I visited Hannibal with my family in 1997, so I'm sure some things have
changed since then.  I'm an avid pilgrim of writer's homes and locales, so
I've seen several of them around the country and some internationally as
well.  I take the location as it is now as part of my study of its history
before and since the author lived there and part of the author's influence
(or lack of it) on the spirit of place.  The fact that Hannibal takes pride
in its Twain connections in the particular ways that it does is, to me, part
of reason why it is vital to visit there if you are seriously interested in
Twain.  The paradoxes found in Hannibal today, as in his own time there,
remind me of the paradoxes in the man.

Connie Ann Kirk
Mansfield University