How Downtown Buffalo Became the Home of an American Literary Masterpiece

Nestled in between the children’s reading room and the nonfiction section of the Buffalo & Erie County Central Library, you’ll discover the original manuscript of an American literary masterpiece hiding in plain sight.

The Central Library’s Mark Twain Room, found on its first floor and free and open to the public, is a veritable shrine to the legendary American author. Inside the converted former smoker’s lounge, you’ll discover many objects from the library’s extensive collection of Twain-related memorabilia lining its shelves, from Twain-branded cigars and foreign language editions of his books to a copy of the 1891 game he patented, “Mark Twain’s Memory Builder.” The exhibit space even features the preserved fireplace from the long-demolished Delaware Avenue home where Twain lived with his wife during a brief stint in Buffalo as a newspaper editor in the early 1870s.

The collection’s unrivaled centerpiece sits in the middle of the room: the original manuscript of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, displayed two pages at a time inside a glass case. The manuscript first arrived in Buffalo nearly 140 years ago. Back then, leadership at Buffalo’s Young Men’s Association, the library’s precursor, contacted a series of American authors and requested they send original manuscripts of their work to Buffalo’s growing collection. Twain happily obliged to curator James Gluck’s request and mailed half of the Huck Finn manuscript to our city soon after its completion in 1885, believing that the other half had been destroyed.

Much to everyone’s surprise, the rest of the manuscript reappeared more than a century later in 1991 inside a trunk in Hollywood. As it turned out, Twain eventually found the remainder of the manuscript and mailed it to Gluck, but that half didn’t find its way into the library’s collection. Instead, it followed Gluck’s family to their new home in California, where his descendants eventually tried to sell it at auction.  Following a negotiation with the family, the library successfully acquired the other half, reunited the manuscript, and opened the Mark Twain Room in 1995 – complete with the trunk that contained the rest of Twain’s work.

Nearly three decades later, the Mark Twain Room remains one of downtown Buffalo’s best hidden gems and a must visit stop for any fan of Twain.  

The Mark Twain Room is free and open to the public.

Buffalo & Erie County Central Library
1 Lafayette Sq, Buffalo, NY 14203
buffalolib.org