Final Music Under the Stars Concert of the Season this Thursday

Tuesday, 31 August 2010 21:20

Bid farewell to summer with the final Music Under the Stars Concert this Thursday, September 2 at 7 p.m. Enjoy Americana and Rockabilly music by Lucky Old Sons!

The summer concert series continues to be a success with crowds ranging from 200 to 300 people each Thursday. This Thursday enjoy tenderloins by the Mark Twain Dinette and beverages by the Wine Stoppe.

On September 11, the Mark Twain Museum will hold Dinner Under the Stars. Enjoy a five-course dinner catered by historic Lula Belle’s and jazz by Music-Music-Music. Proceeds will help support the Music Under the Stars program. $20 of each ticket purchased is tax deductible. Tickets are $50 per person and $90 per couple.

The deadline for reservations is 5 p.m. on Tuesday, September 7^th.

For more information or to make your reservations please call 573.221.9010 ext. 403.

Senator Claire McCaskill to Visit Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum

Last Updated on Monday, 23 August 2010 21:12 Monday, 23 August 2010 21:12

The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum will welcome Senator Claire McCaskill on Tuesday, August 24 at 4:30 p.m. Senator McCaskill will be speaking about the budget neutral bill: H.R. 1195/S. 483 to mint a Mark Twain commemorative coin and will be signing the “10 by 10” fence in support of the “10 by 10” Campaign, a grass roots effort to establish a viable endowment for the Museum. The goal is to raise $10 million by the end of 2010.

If the coin bill is passed, the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum, along with the Mark Twain House in Hartford, CT, the Center for Mark Twain Studies in Elmira, NY and the Mark Twain Project at the University of California-Berkeley will benefit. Each of these sites works to preserve the legacy of America’s greatest writer.

“Mark Twain has been featured on postage stamps and many other pieces of memorabilia and it is quite appropriate for him to make his debut on a U.S. coin,” said Henry Sweets, Museum curator.

Executive director of the Museum, Dr. Cindy Lovell agreed saying, “We would love for this to happen in 2010 and are grateful to our colleagues in Hartford for spearheading the effort. Citizens who support this should let their representatives know.”

Mark Twain remains one of the most influential of all American authors even a century after his death. He was featured on the cover of Newsweek on August 9, 2010 regarding the release of suppressed sections of his autobiography. The University of California Press will publish the 740-page first volume of the autobiography in November on the 175^th anniversary of the author’s birth. The effort is part of the Mark Twain Project and Papers, which works with the largest collection of Twain papers worldwide. Housed in UC-Berkeley’s Bancroft Library, the Project has owned the documents since 1949.

The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum is located at 120 North Main Street in Hannibal, Missouri. The mission of the Mark Twain Home Foundation is to promote awareness and appreciation of the life and works of Mark Twain and to demonstrate the relevance of his stories and ideas to citizens of the world.

To learn more, please call: 573-221-9010 ex. 404 or visit the website at: www.marktwainmusem.org

The Village Pariah: Call for Submissions for Volume II: Winter 2010

Last Updated on Thursday, 12 August 2010 21:19 Thursday, 12 August 2010 21:18

The Village Pariah, a bi-annual literary journal sponsored by the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum, is accepting submissions for its second issue.  We publish poetry, short fiction, creative non-fiction, and other works inspired by the writings and life of Mark Twain, his hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, the Mississippi River, the Midwest, and small town or rural life in America. 

Our theme for this issue is: the juvenile pariah of YOUR village.  In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain creates one of the most classic descriptions in all of literature, and America is introduced to its first anti-hero, Huckleberry Finn, “the juvenile pariah of the village” who was “cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers of the town because he was idle and lawless and vulgar and bad,” but adored by the children of St. Petersburg who wished they could be like him.  This topic can be interpreted broadly; it could be the bad boy your parents forbid you to date, the town bully, or someone with a deeper heroic vein, such as the rough-around-the-edges Huckleberry. 

Each issue will also include an introductory essay by an established author, poet, artist, songwriter, etc who speaks of Twain’s influence on his or her art or life.  We welcome writings from established writers, as well as those who are new and unpublished.

Electronic submissions only.  Please limit poetry to five poems and prose to 3000 words.  Entries should be emailed as an attachment to thevillagepariah@yahoo.com or thevillagepariah@marktwainmuseum.org.  Please include name, contact information, and a short bio along with your submission.  Our reading period is now open and entries will be accepted until November 1, 2010. 

Visit our website (http://www.marktwainmuseum.org/index.php/community-projects/the-village-pariah) for more information.  All proceeds from the journal go to support the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum. 

Ralph Stanley & the Clinch Mountain Boys to Perform in Hannibal, September 26

Last Updated on Tuesday, 10 August 2010 19:11 Friday, 06 August 2010 21:53

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum, in conjunction with the Hannibal Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Missouri Arts Council, is pleased to announce the upcoming performance of Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys on Sunday, September 26 from 4-6 pm at historic Clemens Field in Hannibal. Gates open at 3 pm.

Ticket prices are $12.50 in advance and $15.00 at the door. Tickets are available through the Clemens Box Office, Monday-Friday from 9 am to 6 pm. Tickets can also be purchased online.

Now 81 years old, Stanley has been performing professionally since he and his older brother, Carter, formed a band in their native southwestern Virginia in 1946. Between that date and 1966, when Carter died, the Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys became one of the most celebrated bluegrass groups in the world, rivaling in popularity such titans as Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs.

While enthusiasts of folk, bluegrass and country music have long revered him, Stanley has lately been commanding the honors due a musical original. In 2003, he shared with his friend Jim Lauderdale a Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album. The year before that, he won Grammys for Best Country Male Vocalist Performance (beating Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Tim McGraw, Lyle Lovett and Ryan Adams) and Album of the Year (for his part in the O Brother, Where Art Thou? Collection). In 2001, he was the subject of an admiring profile in The New Yorker, written by novelist David Gates, who traveled with Stanley for months gathering material. He is the central figure in the D. A. Pennebaker/Chris Hegedus 2000 documentary, Down from the Mountain.

Rolling Stone

            “A master performer without an expiration date…”

Chicago Tribune

            “The timeless air has always been present in the voice of Ralph Stanley…There was nothing high, lonesome or mournful about his tone. Instead, he embodied the protagonist in an ancient murder ballad. His voice was sharp, scolding, vengeful, and it’s why this music cuts so deep…”

Denver Post

            “Then there was Stanley, today’s Elvis of traditional music. With his hands casually clasped at his waist, he filled the theater with his plaintive plea against dying, “O Death,” whose solemn lyrics he magically makes uplifting.”