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Arts & Entertainment

Mark Twain Is a Familiar Face in Fairfield

100 Years After His Death in Redding, Mark Twain Invites Conversation and Companionship on the Post Road

If he were alive today, Mark Twain would be happy to know he's still recognized in downtown Fairfield.

As a work of sculpture, he has a personal presence right on the Post Road at No. 1522,  on the sidewalk in front of Sweet Rexies candy store.

There's room on his sculpted park bench for ice cream-licking companions to shoot the breeze with him, though he's not the conversationalist he used to be.

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His vanity is served at Christmas time when his sculpture's adorned as Santa Claus.

And right across the street, Border's has a special display of books by and about Mark Twain on this the 100th anniversary of the death in Redding of the creator of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

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"Yeah! Clemens! His face is well-known! I've read his books!" called out a passerby, rushing into his car with a slice of hot-out-of-the-oven pizza, when asked  on Wednesday if he knew whom the statute depicts.

"I've read 'Huckleberry Finn,' but I honestly can't remember the who's and the what's in the book," said Ike Calder of Black Rock, who good-naturedly agreed to pose for a snapshot next to the sculpture.

"I know it's Mark Twain because I read it on the plaque that used to be here," said Page Tremaine of Fairfield, who is sure her daughters Lucy, 5, and Lily, 2, will be introduced to Tom Sawyer and/or Huckleberry Finn at school when they're a little older.

Fred Sullivan of Fairfield credits a high school teacher who was "gaga" over Mark Twain with getting him past the hurdle of delving into a "serious" work of literature.

"He got me past the dread of reading it because it was assigned...for fun," said Sullivan, a candy salesman who was making a delivery of his "Warheads" sour candy to Sweet Rexies accompanied by his friend Rob Christie of Darien.

Emily Levine, formerly of Fairfield and now of Easton, also didn't mind posing on the bench next to Mark Twain, even though she confessed to not having read "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

As a science major at Bryn Mawr, she's more into non-fiction than fiction.

Lydia Pereira, who was busy selling jelly beans inside the candy shop, said she was happy the sculpture was there.

"It's a very popular spot," she said. "Moms sit there with their children and their ice creams."

The sculpture was created by artist Gary Price and installed when an art gallery occupied the spot.  A companion piece greets visitors to the Mark Twain Library in Redding.

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