The following book review was written for the Mark Twain Forum by Kevin Mac
Donnell.

~~~~~


_Mark Twain's Hartford_. Steve Courtney. Foreword by Cindy Lovell. Arcadia
Publishing, 2016. Pp. 128. Paperback. $21.99. ISBN 978-1-4671-1558-2.


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Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by:
Kevin Mac Donnell


Copyright (c) 2016 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
redistributed in any medium without permission.


Those familiar with Steve Courtney's previous writings, like his insightful
biography of Joseph Twichell (2008), his lavishly illustrated guided-tour
of the Mark Twain House in Hartford, _The Loveliest Home That Ever Was_
(2011), or his collection of ghost stories associated with the Mark Twain
House, _We Shall Have Them With Us Always_ (2013), will have high
expectations for this volume, and they will not be disappointed. This
handsome collection of exactly two hundred vintage photographs and
illustrations that document Mark Twain's Hartford and his life there, is
the latest volume from Arcadia Publishing and The History Press, whose
ubiquitous "Images of America" series will be familiar to anyone who has
ever sought out the history of a city or town, or spent a few minutes in
any drug store, airport bookshop, or museum gift shop. Of the more than
12,000 titles issued under these two imprints, more than half have been in
the "Images of America" series whose covers typically feature a sepia tone
vintage photograph with a distinctive title cartouche at the top and an
authorship cartouche at the bottom. Their uniform size (9 x 6 1/2 inches)
and format (128pp. with 200 illustrations) have proven to be a satisfying
and successful way of presenting entertaining histories of cities, towns,
neighborhoods, counties, ethnic groups, department stores, cemeteries,
sports stadiums, parks, bridges, prisons, and even famous earthquakes,
floods, shipwrecks, and hurricanes.


As an Austinite this reviewer would be remiss not to mention that previous
books in this series have included five books on Austin neighborhoods, two
books on Austin's nearby Lake Travis, and books on Austin jazz, murders,
ghosts, and cooking. Having only scratched the glimmering surface of
Austin, Texas, the series editors allowed themselves to be distracted and
produce some books on Hartford that include a three-volume history,
separate volumes on East Hartford and West Hartford, books on "Lost"
Hartford and "Victorian" Hartford, and books on Hartford's trolleys, radio
in Hartford, and fire-fighting--but apparently nothing on insurance.
They've also produced books on familiar Mark Twain haunts like Hannibal,
Elmira, and Virginia City, Nevada, and even a volume on the Big Bonanza.
Steve Chou's book on Hannibal was reviewed in the Mark Twain Forum in 2002.
Many of these books mention Mark Twain of course, and John Muller's _Mark
Twain in Washington, D.C._ (reviewed in the Forum in 2013) appeared under
their affiliated History Press imprint, but this seems to be the first book
in their "Images of America" series to focus on Mark Twain. Most of their
books are written by curators, local historians, and scholars, and this
reviewer hopes that certain folks in Hannibal, Elmira, and Virginia City
might take all of this as some sort of hint.


Mark Twain had hardly settled into his new home in 1874 when accounts of
the house and his life in Hartford began appearing in print (_The Daily
Record of the Times_, July 22, 1874, p. 2) and stereoview photographs of
his home which could be slid into hand-held viewers that made the images
appear 3-D were being sold commercially that same year. Henry Darbee's
_Mark Twain in Hartford_ (1958) was followed by a string of books and
leaflets, of which Wilson Faude's _Renaissance of Mark Twain's House_
(1977) and Steve Courtney's previously mentioned book are the best. The
home has been featured in Hartford tourist guides since at least as early
as 1884 and included in at least two dozen books about famous American
literary shrines and homes. But with the notable exception of Kenneth
Andrews's _Nook Farm_ (1950) these publications have tended to focus on the
house itself and its architecture, or on Mark Twain and his family life.
Few have gone to great lengths to portray Mark Twain in the context of the
Hartford of his day, giving the reader an idea of what Hartford life was
like, the places and events Mark Twain experienced when living there, how
it all looked and felt.


This is precisely what Courtney does. Cindy Lovell's brief foreword
explains why Hartford suited Mark Twain so well, and Courtney begins his
task with an introduction, "An Author and His City," that shows the reader
what attracted Mark Twain to Hartford in 1871, what kept him there during
the most productive years of his literary career, and what drove him away
in 1891. In eight chapters he shows how Mark Twain became acquainted with
Hartford and provides accurate visual evidence of what he saw, explores the
city as it was at that moment, introduces and pictures the people Mark
Twain came to know, examines Mark Twain's home life, visually documents the
events and changes that occurred in each decade of his residence there, and
concludes with a chapter on how Mark Twain and his family came to leave
Hartford and their life afterward, and a final chapter on how the house
itself managed to survive and become the magnificent living museum that it
is today.


Along the way, the seasoned Twainian will encounter the inevitable familiar
images of Mark Twain and his family and the house itself, but will more
often be confronted by less familiar scenes, especially those of the city
and its people that seldom figure prominently in biographies of Mark Twain.
What makes this visual tour informative and pleasurable is that this is no
mere picture-book, but a fascinating photo-album, with each image
hand-picked for a purpose which is explained in the ample captions that are
often stories in themselves. The photo of Mark Twain's library being used
as a class-room with only vestiges of his wonderful walnut bookshelves
remaining will make Twainians wince, but the elephant parade up Main Street
will bring a smile. Readers can imagine Mark Twain's carriage lined up with
others on Main Street, gaze upon a horse-drawn streetcar like those Susy
mentioned during her final deliriums, feel the chill of a snowy Hartford
street that could have been the very one taken by Mark Twain when he took
his son Langdon along for a ride shortly before Langdon became sick (from
other causes) and passed from his life, and imagine Mark Twain and Joe
Twichell plodding up the steep path to Bartlett's Tower, just outside of
town, where they liked to walk while deeply immersed in conversation.
Twainians will chuckle at the photograph of actor Will Gillette (Mark
Twain's first successful impersonator) sprawled in a chair, and will
understand why his nickname in Mark Twain's household was "the ladder."
 Susan Warner plays the piano for us, while her husband Charles Dudley
Warner holds a book. Henry Ward Beecher and Governor Joseph Hawley both
look their parts, as do the workers by the huge covered bridge over the
river and the crowd gathered to celebrate the Battle of Antietam. Nursemaid
Rosina Hay, housekeeper Kate Leary, coachman Patrick McAleer, and business
manager Frank Whitmore all stand at the ready. A photograph of a
"snow-tunnel" on a Hartford street during the blizzard of 1888 makes clear
that Mark Twain would have been no better off in Hartford than where he was
at that moment, stranded in New York City. If you've ever wondered about
the husband and wife team who served as caretakers of the house in the
1890s after Mark Twain and his family moved out, they are pictured here too.


All of these events and all of these people played major roles in Mark
Twain's Hartford years and this nicely balanced blend of pictures and text
brings them back to life for both Twainians and the general reader alike.
Can companion volumes on Mark Twain and his other cities--Hannibal, Elmira,
and Virginia City--be far behind? Perhaps another book on Austin?