Everyone knows, with literati like Harriet Beecher Stowe and Mark Twain in the neighborhood, Nook Farm must have loved talking about books.

The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center is partnering with The Mark Twain House & Museum for book talks and author events that will put you in the know on all things Twain, Stowe, and the topics that had Nook Farm buzzing during the Victorian Era and that still captivate us today – politics, social issues, humor, adventure, romance, literature, and more!

Mark your calendar for these upcoming events. Reading the book is not required, but we bet you'll learn why you want to read our selections!

Calendar: June - November 2013

These events are free but reservations are encouraged, call 860.522.9258 x317 or email Info@StoweCenter.org.
Book selections may be purchased at the Stowe Center Museum Store or the Mark Twain Museum Store. Your purchases help support our programs.

Wednesday, June 5:  Nook Farm Book Talk/Author Talk & Book Signing
 -- The Secrets of Mary Bowser by Lois Leveen
 At the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Special Time: 7-8:30 p.m.

Historical fiction based on the remarkable true story of a freed African American slave who returns to Virginia at the onset of the Civil War to spy on the Confederates. Author Lois Leveen will share how she combined fascinating facts and ingenious speculation to craft a powerful and unforgettable story of a woman who risked her own freedom to bring freedom to millions of others.

Thursday, July 11: Nook Farm Book Talk -- Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
At Mark Twain Museum Center, 5-6:30 p.m.

Considered by many to be the greatest collection of poetry ever produced by an American.  Though the first edition was published in 1855, Whitman spent his entire life writing Leaves of Grass, revising it in several editions until his death in 1892.

Wednesday, September 4: Nook Farm Book Talk -- The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate
At the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, 5-6:30 p.m.

Author Debby Applegate spent 20 years researching and writing about Henry Ward Beecher culminating in her Pulitzer Prize winning biography of the man who found international fame by shedding his father’s Old Testament style fire-and-brimstone theology and instead preaching a New Testament based gospel of unconditional love and healing.  2013 marks the 200th anniversary of Beecher’s birth.

Wednesday, October 2:  Nook Farm Book Talk – The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
At Mark Twain Museum Center, 5-6:30 p.m.

One of literature's most gripping ghost stories depicts the sinister transformation of two innocent children into liars and hypocrites.  Famous for its lasting mysterious qualities, the story published in 1898 still baffles readers to this day.

Wednesday, November 6: Nook Farm Book Talk -- Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
At Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, 5-6:30 p.m.

In 1854, following a trip to Europe, Stowe published a book of travel letters described by biographer Joan Hedrick as “a travel guide that tourists carried under their arms as they would later carry Baedecker’s and Fodor’s (that) interpreted the European experience to innocent Americans.”