Mark Twain's Neighborhood: Nook Farm

Imagine having some of the nation's greatest minds as your neighbors. After the Nook Farm in Hartford, Connecticut was subdivided into home sites in the latter half of the 19th century, the first residents included author Harriet Beecher Stowe, editor Charles Dudley Warner, politician Joseph Hawley, actor William Gillette, and the Samuel Clemens family--a group that met for weekly Sunday afternoon porch discussions to debate the issues of the day. Chronicling the Clemens family's life during the Nook Farm period (where Twain penned some of his most significant works) up to the death of daughter Susie Clemens, as well as the later efforts of Catherine Day to preserve the Clemens home and Nook Farm area, seven-time Emmy-winning producer-director Roynn Lisa Simmons' terrific Mark Twain's Neighborhood: Nook Farm combines photos, stills, diary entries, and contemporary footage. A great title for public, school and academic collections, and one that makes a nice companion piece to Ken Burns' Mark Twain (VL-3/02), this is highly recommended. Also available on VHS for $19.95 each, the highly acclaimed PBS-aired adaptations of Twain's The Diaries of Adam & Eve, The Innocents Abroad, Life on the Mississippi, The Mysterious Stranger, The Private History of a Campaign That Failed and Pudd'nhead Wilson. Aud: J, H, C, P. (L. Stevens)