New England 9/23 Twain and Stowe

On Tuesday we drove to Hartford. At one time it ad the highest per capita income in the country, and attracted some of the most famous people in the arts. Among these were Harriet Beecher Stowe (born in Litchfield), author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and Mark Twain, author of Huck Finn". Their houses are right next to each other, so we toured both.

H.B. Stowe's house is very nice, but not especially showy. She came from a religious family, and her writings and abolitionist feelings were most important. Nana loved the Victorian furniture and learning about life in those days. Our tour guide said that her books were translated into many languages, including Swedish. Poppa saw a book in her library titled "Uncle Tom's Stuga", which the guide said was the Swedish version. He'll check with Eva.

Next we went next door to Mark Twain's house. What a difference! He and Mrs. (Twain) Clemens were climbing the social ladder as fast as they could. The house cost about $45,000 at the beginning to build, with a rather plain interior. Mrs. Clemens in particular enjoyed being involved in the design and construction. After Mr. Clemens published a few more books, they hired Louis Tiffany at about $20,000 to fancy up the interior and make it acceptable for the wealthy and famous guests they invited to almost continuous dinner parties.















Mark Twain is one of Poppa's favorite authors, and he promises to encourage all of the grand kids to read his stories when they get older. I think he's going to read some to us when we get back home.




- Tigger and Dottie seeing the country with Nana and Poppa