Twain (Samuel Clemens) lived in the house for seventeen years. He wrote the majority of his works in the house. The mansion is about a 40 minute drive from Springfield and 90 minutes from my house. We bought tickets online for the tour ($20), we were warned that they do sell out.. It is considered one of the top ten best historical houses in the country.
We went on the 2:30 pm tour. It lasted about an hour and fifteen minutes. The guide was extremely knowledgeable about both the house and Twain. There are three floors to the house. The guide took us to all three, however some of the rooms are blocked off. Many of the pieces of furniture are original to the house.
During the tour we learned a lot about Samuel Clemens. We learned more about his family life and his world views than about his literature. He had three daughters and a wife. We learned about their childhood, saw where they played and how they died. It was very interesting.
The only downside to the tour was that pictures are not allowed in the house. I could take all the shots I wanted of the exterior but none inside. The gift shop sold postcards for a dollar a piece. I got a couple of them for my photo album. Unfortunately the sky was a milky grey and not a bright blue so my photos were not postcard quality either, so I bought a postcard of the exterior also.
If you like Mark Twain at all, I highly suggest you take the drive to Hartford. The mansion is huge and the architecture is off the charts. He wrote almost all of his famous works there so it really is truly historic. Twain considered the seventeen years there to be the happiest of his life. Regular tour tickets are $20 for an adult. They also have living history tours for $25. In these tours "someone" from Twain's life is your guide. There is a butler, a gossipy maid, his wife, and his daughter. The house is only a few minutes off of Interstate 84 and very easy to get to.
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