Literary Gadling: Mark Twain House

I have a confession to make. I am a literary memorabilia junkie. Yes, I like to go to famous writers' houses and see how they lived, what inspired them (Kafka), how they partied (Twain) and try to figure out what made them commit suicide (Hemingway). Is this going to make me a better writer? I doubt it. But it always gets me motivated to sit down and actually write. And, as many of you know, that is half the battle.

Anyway, should any of you share my passion for writers, I will occasionally make a recommendation for a place/birthplace to visit. As a kick off to my "Literary Gadling", I picked one that's easy: the Mark Twain house in Hartford, Connecticut. Not only is it a beautiful Victorian mansion, but visiting the house makes you get a good insight into Twain's happy personality. It made me realize I need to drastically increase my entertainment budget if I ever want to become a good writer.

And since Twain was probably America's most productive quote machine, here is one to leave you with:

"It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it." Mark Twain

Filed under: Arts and Culture, History, Learning, North America, United States