Helen Keller
Easton
Mark Twain
Redding
Mark Twain Tourism Project
The goal of this project is to raise awareness
and make Connecticut a destination for Mark
Twain tourism and research in the future.
We feel that merging information about
Twain with information about the "Friends of
Twain" in the many towns and cities that
have a Twain Connection is a great way to
promote town pride and Connecticut tourism
in the future.
The Connections are all over the State!
Twain’s Connecticut
There’s more to it than you think.
Fairfield County
1. Redding, Connecticut- Twain arrived on June
18th, 1908 and departed on April 21, 1910.
2. Bridgeport Connecticut- P.T. Barnum was
mayor of Bridgeport (born in Bethel).
3. Westport, Connecticut- Edgar "Ned" Wakeman
was born in Westport, Connecticut.
4. Ridgefield, Connecticut- Cass Gilbert, Edward
W. Kemble and Edward M. Knox
5. Stamford, Connecticut- Edward Quintard, M.D.
6. Easton, Connecticut- Helen Keller; Ida M.
Tarbell.
Easton & Redding
I grew up in Redding, yet it was not until a recent
discovery that I realized there was a connection
between Redding and Easton outside of each town
originally being a part of the Town of Fairfield and the
Region #9 school district [Joel Barlow High School]. As
I was digging through the Mark Twain Library archives
last winter out popped a note about Samuel L. Clemens
and his home written by Helen Keller in 1909.
"I have been in Eden three days and I saw a King. I
knew he was a King the minute I touched him. Though
I had never touched a King before."
-A Daughter of Eve
Twain & Keller
They first met in March 1895 at a luncheon held in
Keller’s honor at West 34th Street in NYC. It was the
home of Laurence Hutton, an editor and critic who was
Twain’s friend and one of Helen’s early benefactors.
Henry Rogers was there with Twain and about a
dozens others to welcome & wish Helen well during
her stay in NYC where she had come to study speech
at the School for the Deaf.
During the luncheon the two spent time together and
Helen seemed to feel more at ease with Twain than
with any of the other guests. Hutton later said: “He
was peculiarly tender and lovely with her-even for Mr.
Clemens- and she kissed him when he said good-bye.”
Keller Describes Twain
“Mark Twain has his own way of thinking, saying and
doing everything. I can feel the twinkle of his eye in
his handshake. Even while he utters his cynical
wisdom in an indescribably droll voice, he makes you
feel that his heart is a tender Iliad of human
sympathy.”
How she felt the “twinkle of his eye”
When Helen was talking with an intimate friend, her
hand went to her friend's face to see, "the twist of the
mouth." In this way she was able to get the meaning
of those half sentences which people complete
unconsciously from the tone of the voice or the twinkle
of the eye.
Twain & Keller
Letter to Mrs. Henry Rogers
For & in behalf of Helen Keller,
Mr. Rogers will remember our visit with that
astonishing girl at Lawrence Hutton’s house when she
was 14 years old. Last July, in Boston, when she was
16 she underwent the Harvard examination for
admission to Radcliffe College. She passed without a
single condition. She was allowed only the same
amount of time that is granted to other applicants, &
this was shortened in her case by the fact that the
question-papers had to be read to her. Yet she scored
an average of 90, as against an average of 78 on the
part of the other applicants.
Twain & Keller
Letter to Mrs. Henry Rogers, (Continued…)
It won’t do for America to allow this marvelous child to
retire from her studies because of poverty. If she can
go on with them she will make a fame that will endure
in history for centuries. Along her special lines she is
the most extraordinary product of all the ages.
I beg you to lay siege to your husband & get him to
interest himself and Messrs. John D. & William
Rockefeller & the other Standard Oil chiefs in Helen’s
case…[to] pile that Standard Oil Helen Keller College
Fund as high as they please; they have my consent.
Twain & Keller
The result of this letter was that Mr. Rogers personally
took charge of Helen Keller’s fortunes, and out of his
own means made it possible for her to continue her
education and to achieve for herself the enduring fame
which Mark Twain had foreseen.
The Reply: It is superb! And I am beyond measure
grateful to you both. I knew you would be interested
in that wonderful girl, & that Mr. Rogers was already
interested in her & touched by her; & I was sure that if
nobody else helped her you two would; but you have
gone far & away beyond the sum I expected—may your
lines fall in pleasant places here, & Hereafter for it!
Ever sincerely yours, S. L. CLEMENS.
Twain & Keller
Helen Keller visited Twain for three days in January of
1909. She was 28 years old and had recently released
her second major work: “The World I Live In”
The copy Twain received was inscribed: “Dear Mr.
Clemens, come live in my world a little while/Helen
Keller.”
In response, he had said that she must come to his
world first, and to bring Annie (Sullivan) Macy & John
Macy with her.
“I command you all three, to come and spend a few
days with he in Stormfield.”
Helen Keller Visits in January 1909
Twain & Keller
Of all the visitors to Stormfield none wrote a more
vivid description of the place than Helen Keller.
Nothing escaped her senses, from the “tang in the air
of cedar and pine” as she made her approach to the
smell of “burning fireplace logs, orange tea and toast
with strawberry jam” which were served shortly after
her arrival.
That which she could not see was “spelled” into her
hands by her teacher, Annie Sullivan Macy, a.k.a. “The
Miracle Worker” as Twain called her.
Twain & Keller
It was not generally known that Keller had a great
sense of humor, but it was one of the things Twain
liked best about her.
When he showed her to her room on the first night at
Stormfield, he told her that if she needed anything,
she would find an ample supply of cigars and bourbon
in the bathroom.
When he gave her a tour of the billiards room, he
offered to teach her the game. She took the bait and
innocently replied, “Oh Mr. Clemens, it takes sight to
play billiards.” Not the way his friends played, he
answered. “The blind couldn’t play worse.”
Keller’s Sense of Humor
When she met Dr. Furness, the Shakespearean scholar,
he warned her not to let the college professors tell her
too many assumed facts about the life of Shakespeare;
all we know, he said, is that Shakespeare was
baptized, married, and died.
"Well," she replied, "he seems to have done all the
essential things."
Twain & Keller
The highlight of Helen’s visit came on the final evening
when Twain read to her his short story: Eve’s Diary.
He sat in a big armchair by the fire while Helen
followed the story with an ecstatic expression on her
face. At the very last line: “Wherever she was, there
was Eden.” (Twain’s tribute to his wife Livy) Helen
became tearful.
In her journal, his secretary wrote: “She quivered with
delight, and he was shaken with emotion & could
hardly find his voice again. It was a marvel to behold.”
“I have been in Eden three days and I saw a King. I knew he
was a King the minute I touched him though I had never touched a
King before.” ~ A Daughter of Eve. Helen Keller Jan. 11
Twain & Keller
Twain understood her meaning so completely that he
wrote beside it:
“The point of what Helen says above, lies in this: that I
read the ‘Diary of Eve’ all through, to her last night; in
it Eve frequently mentions things she saw for the first
time but instantly knew what they were & named
them- though she had never seen them before.”
In Keller’s ‘The Story of My Life’, she recalls the joy of
learning the names of things after she acquired the
gift of language: “…the more I handled things and
learned their names and uses, the more joyous &
confident grew my sense of kinship with the rest of the
World.”
Nothing to hear nor see
Twain was amazed that Helen had been able to
transform everything around her into a reality only she
could imagine.
“A well put together unreality is pretty hard to beat,”
was his response to a friend who remarked that
Helen’s “concept of things…must lack reality.”
In Huckleberry Finn- written long before he met Helen
– Twain wrote:
“it’s lovely to live on a raft…nothing to hear nor
nothing to see.”
Twain & Keller
Two of a Kind
Two of a Kind
Mark Twain was a pre-mature baby with little
hope of surviving, let alone succeeding.
Helen Keller lost her vision and hearing at 19
months and had little hope for success.
Both “survived” and became successful Authors,
Public Speakers and Celebrities.
Two of a Kind
Helen came to accept religious and political
beliefs quite different from those of her family
and friends.
In 1906, Twain pondered what future audiences
would say about his unpublished comments on
religious bigotry and social hypocrisy…
“The edition of 2006 will make a stir when it
comes out.”
Two of a Kind
"As she had her entire life, the luminous Helen
inspired intrigues and power struggles, as her
acquaintances and advisers fought with one
another to gain possession of her."
The same can be said for Twain who endured a
painful “power struggle” between his daughters
and business associates in the final year of his
life.
Two of a Kind
During her lifetime, Helen Keller lived in many
different places—Tuscumbia, Alabama;
Cambridge and Wrentham, Massachusetts; Forest
Hills, New York, but perhaps her favorite
residence was her last, the house in Easton,
Connecticut she called "Arcan Ridge."
The same can be said about Samuel L. Clemens.
He too lived in many places, and yet fell in love
with the beauty of his final residence… Redding,
Connecticut.
Two of a Kind
Helen died in her sleep on June 1, 1968 at the
age of 87. The cause of her death was heart
disease.
In the twilight of April 21, 1910, at the age of 74,
Mark Twain sunk into unconsciousness from
which he glided almost imperceptibly into death.
The cause of his death was heart disease.
Two of a Kind
Since their deaths, their names have lived on…
“She will live on, one of the few, the immortal names
not born to die. Her spirit will endure as long as man
can read and stories can be told of the woman who
showed the world there are no boundaries to courage
and faith.”
Eulogy by Senator J. Lister Hill of Alabama
The reports of my
death have been
greatly exaggerated
Easton’s Other Connection
Ida Tarbell. Tarbell’s history of Standard Oil
appeared in 1904 with an account of Twain’s
friend, Henry Rogers, that cast him in a better
light than Rockefeller. Twain pretended to be
greatly disappointed.
“Henry H, the woman has been bought!”
The truth was that Twain had made
arrangements for Tarbell to meet Rogers, who
laid on the charm.
Tarbell Visits Stormfield
Ida Tarbell and Jeannette Gilder visited Twain at
Stormfield to welcome him to the
“neighborhood”.
In her journal, Twain’s secretary wrote:
“It was a pleasant company, and the King
approves of those two fine old girls. They love
the house with its mellow colorings, its
‘mouthwatering’ colorings as Jeannette Gilder
calls it.”
This presentation is over for now, I
thank you all for watching!!
Someone please have a whiskey &
a smoke for me.