Center For Mark Twain Studies

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) first visited Elmira in 1868 at the invitation of Charles Langdon, a young man he had befriended during the Holy Land Excursion of the Quaker City (formerly USS Quaker City), a pleasure cruise which Twain would soon turn into his first bestselling book, The Innocents Abroad (1869).[3] During the trip, Langdon had shown Clemens as picture of his sister, Olivia Langdon.[4] On New Year's Eve 1867, Sam Clemens and Livy Langdon were formally introduced, beginning a courtship which would result in marriage on February 2, 1870.[5]

Shortly after their engagement, Langdon began worrying that her marriage to the itinerant Clemens would permanently sever her from her family, inspiring Clemens to make "an extraordinary promise."[6] Starting the year after they were married, the Clemens family made an annual Summer pilgrimage to Quarry Farm, where they stayed, usually for 3–4 months, with Livy Clemens's older sister and her husband, Theodore and Susan Crane.[7]

In addition to allowing his wife and daughters to maintain strong ties with their extended family and the Elmira community, Sam quickly found that it was an exceptional writing environment. "I can write ten chapters in Elmira where I can write one [in Hartford]," he told a friend in 1875.[8] The previous year, the Cranes had built for him an Octagonal Study, designed to resemble the pilot house on a steamboat, at the peak of East Hill, overlooking the Chemung River Valley, about 100 yards from the main house at Quarry Farm.[9] Here he would compose the majority of four novels, three memoirs, and hundreds of stories, essays, and speeches over the next two decades. In 1886, he told a visiting reporter, "This may be called the home of Huckleberry Finn and other books of mine, for they were written here."[10]

Sam and Livy Clemens made their last extended residency at Quarry Farm in 1903, the year before her death.[11] Both are buried nearby in the Langdon family plot at Elmira's Woodlawn Cemetery.[12] But the property remained in the Langdon family for generations, until it was entrusted to Elmira College in 1982, the official founding of the Center For Mark Twain Studies, by Jervis Langdon Jr.[13] Livy Clemens had been a student at Elmira Female College and her father, Jervis Langdon, was among the college's founders.[14] The family ties to the college were deepened when the Clemens's niece, Ida Langdon, became a professor there. She arranged for the Octagonal Study to be relocated from Quarry Farm to the Elmira College campus in 1952.[15] Her nephew, Langdon Jr., was the final member of the family to reside at Quarry Farm. He set the terms of the agreement with Elmira College that Quarry Farm would never be open to the general public, but would be reserved for promoting scholarship about Mark Twain and his circle.[16]

In observance of Langdon Jr.'s mandate, CMTS sponsors an annual fellowship competition for scholarly "scholarship and creative works related to Mark Twain, including, but not limited to, his literature, life, family, associations, influences, reception, and significance."[17] In 2022, they made awards to 11 Fellows, each of whom was granted a 1-4 week residency at Quarry Farm, as well as an honorarium and access to archival collections. One fellowship was reserved for a creative writer, one for a visual artist, and three for early career researchers.[18]

Full-time staff at CMTS include a director, a resident scholar, an archivist, and a caretaker, who lives in a guest house constructed on the Quarry Farm property. Since 2016, the Director has been Joseph Lemak.[26]