Show Me Tour - Literary Lights

Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn
On the bluff overlooking Hannibal, Missouri

Ninety miles from our HQ in Columbia is Hannibal, MO; boyhood home of Samuel Clements aka Mark Twain.  We had planned to pay our respects to this hamlet and the raft of beloved characters who dwelt there on the west bank of the Big Muddy Mississippi before our son graduated from The University of Missouri - who knows when we'll ever be back in this neck of the woods again.

Just behind the levee sits some of the old building that were the haunts of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Becky Thatcher, Aunt Polly, Injun Joe and the others that populate the pages.  The building have been preserved and a museum dedicated to Mark Twain's life and work was our re-introduction the author, his family and the history and events that shaped Mr. Twain.  We toured the original home of Samuel Clements and his family, the Justice of the Peace office where his father held court until his death at Samuel's age of 10, the reconstructed crude dwelling of the Blankenship home (Tom Blankenship was the model for Huck Finn) and Grant's Drug Store where the Clements family shared the upstair's residence upon the death of Mr. Clements.

Boyhood Home of Mark Twain (right)
Hill Street
Hannibal, MO

 A worthwhile excursion, again reinforcing the facts as to how 19th Century life was rough, tenuous and often unexpectedly marred by tragedy.  The Clements family by all accounts was respected, came from land-owning (and slave-holding) background, reasonably educated, yet could not find economic success in a series of business ventures.  Finally being impoverished upon the death of the head of the household.

Mark Twain himself being broke on several occasions and literally down to his last silver dime once in San Francisco before finding great success as a writer and lecturer - only to lose his fortune again.

Mark Twain seated at the table
in his boyhood home

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On our way out of the "Show Me" State, we headed once again for a return visit to Mansfield, Missouri; home to Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the Little House on the Prairie series of books.  Sue is a big fan and as of her latest wedding anniversary, now has I believe every single book on Laura Ingalls Wilder.  This includes the latest, Pioneer Girl, an annotated history of the original manuscript composed at the kitchen table in "the Rock House" on there MIssouri apple farm.

The Rock House
Built for Laura and her husband by their daughter Rose

The old farm house that Laura's husband built from the ground up was then taken over by their daughter Rose, who had dreams of turning this Ozark apple farm into a writer's colony.  The dream never materialized during the Great Depression and Rose moved to Connecticut.  Laura and her husband quickly moved back into their familiar home to live out the rest of their lives among the memories of their own house.

Laura Ingalls Wilder
Old Farm House
Mansfield, Missouri

 Having seen the homes of two of Missouri's best known writers, it was time to return to Texas and write a blog.