Happy Birthday, Sam...

In honor of this, the 174th anniversary of the birth of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain, I present to you this rare motion picture footage of Twain at his Redding, Connecticut estate with daughters Clara and Jean. It was taken by Thomas Edison in 1909, a year before Twain's death. Enjoy...

A Classic Clip from Hal Holbrook's 1967 "Mark Twain Tonight"

An amazing and highly amusing tidbit from Holbrook's landmark TV special. Might this have been even somewhat what it was like to witness the master at work?

Scholars and Fans Converge in Elmira

Earlier this month, lovers and students of Twain's work met in Elmira, New York, the town in which Twain and his family are buried, for the sixth International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College.

Here's a link to a terrific video on the conference, courtesy of WENY-TV:

http://www.weny.com/News-Local.asp?ARTICLE3864=9146830

Watch Clip from New Twain Documentary

Some months ago, I blogged about the new documentary Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain's Final Years. And now, Brent Colley of the impeccable Mark Twain Stormfield Project has brought to my attention this bit of footage from the upcoming doc, made available at Digital Video Dynamix. Take a look:



Could be very interesting, although I admit I'm not at all a fan of the "historical dramatizations" employed these days by documentarians.