Mark Twain House hopes for boost from 1879 fairy tale
HARTFORD, Conn. — Notes that Mark Twain jotted down from a fairy tale he told his daughters more than a century ago have inspired a new children’s book, “The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine.”
At the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, there is excitement that the story could help introduce the writer to wider audiences — and provide a financial lift for the non-profit organization that curates the three-story Gothic Revival mansion where Twain raised his family.
A researcher found the story in the archive of the Mark Twain Papers at the University of California at Berkeley. When the University of California Press passed on taking it to publication, the archive’s director, Bob Hirst, endorsed enlisting the Twain House as an agent in part because of financial struggles the museum has had to overcome.
“I don’t think it’s a secret they need funding,” Hirst said. “If it was going to make some money, which Mark Twain would certainly approve of, that house was a good place for it to go.”