A Jefferson City artist on Monday donated a bust of Mark Twain to Missouri River Regional Library.
Phil Jones, who began sculpting in Jefferson City High School in 1973, contacted the library early in the day and told organizers he wanted to make the donation, library Director Claudia Cook said.
"I cannot imagine a more fitting place for Missouri's own son than in the library," Cook said. "He made my month."
Just before noon, Jones carried the bust into the library, walked up to the reference desk and asked if it was something folks there would want.
Having the bust at the library could be inspirational for children at a time when educational systems are dropping arts programs to meet demand for core subjects, Jones said. He said he'd made the bust as a commissioned piece for a customer who changed their mind. Depending on their details, the pieces can cost $500-$6,000.
"To me, (the Mark Twain bust) is priceless," Jones said Monday. "It came out of my own hands."
The life-size bust is about 16 inches tall, 15 inches wide and 10 inches deep. It weighs almost 22 pounds.
"What better place to put it than in a library where kids can look into the eyes of the man who wrote the books they read?" Jones asked. "And when I'm gone, there's a body of my work around town."
Other works around town include Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama busts in the Page Library on the Lincoln University campus, from where Jones earned a bachelor's degree. His sculpture of Thomas Jefferson is displayed at Jefferson City Hall.
Of course the library wanted the most recent bust, Cook said. Twain is her favorite author. And there may not be anybody else so closely linked to the state historically or culturally, she said.
The sculpture is a great likeness of Twain, who is one the most famous people to come from Missouri, Cook said. Jones has done other great work, she added.
He works in cold-finished, fired earthenware clay. His work is displayed from coast to coast. His bust of Ronald Reagan resides in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. He has a bust of President Donald Trump in Trump Tower. He's replicated Nancy Wilson and James Taylor.
Now that the library has a Twain bust, its organizers have to determine how best to display it and where.
It would be ideal to place Twain at the front of the library's Missouri section, Cook said. The library just needs to come up with a pedestal on which to place him.
For now, the bust stands guard over the book collection.
"He's on top of the microfilm cabinet," Cook said, "looking out into the stacks."