Twain slept here...and there, too

A casual acquaintance might reasonably ask Cindy Lovell how a Gator-state professor ended up in the riverfront town of Hannibal, Mo.

Was it the slower pace of life one typically finds along the Mississippi? Was it the desire to get away from damp Florida summers? Was it a great job opportunity? A new career? A better home? A fling?

To paraphrase Tom Sawyer, one of Hannibal’s most famous fictional residents:

“T’warn’t neither.”

Cindy simply wanted to be as close as possible to her childhood hero, Mark Twain. She has studied the great man at length since the age of 10. She knows just about every word in every book, every letter, every recorded utterance issued forth from a career that spanned decades.

Cindy is, she admits, a “Twainiac.”

Not that it’s a bad thing. In fact, Cindy has become something of a celebrity herself. If you call the Hannibal Chamber of Commerce and ask Twain questions, the helpful people there will politely say, “You’ve got to talk to Cindy.”

Cindy is all Twain all the time. She is a curator at the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum, and she still works as a professor at Quincy University just up the road a stitch.

In her spare time she recently completed a compact disk of Twain’s life set to music and readings from other famous Americans—Clint Eastwood, Garrison Keillor, Brad Paisley, Jimmy Buffett, Vince Gill, Sheryl Crow. The release already has garnered national media attention and Cindy will be going on tour to promote it.

“The stories really began here in Hannibal,” Cindy said. “I just had to live here, and I bought a house on the same street where he grew up.”

Twain—Samuel Clemens by birth—spent his 13 years readin’, writin’ and carryin’ on as youngster in Hannibal. His father moved the family there when Clemens was 4 and died when the boy was 11. Clemens quit school the following year and became a printer’s apprentice. He left Hannibal at age 17 and journeyed through the Northeast, educating himself in public libraries and continuing his work as a printer.

Later, Clemens joined his brother on a stage-coach journey across the continent. He ended up in the hillside town of Virginia City, just outside of Reno, Nev. The hardscrabble community of dusty silver miners provided endless fodder for Clemens’ memorable wit, and here he first inked the pen name “Mark Twain.”

Twain toured throughout California and eked out a living as a journalist. His big break came when the now-defunct Sacramento Union commissioned him to write articles about the exotic Sandwich Islands, better known as Hawaii.

“His career as a writer was well on the way, “ Lovell said. “He came back and began a lecture tour.”

Like Twain, Cindy enjoys travel and has journeyed to many of the same destinations as her favorite writer. Although she has not been to all 60 countries Twain graced during his lifetime, Cindy fully intends to make a go of it.

“His legacy belongs to the world,” Cindy said. “There’s no question about that. He had itchy feet and loved to travel.”

His status as global citizen has inspired hundreds of Twain impersonators and events throughout the country. Just about every town he visited has staked a claim on his golden legacy. Surely that would make him chuckle, considering Twain never saved a plug nickel as a miner.

Said the man himself, “A gold mine is just a hole in the ground with a liar standing on top of it.”

Anyone wishing to explore Twain’s legacy has a lot to choose from no matter where they live in the United States and beyond:

-May 19-22, Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee, Calaveras, Calif. Entertainment includes the Inernational Frog Jump Competition, carnival rides and music.

Go to http://www.frogtown.org/

-June 17 – 19, Huck Finn Jubilee, Riverside, Calif. The annual bluegrass music festival caters to families with food, games and camping.

Go to http://www.huckfinn.com/default.asp

-June 30 - July 4, 2011. National Tom Sawyer Days, Hannibal, Mo. More than 200 booths are set up for a celebration of America and things Twain. Winners of the annual Tom & Becky contest are announced. There’s even a fence painting contest.

Go to http://www.hannibaljaycees.org/

-Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum. Go on a self-guided tour to explore the Hannibal of Samuel Clemens’ youth. Museum properties include six historically significant buildings and two interactive museums whose collections include 15 original Norman Rockwell paintings and a wealth of Twain artifacts.

Go to http://www.marktwainmuseum.org/

-Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, Conn. The site includes the home where Twain lived from 1874 to 1891. It was also the location where he penned Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

Go to http://www.marktwainhouse.org/

Center for Mark Twain Studies, Elmira College, New York. The college also sponsors “The Trouble Begins at Eight” lecture series at Quarry Farm, where Twain and his family spent 20 summers. Quarry Farm overlooks the lush Chemung River Valley.

Go to http://www.elmira.edu/academics/distinctive_programs/twain_center

Article by Jay Alling, editor of Sensible Driver. Write to jay@sensibledriver.com.