About our Store

The Name

We are named for Mark Twain's first short story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." The Frog's original location on South Whitney Street, the big store we inhabited throughout the 1990s on Prospect Avenue, and our current home at the Arbor Arts Center are all located less than a mile from Mark Twain's Hartford residence on Farmington Avenue, where he wrote "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," "Life on the Mississippi" and other books.

History and Future

For over 20 years, The Jumping Frog was a focal point for book lovers and book collectors in the greater Hartford area, featuring at its height over 100,000 volumes and a vast collection of ephemeral items: magazines, pamphlets, programs, postcards, posters, and more.

With this site, we continue our ambitious project to match every printed item in our inventory with its perfect owner. Newly-cataloged items appear each week here and in our eBay listings. Check back often!

If you want what was, we've got it!