one of Twain’s typewriters are packed inside the exhibit room that is open by appointment. The real-life Samuel Clemens spent his happiest years in Elmira, where he married a local girl, Olivia Langdon, whose family was quite prominent. They, along with their children, are buried at nearby Woodlawn Cemetery, where visitors often leave a cigar on the author’s gravestone. See marktwainstudies.org.
A HOP, SKIP, AND JUMP UP THE ROAD
Joel Chandler Harris did not achieve the fame of Mark Twain or William Faulkner, but his role in preserving oral history of black slaves in southern Georgia is undeniable. As a 14-year-old “printer’s devil” at Turnwold Plantation, Harris listened to the tales that were handed down by slaves. Uncle Remus was a composite character drawn from several local slaves who shared the stories with him. “Years later, Harris reached into the storehouse of his
MARK TWAIN’S STUDY INTERIOR
memories and wrote those stories in the newspapers he worked for as an adult,” says Georgia Smith, who has worked as a tour guide for 11 years at the Uncle Remus Museum in Eatonville, Georgia. “Without Harris, many of those stories would have been lost forever.” The stories became “The Classic Tales of Brer Rabbit,” a beloved children’s favorite although the stories had deeper meanings, Georgia says. And those stories were printed in 27 languages, with many foreign books on display at the museum.
The Uncle Remus Museum is an original slave cabin brought to Oak Street in Eatonville in 1963 to educate visitors about the life and work of Harris by using historic storytelling, period artifacts, and dioramas of the Uncle Remus characters. See uncleremusmuseum.org.
Eatonville, GA GEORGIA SMITH
UNCLE REMUS MUSEUM
Mary Ann DeSantis Mary Ann DeSantis has written for Style publications since 2006. She was recognized with first-place Florida Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards for Travel Writing in 2017, 2016, and 2012.
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