Thank you so much for sharing this visit.  I was thrilled to see the photos
of the Walter Russell HUGE statue of Mark Twain and his characters.  Wasn't
it not there when you first visited?

Thanks to you, them, and FLIckr.

Arianne Laidlaw


On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 9:35 AM, Terry Ballard <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> In the last year I've shaken hands with two men who have walked on the
> moon, but I doubt I'll ever have another day like the one I had last
> Friday. In August we had driven down from Danbury and stopped in at Redding
> on a whim to see the area of Mark Twain's final home - Stormfield. I wrote
> a rambling and silly report to this Forum and got several responses -
> invitations to do a proper meet up next time I'm in Redding. This included
> the holy grail of Twaindom - a visit to the reconstructed Stormfield (the
> original burned down in 1923).  With Redding just two hours away, how could
> we resist? We began with a visit with Susan Durkee, an artist who owns the
> 'Lobster Pot," a house purchased by Twain in 1980 for his trusted secretary
> Isabel Lyons. The house and gardens are saturated with images and
> references to Twain, and Susan was simply delightful.  I had read several
> books that were quite critical of Lyons, and Susan suggested I check out
> "Mark Twain's Other Woman" by Laura Skandera Trombley  (See
>
> http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Twains-Other-Woman-Vintage/dp/0307474941/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1383063907&sr=8-1&keywords=mark+twain%27s+other+woman
> )
> After 90 minutes of talking her ears off, we were on to the Mark Twain
> Library around the corner, where Beth Dominianni gave us the librarians'
> tour. This library was founded by Twain just before his death as a lasting
> memorial to his daughter Jean, who died at Stormfield, due to complications
> from epilepsy. In all,  it is one of the most beautiful public libraries
> I've ever seen, and Beth is justifiably proud of what they've done with it.
> There are lots of Twain artworks here, but their prize is a portrait done
> by an Italian artist, and rescued from the fire at Stormfield. After the
> library, we had a little time before Stormfield, so we visited a nearby
> graveyard (I can  never get enough of New England cemeteries in the fall).
> Then we headed back down Diamond Hill Road to Mark Twain Lane. We were met
> and welcomed by the first owner of Stormfield who did not have the motto
> "Keep out or we'll shoot you." We were shown the deck area, which still has
> most of the original stones from the mansion, and into the house, where we
> ended up in the area that was said to be the billiards room in Twain's day.
> The owner had bought the house years ago just because he loved the
> facility, and since then he has picked up an interest in Twainian matters,
> taking seriously his role as steward of a literary Mecca. The area is
> covered with walking trails named after characters in Twain's books, and I
> tried one briefly at the end of our stay.  When I came back, I was shown
> the best way to get a look at the farm complex that Twain had bought for
> Jean.   It was a day of incalculable warmth and good karma.  A photo
> gallery for the day can be found at
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryballard/sets/72157637048051944/
>
> --
>
>
> Terry Ballard
> Author and Leisure Studies Manager
> http://www.terryballard.org
> Author of the book "Google this"
> http://googlethis.com<http://googlethisforlibraries.com/>
>
> "My memory has a mind of its own."
>



-- 
Arianne Laidlaw A '58