Light and Motion

In 1909 Thomas Edison visited Mark Twain at his house in Connecticut and made the film you see before you. The intersection of these two great men, and their respective fields, at the same place and time is tantalizing. You see the familiar figure of Twain shambling around his house, then playing cards with his daughters. He could be talking, but the film is silent, and he moves with the herky-jerkiness of a Charlie Chaplin. The quality is terrible, but Twain in motion is irresistible.

There i...