told in alternating perspectives in Lovering’s signature suspenseful style, Bye, Baby confronts the myriad ways friendships change and evolve over time, the lingering echoes of childhood trauma, and the impact of women’s choices on their lifelong relationships.

In-Person Event: $10 for non-members, free for MTH&M Members (please login to access your discount). 

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Friday, March 8 at 8pm & Saturday, March 9 at 2pm
HartBeat Ensemble presents a staged reading of WOODHULL/BEECHER, a new play by Leslie Gabel-Brett.
Carriage House Theatre, 360 Farmington Avenue, Hartford; directly across the street from The Mark Twain House & Museum.

This staged reading features pits Victoria Woodhull--who opened a stock brokerage in New York City, campaigned against marriage and for free love, and ran for president of the United States--and the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, a world famous orator and abolitionist and brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe. The story of how their lives intersected is a story of ambition, sex and gender and about whose version of the truth could be told and believed in America 150 years ago...or today. The Saturday matinee performance will be followed by a conversation with the playwright.

Tickets: $10. LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Note: This is not a Mark Twain House & Museum event, but please visit us before the show! Parking available in our lot.

Celebrate Women's History Month with Great Women Writers

Tuesday, March 12 at 7pm ET
Barbara Weisberg on STRONG PASSIONS: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York with Bill Shaffer (In-Person)

Shocking revelations of a wife’s adultery explode in an incendiary nineteenth-century trial, exposing upper-crust New York society and its secrets.

What could possibly go wrong in a wealthy matriarch’s country home when her dilettante son, his restless wife, and his widowed brother live there together? Strong Passions, rooted in the beguiling times of Twain's Gilded Age, recounts the true story of a tumultuous marriage. In 1862, Mary Strong stunned her husband, Peter, by confessing to a two-year affair with his brother. Peter sued Mary for divorce for adultery?the only grounds in New York?but not before she accused him of forcing her into an abortion and having his own affair with the abortionist. She then kidnapped their young daughter and disappeared.

The divorce trial Strong v. Strong riveted the nation during the final throes and aftermath of the Civil War, offering a shocking glimpse into the private world of New York’s powerful and privileged elite. Barbara Weisberg presents the chaotic courtroom and panoply of witnesses?governess, housekeeper, private detective, sisters-in-law, and many others?who provided contradictory and often salacious testimony. She then asks us to be the jury, deciding each spouse’s guilt and the possibility of a just resolution.

In-Person Event: $10 for non-members, free for MTH&M Members (please login to access your discount). 

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Friday, March 22 at 7pm
SPIRITED WOMEN: HEATHER WEBB & ALLISON PATAKI in Conversation (In-Person)

With “Spirited Women”, The Mark Twain House & Museum sets out to explore trailblazing and adventurous women—as chronicled in two new novels—who claim their power by any means necessary. Queens of London is a tale of the dark glamour and sisterhood of Britain’s first female crime syndicate, and how they managed the ever-shifting meaning of justice. Finding Margaret Fuller is a story, with a star-studded cast and sweeping, epic historical events, about a woman who transcended the rigid roles ascribed to women and changed history, all on her own terms.

Admission with one book (pick up at event): $45 for non-members, $40 for MTH&M Members. General admission (no books): $10 for non-members, free for MTH&M Members. 

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE

Thursday, March 28 at 7pm
Jamie Figueroa on MOTHER ISLAND: A Daughter Claims Puerto Rico with Susanne Pari (In-Person)

In prose that draws from Puerto Rican folklore and mythology, a literary lineage of women writers of color, and narratives of identity, Jamie Figueroa presents a cultural coming-of-age story. Mother Island gets to the heart of the question: Who do we become when we are no longer trying to be someone else? In a journey that takes her to Puerto Rico and back, Figueroa looks to her ancestors to reimagine her relationship to the past and to her mother’s native island, reaching beyond her own mother into a greater experience of mothering and claiming herself.

In-Person Event: $10 for non-members, free for MTH&M and community members (Members please login to access your discount). 

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Winter Sale in Our Store!

Looking for a unique gift for yourself or others AND want an amazing deal? Look no further than The Mark Twain Museum Store's Winter Sale. Select items, including jewelry, decor and museum exclusives, are on sale now at a deep discount. CLICK HERE to view the Winter Sale items!

While you are visiting our online store, if you spend $50 or more site-wide, you will receive a FREE stationery gift with purchase. CLICK HERE to visit The Mark Twain House Store.

Deadline Approaches

Each summer, young writers gather at The Mark Twain House & Museum to participate in the Nook Farm Writers Collaborative, producing a new issue of the Collaborative's magazine, Journey 75. This year, the Collaborative is excited to publish its first winter issue with a writing contest open to all CT students grades 9-12. We welcome submissions in three categories: poetry, flash fiction, and micro-memoir. All winning submissions will be published in the online magazine and in hard copy. There will also be a $100 prize given for the best piece in each category. Students can learn more and enter by CLICKING HERE.

Upcoming Events:

V = Virtual Event; IP = In-Person Event

March 7 - Bye, Baby - A Novel with Carola Lovering (IP)

March 12 - Strong Passions: A Scandalous Divorce in Old New York with Barbara Weisberg (IP)

March 16 - Pararnomal Investigation of The Mark Twain House & Museum with Ghost Hunter Adam Berry: SOLD OUT.

March 22 - Spirited Women: Queens of London and Finding Margaret Fuller with Heather Webb and Alison Pataki (In-Person)

March 26 - Dayswork: A Novel with Jennifer Habel and Chris Bachelder (V)

March 28 - Mother Island: A Daughter Claims Puerto Rico with Jamie Figueroa (IP)

April 2 - The Rise and Fall of the Second American Republic: Reconstruction 1860-1920 with Manisha Sinha (V)

April 23 - THE TROUBLE BEGINS: All Things William Gillette with Paul Schiller (IP & V)

April 27 - Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours (IP)

June 30 - THE TROUBLE BEGINS: The Twain of Our Republic and The Lincoln of Our Literature with Jason H. Silverman (V)

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