Hal Holbrook at Quarry Farm

Joe Csicsila lighting Hal Holbrook's Cigar.
There are moments in one's life that you know you will tell stories about for years--maybe 5 or 10 or even 20--but there are few stories you know, at the time, that you will tell for the rest of your life.  For those of us who walked up the hill at Quarry Farm to the spot of Mark Twain's study to smoke cigars, to sing songs, and to listen to Hal Holbrook tell stories, there is no doubt of the fact.

A heck of a time, then, to test out the video function of my new camera.  I wasn't even sure it recorded in sound... but it did and in pretty good sound, too.  Since a number of people couldn't hear Hal speak, or were on the porch playing music, I have posted the below clips of his story of meeting Clara (and Isabel Lyon).  I stopped recording as he described his heartbreaking meeting with Nina, which seems fitting in retrospect.  I hope you enjoy. 

I have decided not to make a transcript of the conversation.  As Twain once said, a written report of a speech conveys nothing of the living essence of the speech and no more conveys“that lecture to the reader than a person represents a man to you when he ships you the corpse.”[1] 

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[1] Quoted in Lorch, 106.

Please scroll down and start with Part 1.