Mark Twain in Elmira, NY

'THE

MARK TWAIN

STUDY

1.8.7.4'

'THE MARK TWAIN STUDY

PRESENTED TO ELMIRA COLLEGE

BY THE LANGDON FAMILY

AND MOVED FROM QUARRY FARM

JUNE 9, 1952'

Mark Twain (real name Samuel Clemens) married Olivia (better known as Livy) Langdon of Elmira, New York state, in 1870. Shortly after that date until 1889 the Clemens, with their family, spent their summer months at Quarry Farm, Elmira, with Livy's adopted sister Susan Crane and her husband Theodore. Twain found it very helpful to work there away from his home in Hartford, Connecticut.

Susan had this octagonal study built for her brother-in-law by Alfred Thorp, and some of the decorative features resemble those in the family home in Hartford. In this study – moved from Quarry farm to Elmira College in 1952 – Twain wrote some of his most well known works, such as Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Life on the Mississippi and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. In 1886, Twain even referred to his study as 'the home of Huckleberry Finn'.

A side view showing the chimney.

The inside of the study.

On one of the walls are two very relevant quotations – both written to his friend and editor William Dean Howells, the first being in 1873:

'I haven't piled up MS so in years as I have done since we came here to the farm three and a half weeks ago. Why, it's like old times, to step right into the study, damp from the breakfast table, and sail right in and sail right on, the whole day long, without a thought of running short of stuff or words.'

Another quotation from a letter is dated 11 June 1874:

'Susan Crane has built the loveliest study for me you ever saw. It is octagonal, with a peaked roof, each octagon [!] filled with a spacious window, and sits perched in complete isolation on top of an elevation that commands leagues of valley and city and retreating ranges of distant blue hills.'

Twain's study being transported from Quarry Farm to Elmira College in 1952.

At the side of the study:

'CLARA L. CLEMENS

1874'

'MARK TWAIN WATERING

TROUGH.

ONE OF FOUR ORIGINALLY

LOCATED BESIDE THE ROAD

TO THE COLLEGE CAMPUS

DURING THE BICENTENNIAL

YEAR 1978.'

On the campus are statues of Twain and his wife. The tiers leading up to Twain's statue bear the names of some of his books.

Olivia Langdon Clemens (1845–1904), born Olivia Iona Louise Langdon, was a student at Elmira College when it was women-only: it didn't become fully co-educational until 1969.

Cowles Hall is near Twain's study, and now houses the Mark Twain Exhibit, and this bust is near the entrance. It is in bronze and is by Ernfred Anderson, who taught drawing, sculpture and clay modeling at the college. He also created the monument to Twain and Twain's son-in-law in Woodlawn Cemetery (see below).

Mark Twain's walking stick.

Twain's self-sticking scrapbook, the only object he ever patented and made money from: he sold 25,000 in 1877 and made around $12,000 from them. 

The chapel has some superb stained glass windows, the east ones of which are dedicated to Twain and Livy.

Twain's daughter Clara commissioned Ernfred Anderson to create this monument to her father and her first husband, the director and pianist Ossip Gabrilowitsch (1878–1936).

'SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS

–– MARK TWAIN ––

NOV. 30, 1835–APR. 21, 1910'

The Langdon monument.

Literary Associations in Chelsea: London #47

Chelsea is steeped in literary history and literary associations, and the images below represent just some choice ones, but are by no means meant to be fully comprehensive.

104 Cheyne Walk:

 

'HILAIRE

BELLOC

1870–1953

Poet, essayist

and historian

lived here

1900–1905'

 

Paulton's House, Paulton's Square, where this plaque was unveiled at around the same time as the Elizabeth Bowen plaque in Clarendon Terrace, Regents Park in March 2012:

 

'JEAN RHYS

1890–1979

Writer

lived here

[with her literary agent]

in Flat 22

1936–1938'

 

28 Mallord Street:

 

'This house

was built for

AUGUSTUS

JOHN

1878–1961

Painter'

13 Mallord Street:

 

'A. A.

MILNE

1882–1956

Author

lived here'

 

53 Old Church Street. I half expected to find a blue plaque saying John Betjeman had lived here, but things seem to have taken over.

 

24 Cheyne Row, now owned by the National Trust:

 

'THOMAS CARLYLE

LIVED AT 24 CHEYNE ROW 1834–1881

THIS TABLET WAS ERECTED BY THE CARLYLE SOCIETY'

 

This house was originally No 5. The plaque was sculpted by Benjamin Creswick in 1885 after a design by C. F. A Voysey.

 

 22 Upper Cheyne Row:

 

'LEIGH HUNT

1784–1859

Essayist & Poet

Lived Here'

 

On, then, to Dr John Samuel Phene, who published a few obscure books: On Prehistoric Traditions and Customs in Connection with Sun and Serpent Worship, and On an Age of Colossi. The British Library has several manuscripts that he wrote to the Committee of the Literary Fund under the (more correct) surname John S. Phené.

 

I also find it interesting that the Bibliothèque nationale de France has a five-page paper of his about the behaviour of cave men in western Europe:

'Auteur(s) : Phené, John S. (Dr)
Titre(s) : Association française pour l'avancement des sciences. Le Dr John S. Phené,... Sur les coutumes des hommes des cavernes dans l'Europe occidentale. Séance du 21 août 1875 [Texte imprimé]
Publication : Paris : au Secrétariat de l'Association, 1875
Description matérielle : In-8° , 5 p.'

 

Dr Phene built a house on the corner of Oakley Street and Upper Cheyne Row apparently modelled on his French family's home, the Chateau de Savenay. The front of the building is said to have had 'writhing' gods and godesses, busts of royalty, etc, and was painted red and yellow with bits of gold. Parts of that description (but not the colours) can, I think, be seen in photos here, although unless there's some joke I don't understand, I think Dickens's Miss Havisham has been confused with a Miss Faversham in the link here:  The Library Time Machine.

 

Sad to say, Dr Phene's house was bulldozed away long ago, although the pub he built, the Phene Arms, is preserved.

 

33 Oakley Gardens is diagonally opposite the Phene:

 

'GEORGE

GISSING

1857–1903

Novelist

lived here

1882–1884'

 

87 Oakley Street:

 

'JANE

FRANCESCA,

LADY WILDE

"SPERANZA"

1821–1896

Poet and Essayist

lived here

1887–1896'

 

'DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI'

 

In Chelsea Embankment Gardens, in front of his home at 16 Cheyne Walk where he lived from 1862 until his death in 1882, is the Rossetti Fountain: designed by John Pollard Seddon, sculpted by Ford Maddox Brown, and unveiled by William Holman Hunt.

 

His hands rest on his Dante and his Circle and Ballads and Sonnets.

 

4 Cheyne Walk:

 

'GEORGE

ELIOT

1819–1880

NOVELIST

died here'

 

34 Tite Street:

 

'OSCAR

WILDE

1854–1900

wit and

dramatist

lived here'

 

And this seems like the right time to include this image. I'm thinking, of course, of the famous occasion when Wilde said he wished he'd said something James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) had said, and Whistler replied 'You will, Oscar, you will.'

 

Whistler's statue is on Cheyne Walk, on the corner of Battersea Bridge Road, and although intended to commemorate the centenary of his death, wasn't in fact erected here until 2005.

 

23 Tedworth Square:

 

SAMUEL L.

CLEMENS

"MARK TWAIN"

1835–1910

American Writer

lived here in

1896–7'.