- American author and humorist Samuel Langhorne Clemens, well-known by his pen name of “Mark Twain,” served as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River until the American Civil War broke out in 1861. The Mark Twain image shown here adorns an early Twentieth Century cigar box. Mark Twain was beloved and enjoyed public goodwill all his days.
I used to have a notion that there was only one place in the world where I could write,” American author Mark Twain once told a friend, “That was Elmira, where I used to spend all my summers. But I’ve got over that notion now. I find that I can write anywhere.” (1)
Anywhere meant exactly that: anywhere. Twain didn’t even require a desk to write. As it turns out, Mark Twain (1835-1910), also known as Samuel Clemens, did a good deal of his writing in bed. Unlike many other authors who complained of the difficulty of the writing process, Twain did not find creative work difficult.
Just try it in bed sometime. I sit up with a pipe in my mouth and a board on my knees, and I scribble away. Thinking is easy work, and there isn’t much labor in moving your fingers sufficiently to get the words down.” (1)
In his old age, Mark Twain was often photographed in his heavenly bed, smoking away on a cigar or a pipe and writing.
Mark Twain writing in his heavenly bed.
While Twain had many houses in his lifetime and all of them special, he had but one favorite bed, which he kept with him all of his life. He had bought it in 1878 in Venice, Italy, when he and his wife Olivia were furnishing their ridiculously- expensive three-story Victorian palace in a Hartford, Connecticut neighborhood known as “Nook Farm.”
The Mark Twain House in the Hartford, Connecticut, community known as "Nook Farm." Mark Twain said of this house, "To us, our house . . . had a heart, and a soul, and eyes to see us with." (Mark Twain Wrote (and Smoked!) in Bed," Lisa's History Room)
The master bedroom at Nook Farm occupied its own wing on the second floor. The massive Venetian oak bed dominated the room. The bed was heavy and made of carved oak. It featured:
a headboard carved into a bas-relief of cupids, nymphs and seraphs, the six-wing angels who guard God’s throne. [Twain] claimed he found it so sublime he had put the pillows down at the foot of the bed and slept backward so that this heavenly vision of worldly success would be the first thing he saw every day when he awoke.” (2)
Mark Twain's carved oak bed. ("Mark Twain Wrote (and Smoked!) in Bed," Lisa's History Room)
It was in this bed that Twain died. (3) The bed remains the most famous furnishing of the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut. This house proved so costly to furnish and maintain that it drove Twain into bankruptcy in 1891. He was forced to go on tour in Europe to raise funds.
Mark Twain and family at Nook Farm
However foolhardy the house was, it was during those spendthrift years at Nook Farm that Twain wrote many of his best-known and most-loved works, probably while smoking in his favorite heavenly bed:
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876),
- The Prince and the Pauper (1881),
- Life on the Mississippi (1883),
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), and
- A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889). (2)
(1) “How Mark Twain Writes in Bed. The New York Times, April 12, 1902.
(2) Wolfe, Tom. “Faking West, Going East.” The New York Times, April 24, 2010.
(3) Power, Ron. Mark Twain: A Life. New York: Free Press, 2005.
Lisa's History Room 
Hi Lisa,
I just recently came across your blogg researching pictures of Michael Jackson’s Motown 25 performance. Let me just say I love your blogg. I’ve always admired pop culture history and people like Marilyn Monroe and Jackie O. Sorry to say I wasn’t a MJ fan until his death. I’m only 20 (21 in the fall) and I really would love to see more post on MJ! Good ones, not of people trashing him.
Lastly I most say I already adore you for the years you lived to see (60’s , 70’s 80’s) and for sharing those fabolous moments with others like me.
Jill
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JilliiAnn, you made my day. I’m so glad you found something you enjoyed here. Keep coming back.
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Hi Lisa,
I’m sorry for the second comment : ) but I just read the other 5 of your Michael Jackson post. I disagree with some of them. I wish it was a way we could discuss this situation on personal levels but I don’t believe that it’s that serious.
I’m an African American and the post that caught my attention was the one title ” I have a few questions” explaining Michael denying his Afro roots and he only dated white females was a false statement. I mean something are obvisous. Did you know he dated Stephanie Mills back in 1979 and Tatiana Thumbtzen in 1988? They are both black women. What can I say the guys was international…lol.
But what I really wanted to talk to you about was something much deeper then who dated who and why he didn’t have black children. I think things like his nose becoming extremley thin and narrow and his different wigs was something we can witness ourselves but have you ever wondered why people kept accusing him for crazy things? Have you ever thought if this was “planned”?
Once after his death I founded out alot of personal things that any other person will by pass. For instance, why sex turned him off, why he didn’t eat and other strange things.
Please write me back! : )
Jill
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I don’t think any of us can demystify Michael. He is a puzzle. Thanks for the comments. I always appreciate another point of view expressed civilly.
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I think I can agree to that, he was very mysterious. Thanks for the comment : )
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He liked the attention all right.
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Hello Lisa 🙂
Thanks again for the wonderful, eclectic posts!
They are perfect for coffee break surfing. 🙂
I have just finished reading a extremly interesting book which presents a very different, some would say cynical spin on Mark Twain’s last years. . .
It is called “Mark Twain’s Other Woman”, by Laura Trombley.
Check it out!
Jessica
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Thanks for the tip. I need to get around to reading the newly released Mark Twain autobio.
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Lisa,
Found your blog while researching Mark Twain with my son for school. I just had to tell you that we have been to the house and that bed is absolutely amazing! He allowed his girls to play with the cherubs on the posts – as long as they were back on the posts by bedtime! What a character and we have learned so many interesting things about him and his family! You can check out my sons blog entries on him so far at threerobertshomeschool.blogspot.com
The Mark Twain house pictures will be up after he completes his last “book” chapter.
Keep up the great work! We will be coming back to your blog when we research other people.
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Adrianne, your post made me laugh. Twain loved his children. So neat that you have actually seen the bed. Please keep coming back to Lisa’s History Room.
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[…] Twain, one of my heroes, wrote his books in bed. He wasn’t fat and he was perfectly […]
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[…] ”Just try it in bed sometime. I sit up with a pipe in my mouth and a board on my knees, and I scribble away. Thinking is easy work, and there isn’t much labor in moving your fingers sufficiently to get the words down.” (Mark Twain – sursa) […]
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Goodmorning Lisa,
Great post, love Mark Twain, wanted to share with you that I came across your blog this morning while writing in bed…lol. I remembered that I had read that Mark Twain also wrote in bed so I googled it and up came your blog! I had been thinking about a writing project, my husbands ancestor was born in 1835 the same year as Mark Twain and although he was a direct descendant of a slave and a slave himself for 30 years the hardships they both suffered, I found very similar. Making your way in America was a struggle in the early days and I thought it was illuminating to discover this parallel between two very different men who only had the year and place of birth in common. Anyway, nice to meet you Lisa.
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