Mark Twain’s Study

Mark Twain’s Study is in the small town of Elmira, New York. It is a wooden octagon cottage on the campus of Elmira College.

Elmira was the hometown of Mark Twain’s wife, Olivia Langdon Clemens. They spent many summers on the Langdon family’s Quarry Farm. In 1874, the family surprised Twain with the study. It was placed near the main house at the farm on a knoll overlooking the Chemung River Valley.

From this quiet one-room study were born major portions of many of Twain’s iconic works, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, The Prince and the Pauper, A Tramp Abroad, and many other short pieces.

The structure on the campus is the original. It was moved from the Quarry Farm and donated to the college in 1952, where it has stood since, inspiring generations of future writers and Twain enthusiasts like myself.

I visited the Twain Study with my wife on a wet, dreary spring morning. It was easy to get to, and we just walked right up. During the summer, daily tours of the study are offered. We did not get to do that, but visiting was still cool. You could still walk up and look inside the windows. The small writing desk that Twain used was clearly visible.

If you are in the area visiting the study, make sure to make time to visit Mark Twain’s grave. He is buried about a mile away in the Woodlawn Cemetery.