OK.  Sister-in-law.  But there was a great quote associated with the
billiard room:  “There ought to be a room in this house to swear in. It’s
dangerous to have to repress an emotion like that…Under certain
circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.”

Arianne Laidlaw
Sacramento


On Sat, Aug 31, 2013 at 7:29 PM, Rick Talbot <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> Did any of you READ this? It's funny.
>
> Bret and Kate Mckay wrote:
> Mark Twain would often [ is twenty years "often"?] summer with his sister
> [huh?] who lived in Elmira, New York. Needing a place where he could get
> some work done, Twain built himself [who built it? ] a writing hut [hut?
> What happened to octagon?] on his sister's [her again] property. Free from
> distractions and inspired by the setting, Twain could write in peace and
> quiet. In this sanctuary of manliness, ["manliness"? what did Twain say of
> it?]  Twain wrote some of his most widely read and manly works: Life on the
> Mississippi, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and Adventures of
> Huckleberry Finn.
>
> I love how Twain described his man space in an 1874 letter to William Dean
> Howells:
>
>     "It is the loveliest [ now THAT'S a manly way to put it!]study you ever
> saw.octagonal with a peaked roof, each face filled with a spacious
> window.perched in complete isolation on the top of an elevation that
> commands leagues of valley and city and retreating ranges of distant blue
> hills. It is a cozy nest [yeah, that's manly]and just room in it for a
> sofa,
> table, and three or four chairs, and when the storms sweep down the remote
> valley and the lightning flashes [hey, is this guy..]behind the hills
> beyond
> and the rain beats upon the roof over my head-imagine the luxury of it."
> [luxury? Cozy? Lovely? This guy sounds more like an interior decorator than
> a man cave dweller]
>
> Cheers, Twainiacs.
> Rick
>
> Richard Talbot
> 1531 West Idaho Avenue
> Falcon Heights, MN 55108-2118
> (651) 646-6624
> (651) 280 8734
> [log in to unmask]
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John H.
> Muller
> Sent: Saturday, August 31, 2013 5:20 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Mark Twain and Man Caves
>
> Fred Douglass checking in, too!
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 31, 2013 at 6:18 PM, John Bird <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Mark Twain makes the list twice, famous man caves. Serious error about
> > Quarry Farm, though:
> >
> > http://www.artofmanliness.com/2010/07/27/famous-man-caves/
> >
> > ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> > John Bird
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
>
>
>
> --
> John Muller
> 202.236.3413 l [log in to unmask]
> Capital Community News l Greater Greater Washington l Huffington Post DC
> *Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C: The Lion of
> Anacostia<
> http://www.amazon.com/Frederick-Douglass-Washington-D-c-Anacostia/
>
> dp/1609495772/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=H42HP4SBZ8OA&coliid=I34O
> MAR1SV8L9G>
> * [The History Press, 2012] - Winner of 2013 DC
> READS<http://www.dclibrary.org/dcreads>
> http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Douglassi
> http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/JohnMul
> Forthcoming: "Mark Twain in Washington, D.C.: The Adventures of a Capital
> Correspondent" [The History Press, Fall 2013]
>



-- 
Arianne Laidlaw A '58