2020 Recorded Virtual Events

Below you’ll find the collection of all of our 2020 virtual events recorded for your viewing pleasure! Click the button below to head over to our events page and register for any of our upcoming virtual events!

Upcoming Events

The Queen of Christmas stories and #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber sat down with playwright Jacques Lamarre (TheaterWorks’ s Christmas on the Rocks) to discuss her writing, her holiday traditions, and her latest Christmas novel Jingle All the Way.

The Mark Twain House & Museum invites y’all to join us for some big fun down on the (virtual) bayou with Jana DeLeon, the hilarious author of the Miss Fortune Mysteries!

December 8, 2020 marked the 40th anniversary of John Lennon’s death. The Mark Twain House & Museum commemorated the event with a special virtual program led by Frank Rizzo, longtime Connecticut arts writer.

For 42 years the Hartford minister Joseph Twichell served as Mark Twain’s confidant, friend, fellow joker, sharer of long walks, partner in vigorous conversations and source of literary inspiration. Their lively letters to each other are full of chat and squabbles and quips – along with deep affection and consolation in times of tragedy. Steve Courtney sat down with The Mark Twain House Assistant Curator Mallory Howard in the Museum’s prestigious series “The Trouble Begins at 5:30” to discuss these letters.

Join us for a fun and informative evening with John Bird and Judith Yaross Lee, co-editors of the forthcoming book Seeing Mad, an illustrated volume of scholarly essays about the popular and influential humor magazine Mad.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory sits down with fellow writer Sophfronia Scott to discuss her latest novel Dark Tides.

Pulitzer Prize winning novelist and playwright, Ayad Akhtar and critically acclaimed author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi joined us to help celebrate Mark Twain’s 185 birthday. They sat down to discuss Akhtar’s novel Homeland Elegies and how they both have been influenced by the writings of Mark Twain.

Author and executive producer Michael Connelly sat down with author and journalist Douglas Preston to discuss his latest novel in the Lincoln Lawyer series, The Law of Innocence.

Four distinguished faculty members/authors at Central Connecticut State University joined us to read from their works that relate in various ways to the troubling times we live in.

John Pascal returns to The Mark Twain House & Museum’s Trouble Begins series to tell us all about Artemus Ward, the gentle humorist, and Ward’s lecture influence on Mark Twain.

Joyce Maynard, sat down with host Frank Rizzo to talk about her latest projects, returning to finish her degree at Yale 50 years after she was a freshman there (having left to pursue a relationship with J.D. Salinger), and living through the pandemic on the base of a volcano in Guatemala.

Noted toy expert Chris Byrne speaks with Frank Rizzo about classic toys from the past — and the new hot toys for this holiday season.

Join us for a spiritually enchanting evening with Jill McKeever as she sits down with author and illustrator Jessica Roux to discuss her new book The Spirit of Botany. This publication is a can’t miss visually entrancing and esoteric guide to connecting with plants through the senses.

On October 21, The Mark Twain House & Museum presented its prestigious Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award to Ocean Vuong, for his 2019 debut novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, a shattering portrait of a family, a first love, and the redemptive power of storytelling.

This virtual award ceremony features Vuong’s reading from On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous and a presentation by David Baldacci.

A virtual night of thoughtful hilarity with special guest John Hodgman in conversation with his friend and colleague Ben Click.

Join us for a very special evening with Carl Hiaasen, the best-selling author of Skinny Dip and Razor Girl, as he talks about his latest book Squeeze Me, a hilarious novel of social and political intrigue set against the glittering backdrop of Florida’s gold coast. Hiaasen is joined in conversation by restaurant critic and columnist Rand Richards Cooper.

Join us for a conversation with Gregory Maguire, New York Times bestselling author of Wicked, as our friend Frank Rizzo kicks off the Fall 2020 A Little Harmless Fun series.

Have you ever wondered how close Hal Holbrook’s impression of Mark Twain’s voice was to the real thing? Was Twain’s voice ever recorded? If so, what happened to those recordings? All of these questions and more will be answered when Twain scholar Kevin Mac Donnell discusses “Mark Twain’s Voice”.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult makes a return visit to The Mark Twain House & Museum for a virtual conversation with Kevin Kwan (author of the mega-hit novel and film Crazy Rich Asians) about her new novel, The Book of Two Ways.

Join us for a special event as we dig deep into the language of flowers with Floriography author and illustrator Jessica Roux and Lucinda Brockway, the Program Director for Cultural Resources at The Trustees.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kyle Mills is joined in conversation with local mystery writer Chris Knopf for the launch of his latest novel Total Power featuring Vince Flynn’s counter-terror operative Mitch Rapp.

Anita Pointer, a founding member of the multiplatinum singing group The Pointer Sisters, is joined by her brother Professor Fritz Pointer and beloved actor, writer and director Ted Lange (star of “The Love Boat”). Anita discusses her memoir, her career, her legendary family, and her commitment to Black activism.

Susan Harris followed in Mark Twain’s wake when she decided to use his book Following the Equator as inspiration for her travels to Australia, India, and South Africa, resulting in her book Mark Twain, the World, and Me: “Following the Equator,” Then and Now. In this segment of Trouble at Home, Susan Harris discusses her travels, her book, and the Mark Twain Circle of America.

Elizabeth Burgess, Collections Manager at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center sits down with Jodi DeBruyne, Director of Collections at the Mark Twain House in a discussion about Stowe, Twain, and life on Nook Farm, then and now.

Dr. K. Patrick Ober, a longtime friend of The Mark Twain House & Museum, and Twain historian Steve Courtney discuss “Mark Twain and Epidemics” in this Trouble At Home segment. Dr. Ober’s book Mark Twain and Medicine: “Any Mummery Will Cure” (University of Missouri Press, 2003) covers all the aspects of Twain’s medical life; his whole family’s complex health issues; and their fascination, and participation in, fringe cures.

In 2004, Miki Pfeffer, independent scholar of Thibodaux, Louisiana, brought the vivid correspondence of Grace King, a Southern writer who was the Clemens family’s guest, out of the archives, and has been painstakingly transcribing the author’s letters since. Pfeffer sits down with Twain historian Steve Courtney in this segment of Trouble At Home.

A 90 minute public forum that explores the emotions the Black community is experiencing in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent protests. A raw, authentic, and impassioned conversation with Ayesha Clarke, Donessa Colley, Jeffrey Ogbar, and Godfrey Simmons. Moderated by Joelle Murchison. Engineered and recorded by The Connecticut Mirror.

Independent scholar Alan Rankin and Twain House historian Steven Courtney discuss Mark Twain’s only granddaughter Nina Gabrilowitsch, her tragic life, and Rankin’s work on a book which focuses on Gabrilowitsch’s life in the 1920s.

New York Times bestselling author William Kent Krueger, discusses his novel This Tender Land, an enthralling epic about four orphans on a life-changing odyssey during the Great Depression, as well as his affinity for our own Mark Twain. Krueger is joined in conversation by playwright Betsy Bucher Maguire.

Join us for an evening with acclaimed historian Gretchen Sorin in conversation with Kimberly Kersey, the new executive director of The Amistad Center for Art & Culture at the Wadsworth Atheneum, as they discuss Sorin’s book Driving While Black.

This program was in partnership with The Amistad Center for Art & Culture and Harriet Beecher Stowe Center.

Mallory Howard and Jason Scappaticci, two historians long associated with The Mark Twain House & Museum, will tell the story of Twain and spiritualism in conversation with Steve Courtney as the third installment of Trouble at Home, the virtual version of the museum’s beloved The Trouble Begins at 5:30 series.

In 2004, the World Bank sent Scott Wallace on a round-the-world trip to document Bank-financed development projects in ten countries in Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South Asia. Wallace was also asked to photograph commerce, industry, housing, labor, agriculture, gender, education and culture. He had 54 days to complete his mission. The result is an extraordinary collection of images and tales, many of which he will share for the first time in this captivating presentation.

Dr. Kerry Driscoll, Associate Editor at the Mark Twain Papers & Project at the University of California, Berkeley, is joined in conversation with Steve Courtney, Twain House historian, where she talks about why Mark Twain’s huge collection of unpublished works, letters, and journals ended up in California; describes the cast of characters who take care of it now; and shares tales of the literary and historical mysteries she unravels on a daily basis.

Our Living History program features several historical interpreters who play the role of Susy in her teens — an earlier and happier time, when the family lived in the Hartford house. Among these is historian and actress Grace DiModugno. Watch Grace in conversation with Twain House historian, Steve Courtney, discussing Susy’s story, the adventures of being a Living History interpreter, and tales of the variety of visitors.

Millions of readers have found comfort and joy in Jan Karon’s Mitford novels since the first one, “At Home in Mitford”, was published in 1994. Join us for a special evening online with the New York Times best-selling author herself in conversation with writer and producer Lauren Yarger, as they discuss Karon’s successful career as a writer and the wonderful books she has produced over the years.

Watch Amity Gaige talk about and read from her latest novel Sea Wife, a smart, sophisticated literary page-turner about a young family that escapes suburbia for a year-long sailing trip that upends all of their lives.

Join host Frank Rizzo for a forward-looking talk with Connecticut’s newest theater artistic directors. Jacob Padrón, of New Haven’s Long Wharf Theatre, and Melia Bensussen, of Hartford Stage, will talk about their Tony Award-winning theaters, and plans for the future, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, for bringing new audiences in.

Watch Rand Richards Cooper read his memoir-essay “Listening to Restaurants,” first published in Bon Appétit in 2007. The piece includes remembrances of such Connecticut eateries as Hughie’s in New London, Chuck’s Steak House which, Rand says, “in 1970 was the coolest thing going,” and Michael’s Dairy, a famed ice cream establishment in New London since… forever.