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."