I was delighted to read the description of your visit to Redding. Until
2 years ago, when I retired, I was the Director of the Mark Twain
Library,and had the pleasure, along with local historian, Brent Colley,
and Susan Durkee, of inviting local people, and "Twainiacs" from across
the country to visit Mark Twain's Redding. We organized tours and
exhibits, visited schools, gave talks, and became "Twainiacs" ourselves.
Stormfield is now for sale and I do not know if outsiders will be
welcomed by the new owners, but there will always be a welcome at the
Library and the Lobster Pot, as long as arrangements are made. Redding
is very proud to have had Mark Twain as a resident - and a very friendly
one - and to have kept the spirit of the man alive throughout the town.
Thank you for writing about your visit.
Heather Morgan.
On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 12:35 PM, Terry Ballard 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
>
> "My memory has a mind of its own."
>
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