Mark Twain’s Home

Hartford, CT1874-1891

c.1884. left to right: Clara, Olivia, Jean, Sam, Susy & Hash (dog)

c.1884. left to right: Clara, Olivia, Jean, Sam, Susy & Hash (dog)

Between 1871-1873

Twain leased the Hookers’ house

while building his own Hartford

home.

On January 21, 1868Mark Twain first visited Hartford.

1864 City View of Hartford By John Bachmann

Welcome to Nook Farm,

Twain’s Hartford house in the 1800’s.

Nook Farm

The Hooker HouseThe Harriet Beecher Stowe House

“Its spacious Victorian homes stood amid carefully landscaped grounds that emerged imperceptibly

into each other to create the effect of an extensive park.” p. 7 Nook Farm, Van Why

Charles Dudley Warner House

Francis Gillette House

“The houses appeared to be irregularly spaced on one enormous

fenceless estate. Winding among the trees were paths and shortcuts which neighbors used without going to the street. Doors were always unlocked and residents of the Farm walked in

and out of each other’s houses at any time of day without knocking.”

p. 84 Nook Farm: Mark Twain’s Hartford Circle

Nook Farm

The Twain House on the

Park River, Nook Farm

Photo of Hartford home, 1800s fromDave Thomson collection

Explore the

house...19 rooms & 5 baths19 rooms & 5 baths

http://www.marktwainhouse.org/house/floor_plans.php

As you explored the house, what themes were present?The First Floor........Guests/Entertaining

The Second Floor....FamilyThe Third Floor.....Sam's interests

In the book Papa, Susy Clemens describes her father’s story telling. Twain comments:

and into that romance I had to get all that bric-a-brac and the three pictures. I had to start always with the cat and

finish with Emmeline. I was never allowed the refreshment of a change, end for end. It was not permiss-

Notice the objects on the mantle? Write your own story using the objects

Twain describes and the objects you see. Click for rubric.

As you tour Twain’s house, make a list of descriptive

phrases about the exterior and each room.

Later, you will use these to write a descriptive narrative about Twain’s house to your

local paper. Click for rubric.Click for rubric.Click for rubric.

Explore descriptions

Text

Read The Hartford Daily

Times 1874 description of the

house.

Read another description of

the house from the Elmira

Advertiser, 1874

Read this description from Living Leaders of the World, 1878

Twain’s description in a letter to his wife Olivia Clemens, dated July 3, 1874

“You may look at the house or the grounds from any point of view you choose, & they are simple exquisite. It is a quite, murmurous, enchanting poem, done in the solid elements of nature. The house & barn do not seem to

have been set up on the grassy slopes & levels by laws & plans & specifications--it seems as if they grew up out of the ground& were part & parcel of Nature’s handiwork.

The harmony of size, shape, color--everything--is harmonious. It is a home and the word never had so much

meaning before...”

Why did he leave?

Initially, the family left to live in Europe to save money.Later, the family does not return because of Susie’s death.

Nook Farm: Mark Twain’s Hartford Circleby Kenneth R. Andrews

1950“His exaggerated grief over Susie’s death convinced him that his misery

would be deepened if he were to live again in Nook Farm where life once, in bitter contrast, had been full and pleasant...Until his death he returned

frequently for brief visits and looked upon his surviving cronies, all of whom he remembered with more than ordinary pleasure and mourned when they

died.” pg. 233“His exaggerated grief over Susie’s death convinced him that his misery

would be deepened if he were to live again in Nook Farm where life once, in bitter contrast, had been full and pleasant...Until his death he returned

frequently for brief visits and looked upon his surviving cronies, all of whom he remembered with more than ordinary pleasure and mourned when they

died.” pg. 233“His exaggerated grief over Susie’s death convinced him that his misery

would be deepened if he were to live again in Nook Farm where life once, in bitter contrast, had been full and pleasant...Until his death he returned

frequently for brief visits and looked upon his surviving cronies, all of whom he remembered with more than ordinary pleasure and mourned when they

died.” pg. 233“His exaggerated grief over Susie’s death convinced him that his misery

would be deepened if he were to live again in Nook Farm where life once, in bitter contrast, had been full and pleasant...Until his death he returned

frequently for brief visits and looked upon his surviving cronies, all of whom he remembered with more than ordinary pleasure and mourned when they

died.” pg. 233

Samuel Colt Mansion

James L. Goodwin Mansion Hartford’s Elite

Resources:Clemens, Susy. Papa. Doubleday & Co, Inc., NY, 1985

Faude, Wilson H., Mark Twain’s House:Handbook for Restoration. Queens House, NY, 1978Andrews, Kenneth R., Nook Farm:Mark Twain’s Hartford Circle. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, 1950

“Mark Twain’s House”, The Hartford Daily Times. March 23, 1874Wallace & Parton, Living Leaders of the World. 1878

“Mark Twain’s House”, Elmira Advertiser. January 30, 1874 (reprinting the Titusville Herald, PA)Clemens, Samuel, Letter to Olivia L. Clemens. July 3, 1874 (The Mark Twain House Collection)

All photos courtesy of The Mark Twain House Collection. For classroom use only.Special thanks to Patricia Philippon, Chief Curator, The Mark Twain House, Hartford, CT