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Items left at Mark Twain's NY grave go on display

By Associated Press

Story Created: Aug 17, 2012 at 11:15 AM EDT

Story Updated: Aug 17, 2012 at 11:19 AM EDT

ELMIRA, N.Y. (AP) - In life, Mark Twain liked a good cigar and a sip of whiskey. In death, his fans are supplying the smokes and booze.

Items such as cigars and empty whiskey bottles left at the author's grave in Elmira are on display at the Chemung Valley History Museum.

Museum officials tell the Star-Gazette of Elmira that visitors to Twain's grave in Woodlawn Cemetery have been leaving mementos for years. The cemetery used to dispose of the items, but it was decided to make them part of a museum exhibit.

Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Missouri, married Olivia Langdon, a member of a prominent Elmira family. He spent more than 20 summers and wrote some of his greatest works at his home in Elmira, where he was buried after his death in 1910.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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