Mark Twain and Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg

Abstract

N JUNE 7, i888, Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg, Finnish author and a leader in Finland's woman suffrage and temperance movements, arrived in Hartford, Connecticut, to visit her friend Mrs. Isabella Beecher Hooker.' Born in 1857, of an illustrious Swedish-Finnish family, Baroness Gripenberg had come to America as a delegate from Finland to the meeting of the International Council of Women which convened in Washington, D.C., on March 26, i888. After the convention she traveled extensively through the United States, visiting Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, among other cities, before reaching Hartford. In the charming little state capital of Connecticut the Finnish writer was delighted to meet not only her hostess's sister Harriet Beecher Stowe but also two other famous authors, Charles Dudley Warner and Mark Twain.2 The meeting between Mark Twain and Baroness Gripenberg took place on June IO3 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. George Warner.4 (George Warner, president of the American Emigrant Company, was the brother of Charles Dudley Warner, the author.) At eight o'clock in the evening when Alexandra arrived at the Warners', Mr. and Mrs. Clemens were already there. Alexandra was immediately impressed by Mark Twain's tanned and weatherbeaten appearance, his face creased with innumerable small and