We're on the Green; On June 22nd: The Summer of 1876 Out West; Connecticut's Historic Gardens

Deadline is Sunday!

Birdies for Charity 2023
Now Thru June 25, 2023

We're inching toward the 18th hole and are so close to our goal!

Current Total:

$28,773

of $30,000 Fundraising Goal

$25,020 in Donations + $3,753 Bonus Bucks sponsored by Webster Bank

Will you contribute today to The Mark Twain House & Museum through the Birdies for Charity program? We receive an additional 15% of each dollar you give, thanks to Webster Bank's support of the Bonus Bucks Pool. 

Check our progress and tee up your donation by CLICKING HERE. 

Thursday, June 22 at 7pm ET

Chris Wimmer on THE SUMMER OF 1876: Outlaws, Lawmen, and Legends in the Season That Defined the American West with MTH&M's Mallory Howard (Virtual)

From the creator of the “Legends of the Old West” podcast, The Summer of 1876 weaves together the timelines of major events and legends of that pivotal year. It demonstrates the overlapping context of their stories and illustrates the historical importance of that summer, all layered with highlights of significant milestones in 1876, including the release of Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Considered a “lively survey of a watershed historical period and some of its defining figures” by Kirkus Reviews.

Virtual: Free for members. Choose your own price for non-members.

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Saturday, June 24 beginning at 7pm ET

GET A CLUE Murder Mystery Tours of The Mark Twain House (In-Person)

GET A CLUE Tours are offered on special nights at The Mark Twain House & Museum, using the various rooms (secret passageway, conservatory, billiards room, and more) of the Twain house — and some of the author’s favorite literary characters — as part of the game. Who killed that varmint Pap Finn? Was it Tom Sawyer in the Library with the Wrench? Come find out; it is different every time!

Reservations are required, LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Connecticut's Historic Garden Day

Sunday, June 25, 2023 from 12pm to 4pm!

Explore The Mark Twain House & Museum's historic gardens and others throughout the state on Connecticut's Historic Garden Day!

Learn More

Tuesday, June 27 at 7pm ET

Jonathan Eig on KING: A LIFE with Dr. Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar (Virtual)

In this landmark biography, Jonathan Eig reveals a Martin Luther King, Jr. wrestling with his own human frailties and dark moods, a citizen hunted by his own government, and a man determined to fight for justice even if it proved to be a fight to the death. Hailed by the New York Times as “the new definitive biography,” King mixes revelatory new research with accessible storytelling to offer an MLK for our times. This new portrait of the preacher and activist who shook the world gives us an intimate view of the courageous and often emotionally troubled human being who demanded peaceful protest for his movement but was rarely at peace with himself. 

Virtual Event! Free for members. Choose your own price for non-members. 

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE. 

Wednesday, June 28 at 12pm ET –

CLEMENS CONVERSATIONS: Seventeen Summers in a Garden (Virtual)

Although his most famous works were set along the Mississippi River of his childhood, Mark Twain composed those novels while living in Nook Farm, a neighborhood of Hartford full of celebrated literary figures. This program explores what it was like in this vibrant community of authors and activists, whose residents included not only Twain, but also novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe, travel writer and journalist Charles Dudley Warner, Civil War hero and senator Joseph Hawley, and female suffrage campaigner Isabella Beecher ******. It also considers the ways Twain’s decades in Connecticut shaped his writing, family, and social life.

$6.50 per virtual connection, free for museum members.

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

Thursday, June 29 at 7pm:

Harriet Beecher Stowe Center & The MTH&M present Joseph McGill and Herb Frazier on SLEEPING WITH THE ANCESTORS: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery with Dr. Dexter Gabriel (Virtual)

The Mark Twain House & Museum and the Harriet Beecher Stowe House are proud to present a virtual program about Joseph McGill’s personal account of his groundbreaking project to sleep overnight in former slave dwellings that still stand across the country—revealing the fascinating history behind these sites and shedding light on larger issues of race in America. Sleeping with the Ancestors focuses on all of the key sites McGill has visited in his ongoing project and digs deeper into the actual history of each location, using McGill’s own experience and conversations with the community to enhance those original stories. Altogether, McGill and coauthor Herb Frazier give readers an important unexpected emersion into the history of slavery, and especially the obscured and ignored aspects of that history. 

Virtual: Free for members. Choose your own price for non-members. 

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE. 

Just Announced!

"Get a bicycle. You will not regret it. If you live." - Mark Twain, "Taming the Bicycle"

Friday, July 7 at 7pm

Jody Rosen on TWO WHEELS GOOD: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle with Kerri Provost (In-Person)

The bicycle is a vestige of the Victorian era, seemingly at odds with our age of smartphones and ride-sharing apps and driverless cars. Yet we live on a bicycle planet. Across the world, more people travel by bicycle than any other form of transportation. In?Two Wheels Good,?journalist and critic Jody Rosen reshapes our understanding of this ubiquitous machine, an ever-present force in humanity’s life and dream life for more than two hundred years. Combining history, reportage, travelogue, and memoir, Rosen’s book examines the bicycle’s past and peers into its future, challenging myths and clichés while uncovering cycling’s connection to colonial conquest and the gentrification of cities. But the book is also a love letter: a reflection on the sensual and spiritual pleasures of bike riding and an ode to an engineering marvel—a wondrous vehicle whose passenger is also its engine. 

In-Person Event: $10 non-members, $5 members. 

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.?

A Virtual Double-Header on July 11!

Tuesday, July 11 at 12pm

A Lunchtime Conversation with Anya von Bremzen on NATIONAL DISH: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home with Andrew Beahrs (Virtual)

The acclaimed international food writer and award-winning author of Anya von Bremzen explores the history and future of six of the world’s most fascinating and iconic food cultures—France, Italy, Japan, Spain, Mexico, and Turkey—in her new book National Dish. She’ll take us on a fascinating journey to the heart of those storied food traditions, going high and low, from world-famous chefs to people on the street, in search of how cuisine became connected to place. A book of astonishing range and connoisseurship, National Dish peels back the layers of myth, commercialization, and fetishization around these great world cuisines. In so doing, it brings us to a deep appreciation of how the country makes the food, and the food the country. 

Virtual: Choose your own price for non-members. Free for members.

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE. 

Tuesday, July 11 at 7pm ET

Alexandra Petri's U.S. HISTORY: Important American Documents (I Made Up) with Alexandra Petri and Mallory Howard (Virtual)

A witty, absurdist satire of the last five hundred years,?this is the fake textbook you never knew you needed! Alexandra Petri’s US History?contains a lost (invented!) history of America. Petri’s “historical fan fiction” draws on real events and completely absurd fabrications to create a laugh-out-loud, irreverent takedown of our nation’s complicated past. On Petri’s deranged timeline, even Mark Twain—who famously said reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated—offers a detailed account of his undeath, in which he becomes a zombie. This side-splitting work of historical humor shows why Alexandra Petri has been hailed as a “genius,” a “national treasure,” and “one of the funniest writers alive.” 

Virtual: Free for members. Choose your own price for non-members.

LEARN MORE & REGISTER HERE.

A Special Offer from The Bushnell in Hartford

All rise for Academy Award® winner Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning masterwork. The New York Times Critic’s Pick TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD is “the most successful American play in Broadway history” (60 Minutes). New York Magazine calls it “a real phenomenon. Majestic and incandescent, it’s filled with breath and nuance and soul.” With direction by Tony Award® winner Bartlett Sher, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD — “the greatest novel of all time” (Chicago Tribune) — has quickly become “one of the greatest plays in history” (NPR). Emmy Award®-winning actor Richard Thomas plays the role of Atticus Finch in the National Tour.

Use code HARPERLEE to access $20 off* select seats to Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird at The Bushnell, June 27 - July 2. To access tickets with your code, CLICK HERE.

*Offer does not include Saturday matinee, Saturday evening or Sunday matinee performances. Plus applicable fees. No refunds or exchanges on previously purchased tickets.

Upcoming Events

V = Virtual Event; IP = In-Person Event

Thursday, June 22 at 7pm - The Summer of 1876: Outlaws, Lawmen, and Legends of The Season That Defined the American West with Chris Wimmer (V)

Saturday, June 24 - Get a CLUE Tours of The Mark Twain House (IP)

Sunday, June 25, 12pm to 4pm - Connecticut Historic Gardens Day (IP)

Tuesday, June 27 at 7pm - King: A Life with Jonathan Eig (V)

Wednesday, June 28 at 12pm - CLEMENS CONVERSATIONS: Seventeen Summers in a Garden (V)

Thursday, June 29 at 7pm - Sleeping with the Ancestors: How I Followed the Footprints of Slavery with Joseph McGill and Herb Frasier (V)

Friday, July 7 at 7pm - Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle with Jody Rosen (IP)

Tuesday, July 11 at 12pm - National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home with Anya von Bremzen

Tuesday, July 11 at 7pm - Alexandra Petri's American History: Important American Documents (I Made Up) with Alexandra Petri (V)

Wednesday, July 12 at 12pm - CLEMENS CONVERSATIONS: How to Reform a Conscience (V)

Thursday, July 13 at 7pm - Under the Eye of Power: How Fear of Secret Societies Shapes American Democracy with Colin Dickey (V)

Tuesday, July 18 at 7pm - The Parrot and the Igloo: Climate and the Science of Denial with David Lipsky (V)

Thursday, July 20 at 12pm - Nobody's Fool: Why We Get Taken In and What We Can Do About It with Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris (V)

Friday, July 21 at 7pm - The He-Man Effect: How American Toymakers Sold You Your Childhood with Brian "Box" Brown

Saturday, July 29 - Get a CLUE Tours of The Mark Twain House (IP)

September 23 - The Bark Twain Bash...It's the Cat's Meow fundraiser with Kenway's Cause (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.

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!

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