Story
Mark Twain's New York
In 1853, young Samuel L. Clemens wrote his mother in Missouri: "Well, I was out of work in St. Louis, and didn't fancy loafing in such a dry place, where there is no pleasure to be seen without paying well for it, and so I thought I might as well go to New York." It was the first time the future Mark Twain would visit, but it wouldn't be the last.
New-York Historical's 2019 exhibition 'Mark Twain and the Holy Land' took a deep dive into a pivotal moment in Twain's career: the five-month cruise to Europe and the Holy Land that would inspire his bestselling travelogue 'The Innocents Abroad.' Like many good journeys, it started in New York. Check out some NYC sites that have a Twain connection.
578 Broadway
Twain returned to New York in early 1867 and stayed at the Metropolitan Hotel on Broadway and Prince St. He was a newspaper columnist and had won some fame for a short story about a jumping frog. His next goal? A book.
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Plymouth Church
Twain attended services at Brooklyn's Plymouth Church and heard a sermon from the famed clergyman Henry Ward Beecher. Afterwards, Twain learned of an irresistible scheme that Beecher was involved in: a luxury cruise to Europe and the Holy Land.
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Cooper Union Foundation Building
While Twain waited for the cruise's departure, he gave a triumphant lecture at Cooper Union on May 7, 1867. The 'New York Times' reported, "seldom has so large an audience been so uniformly pleased."
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515 Broadway
Shortly after Twain returned from the Holy Land trip, the opulent St. Nicholas Hotel was the site of an auspicious meeting. Twain dropped by to call on fellow cruise passenger Charley Langdon and his family, including Langdon's sister Olivia—the woman who would become Twain's wife.
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1123 Broadway
In 1872, Twain reportedly brought down the house at a benefit dinner at the St. James Hotel. "If I only had a speech prepared for this occasion, I would take genuine delight in delivering it," he said.
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182 Montague Street
Before it burned down in 1903, the first Brooklyn Academy of Music was located on Montague St. in Brooklyn Heights and was the site of a Twain reading in 1876. He shared the bill with several musicians, something he apparently found deeply irritating.
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Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (1893)
In 1900, Twain introduced a young Winston Churchill at a gala in the Waldorf-Astoria's ballroom. A famous journalist and new politician, Churchill admired the writer even though Twain opened his remarks by criticizing him.
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Madison Square Garden (Madison Square)
Twain attended an international billiards tournament at Madison Square Garden in 1906 and sat with an executive from Standard Oil. The 'Times' reported: "The American humorist busily explained the shots to his friend accompanying the remarks with gestures and diagrams marked in the air with his fingers."
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Carnegie Hall
Twain spoke at Carnegie Hall several times, including in 1901, at a celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday and in 1906, at a white-tie benefit for the Tuskegee Institute.
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Delmonico's Restaurant, 44th Street
In 1905, Twain and 170 of his friends celebrated at one of the finest restaurants of the day: Delmonico's (probably at the midtown location). The occasion was Twain's 70th birthday, and he shared some hard-won wisdom: "I have achieved my 70 years in the usual way: by sticking strictly to a scheme of life which would kill anybody else."
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