The library has panels engraved by hand, a stack of India, embossed wallpaper and a huge carved mantelpiece that Twain purchased in Scotland (HABS photo of).
Mark Twain moved to Hartford in 1871 and bought his new home north of town to be closer to its publisher, American Publishing Company. In Hartford, Twain said that “of all the wonderful people that I had fortunate to see, this is the best … If you do not know what is beautiful is because they have not been here. ” While in Connecticut, the family noted that” the house had heart, soul and eyes with which vernos .
On the top floor was the billiards room and private study of Twain, which would write late at night. in the Nobody was allowed to enter the room except the cleaning staff. The room was also used as a salon for male guests enjoy a cigarette and liquor. Twain said: “There should be room in this house where you can curse” and “It is dangerous to have to repress an emotion semejante .
The children had their own space, with its own kindergarten and a games room / classroom. Twain played with their children in the winter garden, and pretended to be an elephant during a safari imaginary. The writer said that the house “was us, and albergabamos in security and living in his grace and his blessing of peace.”
Twain loved this house, in part because there he met several authors who were his neighbors, as Harriet Beecher Stowe (who lived in the house adjacent) and Isabella Beecher Hooker. In addition, he was placed in a location that allowed him to make visits to his friend, the actor William Gillette in Gillette Castle (now Gillette Castle State Park).
In 1881, thanks to the success of Tom Sawyer, Twain made Louis Comfort Tiffany oversee the internal decoration of the house. Twain was also fascinated by new technologies, leading to the installation of one of the first telephones in the Lobby. That same year, Twain founded the firm Charles L. Webster and Company, which publishes his works along with the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant .
The company went bankrupt in 1894 due to the advent of automatic typewriter, and Twain is greatly indebted. After several withstand shocks and losses from bank investment in a typewriter, Twain moved to Europe in 1891 where the cost of living was lower .
Twain began to give lectures throughout the continent to recover some money, but the tragedy to prevent their return home. In 1893 the publishing company went bankrupt Twain, Susy Clemens (his daughter) died of meningitis in 1896 after a visit to Hartford, and Olivia (his wife) refused to return to the home. This was sold in 1903 .
