Joseph Hopkins Twichell: The Life and Times of Mark Twain's Closest Friend

Mark Twain's story in Hartford is in large part the story of his most intimate friend, the Reverend Joseph Hopkins Twichell of Asylum Hill Church. Twichell met Samuel Clemens when the writer came to the city to visit his publisher, one of Twichell's parishioners. The two men maintained a close association for the rest of their lives, arguing religion and politics, helping each other in bad times, taking legendary long conversational walks in the Hartford area which ultimately extended to Bermuda and the Alps. Sometimes, they fought out their differences in harsh words. It never fails to surprise people to learn that Mark Twain's closest friend was a New England minister.

But Twichell was not just Budd Abbott to Clemens' Lou Costello. He had a life marked by incident and adventure, from a youth in small-town New England, through a tragic student riot at Yale, through the grim battlefields of the Civil War, through the excesses and energy of the Gilded Age. He directed his church's vision -- and Clemens' -- to the poor and immigrant communities of Hartford and even to the broader world, acting as local host to an effort that brought the first Chinese students to study in America.

This year sees the publication of a major biography of Twichell, Joseph Hopkins Twichell: The Life and Times of Mark Twain's Closest Friend, by Steve Courtney, a longtime friend of The Mark Twain House & Museum. A journalist at the Hartford Courant for 30 years, Steve has written numerous articles and speeches on the Clemens-Twichell friendship; two years ago, he co-edited, with Peter Messent, a volume of Twichell's Civil War letters. On May 21 at 6:30 p.m., Steve will speak on this extraordinary friendship and the way it highlights a rich and turbulent time in our nation's political and literary history.

Date: Wednesday, May 21

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Admission: FREE

Location: The Mark Twain Museum Center

http://www.josephhopkinstwichell.com/

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