Highlights
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, one of America¿s greatest and most popular novelists, made his family home in Hartford, Connecticut starting in 1871. Best known by his pen name Mark Twain and for his keen wit and satirical bent, he was the author of ¿Adventures of Huckleberry Finn¿, ¿The Adventures of Tom Sawyer¿ and ¿Roughing It.¿ He published more than 30 books and hundreds of short stories and was a well-known figure in political, literary and artistic circles. For the first few years the Clemenses rented a house in the heart of Nook Farm, a residential area that was home to numerous writers, publishers and other prominent figures. In 1873, Sam's focus turned toward social criticism. He and Har...
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, one of America¿s greatest and most popular novelists, made his family home in Hartford, Connecticut starting in 1871. Best known by his pen name Mark Twain and for his keen wit and satirical bent, he was the author of ¿Adventures of Huckleberry Finn¿, ¿The Adventures of Tom Sawyer¿ and ¿Roughing It.¿ He published more than 30 books and hundreds of short stories and was a well-known figure in political, literary and artistic circles. For the first few years the Clemenses rented a house in the heart of Nook Farm, a residential area that was home to numerous writers, publishers and other prominent figures. In 1873, Sam's focus turned toward social criticism. He and Hartford Courant publisher Charles Dudley Warner co-wrote The Gilded Age, a novel that attacked political corruption, big business and the American obsession with getting rich that seemed to dominate the era. Ironically, a year after its publication, the Clemenses' elaborate, $40,000. 19-room house on Farmington Avenue was completed. It was in that house that Twain and his wife Olivia raised three daughters, Susy, Clara and Jean, over the next 17 years. During those years Twain completed some of his most famous works. He enjoyed great financial success through his work but continuously made bad investments. In 1891, the family moved to Europe to save money and when Twain¿s publishing company failed in 1894, he embarked on a world lecture tour to earn money. Two years later, Twain¿s favorite daughter Susy died of meningitis on a visit home to Hartford. The family could never return to live there. The house was sold in 1903 to a local family. It was saved from demolition in 1927, eventually restored and turned into a museum. The Twain house architecture is difficult to define because of its combination of elements. It has deep porches typical of American Gilded Age homes but it also includes textures and colors that reflect Twain¿s globe trotting, with influences from Africa, the Far East and Europe. The interiors of the house were designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The house grew to include a museum that opened in November 2003.
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