The Center for Mark Twain Studies is pleased to announce the posting of
the following audio files from the first two lectures of our Spring
Series:


Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 in the Barn at Quarry Farm


How Mark Twain Changed His Very Own Mind

          Tom Quirk; Professor of English; University of
Missouri-Columbia

One of the remarkable and often neglected facts about Mark Twain is that
he had the capacity to change his mind, even well into old age, when
most of us nestle in the Barca-lounger of settled opinion.  Tom Quirk
will posit that Twain's changing views on women's suffrage, trade
unions, capital punishment, patriotism, and the insanity plea were the
byproduct of Mark Twain's thinking on human nature and that, more than
anything else, they were the result of careful and consistent reasoning,
not of some sudden revelation or conversion experience, still less of an
impulse to conform to prevailing opinion.


Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 in the Barn at Quarry Farm

Mark Twain:  His Business (Mis)-Adventures

                   Peter Krass, Independent Scholar


There have been many books on Mark Twain, but few have fully developed
his rabid entrepreneurial side and pursuit of great wealth in the spirit
of the robber barons.  Peter Krass will discuss what he discovered in
writing Ignorance, Confidence, and Filthy Rich Friends: The Business
Adventures of Mark Twain, which explores this oft-neglected side of
Twain's life.  The talk will illuminate his rollercoaster ride through
America's Industrial Revolution and Twain's rich experiences, which were
at times hilarious, exuberant, and painful, yet always instructive.


Forrest Robinson will present on May 28th.


To access the audio files, go to:

http://www.elmira.edu/academics/distinctive_programs/twain_center/troubl
e_at_eight/recordings