Fall 'Trouble Begins' Lecture Series Begins October 10
Elmira, NY (10/09/2018) — The fall portion of the 2018-2019 The Trouble Begins Lecture Series presented by the Center for Mark Twain Studies begins Wednesday, October 10 in The Barn at Quarry Farm. All four lectures begin at 7:00 p.m., and are free and open to the public.
The first lecture, "Getting to Know Mark Twain through the Eyes of Grace King, a Southern Woman of Letters," will be presented by Miki Pfeffer, visiting scholar at Nicholls State University in Louisiana. New Orleans writer, Grace King, enjoyed a two-decade friendship with Sam and Livy Clemens and their daughters, Susy, Clara, and Jean. King visited the family in Hartford in 1887 and 1888 and in Florence in 1892. She wrote to her family about the Twain homes, meals, dress, and habits. From New Orleans, she exchanged letters with each Clemens, especially Livy, with whom she became a confidante. As each family member died, she kept in touch with the living, right through Clara's brief messages around 1918. Miki Pfeffer will read from some of King's captivating letters that offer a fresh view of the Clemenses and of Mark Twain as loving homebody, father, and generous friend to this ambitious southern woman.
Pfeffer holds a Master's Degree in English Literature and a Ph.D. in Urban History from the University of New Orleans. She is a visiting scholar at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, Louisiana. Her book, Southern Ladies and Suffragists: Julia Ward Howe and Women's Rights at the 1884 New Orleans World's Fair, was awarded the 2015 Eudora Welty Prize for scholarship in Women's Studies and Southern Studies from the Mississippi University for Women. Her current mission is to see Grace King's letters published and appreciated, and she offers the collection of the family of Twain in a book to be published in 2019.
About The Trouble Begins Lecture Series
In 1984, the Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies initiated a lecture series, The Trouble Begins at Eight lecture series. The title came from the handbill advertising Mark Twain's October 2, 1866 lecture presented at Maguire's Academy of Music in San Francisco. The first lectures were presented in 1985. By invitation, Mark Twain scholars present lectures in the fall and spring of each year, in the Barn at Quarry Farm or at Peterson Chapel in Cowles Hall on Elmira College's campus. All lectures are free and open to the public.
Media Attachments
The fall portion of the 2018-2019 The Trouble Begins Lecture Series, presented by the Center for Mark Twain Studies, begins Wednesday, October 10 in The Barn at Quarry Farm. The lecture explores the Clemens family through the eyes of family friend, Grace King. All four lectures begin at 7:00 p.m., and are free and open to the public.