This book contains a tour that I gave as a historic interpreter at the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut. It takes the readers from the front lawn to the porch to the hall, then goes room by room throughout the author’s family home, telling the story of the wonderful life they all lived in a house that felt alive to them for seventeen years. I did this for several years, and it enabled me to learn all about the author and his family, and to read many of his works. It also led me to meet many fascinating and fun members of the public as I showed them around and told them hilarious, uproarious tales of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain, in the manner of a stand-up comic. They loved it, as did I. Many of these visitors made a wonderful remark to me at the conclusion of tour after tour after tour: “That was the best tour I have ever had anywhere. I wish I could buy a copy of it. You should write your tour down, as is.” So, I did.

A century after Samuel Clemens’s death, Mark Twain thrives—his recently released autobiography topped bestseller lists. One way fans still celebrate the first true American writer and his work is by visiting any number of Mark Twain destinations. They believe they can learn something unique by visiting the places where he lived. Mark Twain’s Homes and Literary Tourism untangles the complicated ways that Clemens’s houses, now museums, have come to tell the stories that they do about Twain and, in the process, reminds us that the sites themselves are the products of multiple agendas and, in some cases, unpleasant histories. Hilary Iris Lowe leads us through four Twain homes, beginning at the beginning—Florida, Missouri, where Clemens was born. Today the site is simply a concrete pedestal missing its bust, a plaque, and an otherwise-empty field. Though the original cabin where he was born likely no longer exists, Lowe treats us to an overview of the history of the area and the state park challenged with somehow marking this site. Next, we travel with Lowe to Hannibal, Missouri, Clemens’s childhood home, which he saw become a tourist destination in his own lifetime. Today mannequins remind visitors of the man that the boy who lived there became and the literature that grew out of his experiences in the house and little town on the Mississippi. Hartford, Connecticut, boasts one of Clemens’s only surviving adulthood homes, the house where he spent his most productive years. Lowe describes the house’s construction, its sale when the high cost of living led the family to seek residence abroad, and its transformation into the museum. Lastly, we travel to Elmira, New York, where Clemens spent many summers with his family at Quarry Farm. His study is the only room at this destination open to the public, and yet, tourists follow in the footsteps of literary pilgrim Rudyard Kipling to see this small space. Literary historic sites pin their authority on the promise of exclusive insight into authors and texts through firsthand experience. As tempting as it is to accept the authenticity of Clemens’s homes, Mark Twain’s Homes and Literary Tourism argues that house museums are not reliable critical texts but are instead carefully constructed spaces designed to satisfy visitors. This volume shows us how these houses’ portrayals of Clemens change frequently to accommodate and shape our own expectations of the author and his work.

The Mark Twain House seeks to foster an appreciation of the legacy of American writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), better known as Mark Twain. Visitors may take guided tours of the Tiffany decorated mansion in Hartford, Connecticut, where Clemens lived from 1874-1891.

It isn’t often that a visitor from outer space gets stranded on Earth, but it happens every so often. When it does, it’s an accident. No one intends to get stranded anywhere, after all. This visitor is female, a botanist, and a telepath. The alien carries a Small Gray environmental suit with her. She is looking for plants that can be grown on her own planet’s severely depleted ecosystem. The alien has just uprooted one when she finds herself stuck on Earth during a planet-wide pandemic. It is a spring day when Arielle, an author and editor-for-hire, spends her morning as she usually does: writing, editing, blogging, drinking coffee, and sitting with her cat while looking out the back windows into her yard. She gets up to stretch and takes a walk around her beautiful garden to enjoy some sunshine, smell a few iris blossoms, and survey her berries and herbs. Suddenly, she sees something under her honeysuckle bush. At first, she thinks it is discarded, plastic litter that has blown around the area, and she picks it up in disgust, only to see that it is gray, as light as a feather, and definitely not plastic. It has a face, or rather, a face-covering. Arielle glances up to find herself face-to-face with a stranded visitor – the owner of the suit she is holding. She takes her in…after her husband, a scientist, tests them both for the virus. The tests come back negative, of course. The aliens, anticipating microbes that are not endemic to their own world, have immunized themselves against Earth’s pathogens before venturing out of their ship. Find out what happens next, and what the Small Gray Visitor said while she was here.

A beautifully written, darkly funny coming-of-age story from an award-winning, bestselling German author making his American debut. Mike Klingenberg doesn't get why people think he's boring. Sure, he doesn't have many friends. (Okay, zero friends.) And everyone laughs at him when he reads his essays out loud in class. And he's never invited to parties - including the gorgeous Tatiana's party of the year.Andre Tschichatschow, aka Tschick (not even the teachers can pronounce his name), is new in school, and a whole different kind of unpopular. He always looks like he's just been in a fight, his clothes are tragic, and he never talks to anyone.But one day Tschick shows up at Mike's house out of the blue. Turns out he wasn't invited to Tatiana's party either, and he's ready to do something about it. Forget the popular kids: Together, Mike and Tschick are heading out on a road trip. No parents, no map, no destination. Will they get hopelessly lost in the middle of nowhere? Probably. Will meet some crazy people and get into serious trouble? Definitely. But will they ever be called boring again? Not a chance.

Selected from Mark Twain's typescript.