Mark Twain in the Hill Country

It took me twenty-one years, three months, and eleven days to realize my wife Nicole doesn’t talk as much as I thought. This revelation occurred to me on a drive back from a trip to the Austin area. She is quietly reading the news on her phone while I expound about our most recent visit with book collector Kevin Mac Donnell and his wife Donna. I’ve known them for over thirty years. Nicole and I have been seeing Kevin and Donna semi-regularly for two decades. Kevin has the greatest collection of Mark Twain material in private hands and one of the finest single-author collections ever assembled. This may sound like friendly hyperbole, but it is not—nary a whiff of exaggeration, nor a modicum of puff involved.

“Remember, I was just there, too,” Nicole replies when I pause to take a breath, but I sense no real resistance, so I continue telling her what she already knows about Kevin’s background.

Kevin began collecting Twain in the 1970s. His transition from librarian to antiquarian bookseller during this time opened new vistas of opportunity. He performed the difficult balancing act of collecting and dealing in the same subject areas. He built personal collections of various nineteenth century authors including an important Henry David Thoreau collection, all eventually sold to facilitate Twain acquisitions. His hunt for material is relentless and his knowledge on the subject profound. He has become a primary source for all things Twain.

Kevin’s collection of over 8,000 Twain items includes books of course, almost every variant recorded and unrecorded, Twain’s own copies of many works, dozens of important association copies, books from Twain’s library, along with 1,000 + letters, manuscripts, inscribed photographs, printed ephemera, advertising, memorabilia to the present day, folk art, and even Twain’s writing desk! But there is no room here to go into detail as I did while talking to Nicole in the car—I refer those with further interest to the festschrift “Kevin Mac Donnell: Legacy Collector and Scholar” that makes up the entire Fall 2016 issue of the prestigious Mark Twain Journal.

However, I can’t help but touch on our latest tour of the Twain collection housed on their third-floor build-out designed specifically for it. You enter by ascending a stairwell packed with eye-catching pictures, rare advertising posters, and other frameable goodies. Multiple spaces contain glass front bookcases and custom shelving designed and much of it built by Kevin himself who is a skilled carpenter. (He is also a classically trained pianist but that is an aside for another time.)

The entire third floor is well-nigh stuffed with an explosion of Twain, yet he and Donna have curated this museum-like experience, so all the spaces are utilized efficiently but invitingly. Kevin’s recall about each item and his storytelling ability makes the tour mesmerizing. He can provide a nickel tour or a deep-sea submersible version depending on interest. Either way, one is transported to another time. And there is even a guest space within the collection area. But this might be too much for an overnight aficionado of Twain. Kevin recalls a three-day visit by the curators of the Mark Twain Museum in Hartford, CT. They were there to see the collection and borrow about fifty items for a long-term loan exhibition. One curator became so enthralled that she began selecting additional items that had no bearing on the exhibition “just because she wanted to have them around her back in Hartford.” Kevin gently reeled her back in, sympathetic to her passion, but he probably moved her to another guest room in a more neutral area of the house.

Kevin has retired as a bookseller to focus on collecting, writing, and researching Twain-related topics. He has had a dozen articles published in the Mark Twain Journal, along with other essays about biblio-topics in various publications. There is a book in the works. As a speaker, he is engaging and in demand. On this visit, he shows me his PowerPoint presentation about the history of Mark Twain collecting since Twain’s time that he will soon give at the Grolier Club in conjunction with Susan Jaffe Tane’s exhibition “A First-Class Fool: Mark Twain and Humor.” The items for his presentation are drawn from his collection. The subject matter is right up my proverbial alley, and I jealously covet a few of his outstanding biblio-association copies. Coveting is labeled a sin in the Bible but is a natural occurrence among collectors.

Nicole, Donna, and I are in Kevin’s book office talking as he inscribes a few of his journal appearances for my own collection. Donna expresses mild displeasure with the disordered desk and surroundings of stacked books. Nicole suddenly interjects, “Compared to Kurt’s office, Kevin’s space is right out of Better Homes & Gardens.” This zinger at my expense draws a hearty round of laughter that would have made Twain proud. Kevin beams, and Nicole has made his lifetime Christmas list.

“They’re a great couple,” Nicole comments briefly as I relive the moment on the drive home, “And his collection certainly wouldn’t be what it is without her full support.”

I can only agree wholeheartedly and praise Nicole for her own support. This is simply reaffirming what we worked out between us long ago, but it is nice to express it out loud occasionally.

The drive back to Houston is almost three hours. Nicole is texting and paying no attention to me. Her actions are mildly annoying, but nonetheless I begin anew with a Shakespearian monologue about an important acquisition that arrived in the mail while we were on our three-day getaway. It awaits us upon our return. The item is a Sketch of Thomas P. Barton’s Library (1860), a separate issue of the chapter in James Wynne’s pioneering book Private Libraries of New York (NY: Eli French, 1860), this example one of six on large paper, inscribed by Barton to the publisher himself, French!

This rare relic of early American book collecting is the only presentation example by Barton I’ve encountered. Thomas P. Barton (1803-1869) began collecting in the 1830s. By 1860, when Wynne devoted a chapter in his book to Barton’s 15,000 volume library, it was recognized as one of the finest in the city. Barton was particularly interested in English drama and had the best Shakespearean collection in America, including the four folios, numerous quarto editions, and extensive amounts of ephemera. After Barton’s death, the Boston Public Library purchased the collection. Barton’s role as an American pacesetter in collecting Shakespeare was significant, followed by many important enthusiasts and later collectors including Henry Folger and Henry Huntington. I’ll have to show the item to Kevin Mac Donnell when he visits me. Great collectors appreciate one another’s efforts.

I find out belatedly at the end of my monologue that one of our three grown kids is having an issue. Thus, Nicole’s extended texting session.

“She just needed her mom’s input,” Nicole says, “She’ll be okay.”

“Yes … good,” I reply, settling down some, jolted back into the world. We are home soon.

“Please bring in our suitcases and the bag of books we bought,” Nicole says after we pull in the driveway. “You can also make me dinner and then tell me more about Kevin’s collection and the Barton guy,” she adds with a smile.

I bring in the bags and make dinner with alacrity after retrieving the Barton package from the mail, but I give her a reprieve on further book talk. Silence is golden. Temporarily, at least.

This essay first appeared in my column in the FABS Journal, Spring 2025.

Nicole, Kevin, and Donna in the Twain Library