Jeremy Wayne Tate Profile picture
Feb 10, 2025 22 tweets 6 min read Read on X
The desks of authors and historical figures 🧵

1. Einstein's desk on the day he died, 1955 Image
2. King Charles Albert’s 1840 desk

One of the finest writing tables of the 19th century, this desk epitomizes royal luxury with its magnificent craftsmanship, exquisite design, and ingenious secret compartments.
3. This is the simple green pine desk at which Henry David Thoreau wrote his influential work, Walden, while living in a small house he built himself at Walden Pond on land owned by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson. Image
4. This stunning desk was built for Louis Bonaparte (Napoleon's brother) in the early 1800s
5. Ernest Hemingway’s desk in Key West still has the typewriter he used to write some of his best-known works. Image
6. Sigmund Freud's desk

Since the 1890s, Freud collected over two thousand artifacts, often displaying them on his writing table.

“I must always have an object to love,” he confessed to Carl Jung. Image
7. Jane Austen's writing desk at her family home in Hampshire, England Image
8. At this very desk, C.S. Lewis wrote much of his non-fiction, the Space Trilogy, and the Chronicles of Narnia. Image
9. Thomas Edison's laboratory desk Image
10. This is the working table used by Virginia Woolf at Monk’s House, East Sussex, photographed by Gisèle Freund in 1965: Image
11. Mark Twain’s desk in his home in Hartford, Connecticut Image
12. This writing table is one of Beethoven's few surviving pieces of furniture Image
13. In 1844, Abraham Lincoln began using this desk during his time as a lawyer.

After Mrs. Lincoln spilled ink on it, she threw it out, but he rescued and repaired it.

Years later, Lincoln wrote several speeches on it before becoming the 16th president of the United States. Image
14. Winston Churchill's desk at Chartwell Image
15. Charles Darwin’s 140-year-old desk Image
16. The writing table in author Jack London’s cottage near Glen Ellen, California Image
17. Desk and chair used by Charles Dickens in his study at Gad’s Hill Place, England Image
18. Nikola Tesla in his office at 8 West 40th Street, New York City in 1916 Image
19. One of the United States' most precious historical relics is the lap desk Thomas Jefferson used to draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Image
20. This is the desk where J.R.R. Tolkien wrote and illustrated The Hobbit Image
We are bringing these luminaries back into the classroom! cltexam.com/tests/authors/
Make sure to follow @CLT_Exam, @soren_schwab, @Culture_Crit, @JamesLucasIT

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More from @JeremyTate41

Dec 22, 2025
Every year, from 1920 to 1943, the Tolkien children received letters from Father Christmas hilmself.

They came with tales and illustrations of Santa Claus and his helpers — each with a North Pole stamp designed by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Here’s the story behind them... (thread)📷 Image
In 1920, Tolkien’s first Father Christmas letter arrived at the Oxford home of his three-year-old son, John.

It was hand-painted and carried a whimsical North Pole stamp priced at "2 kisses." Image
The card depicted a red-coated white-bearded figure walking through snow, alongside a snow-covered yurt tucked behind pine trees, captioned "Me" and "My House."

It was the start of a heartwarming family tradition that lasted 23 years. Image
Read 14 tweets
Nov 18, 2025
Paintings and drawings by J.R.R. Tolkien 🧵

1. Conversation with Smaug, 1937 Image
2. Bilbo comes to the Huts of the Raft-elves Image
3. The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the-Water Image
Read 20 tweets
Oct 21, 2025
Leo Tolstoy hand-wrote all 1,400 pages of War and Peace.

The handwriting of great authors 🧵 Image
1. Fyodor Dostoevsky's manuscript draft of The Brothers Karamazov Image
2. J. R. R. Tolkien's letter from Aragorn to Sam Gamgee, in which the King of Gondor informs the hobbit of his future visit and expresses his desire to "greet all his friends." Image
Read 21 tweets
Oct 12, 2025
Unpopular opinion: Christopher Columbus was a hero.

He singlehandedly carried the torch of Christianity and Western civilization across the ocean, lighting the dawn of a new world.

A thread on one of the most courageous explorers in history 🧵 Image
"I should not proceed by land to the East, as is custom, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone."

Columbus wrote this on August 3, 1492.

Can you imagine the bravery it took to even consider such a journey? Image
It cannot be overstated: Columbus literally crossed the Atlantic and opened the Americas to Europe.

That single act set in motion a series of cultural, religious, and intellectual exchanges that have defined the modern world. Image
Read 13 tweets
Oct 11, 2025
Gen Z is rediscovering sacred music. They are drawn to the otherworldliness of it. 🧵

1. Katie Marshall sings a cappella in the Cloisters of Gloucester Cathedral
2. Blind girl sings Amazing Grace a cappella in a church
3. Composed in 1638, Allegri’s Miserere was originally intended to only be sung during Holy Week, and to never leave the Sistine Chapel in order to preserve the mystery of the music.

Here it is performed by St Paul’s Cathedral Choir.
Read 15 tweets
Oct 4, 2025
Today is the Feast of St Francis of Assisi

A thread on the beauty of Assisi, Italy 🧵 Image
1. The Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, begun in 1228, includes two churches (Upper and Lower) and a crypt with the saint’s remains.

Francis was buried on 25 May 1230 under the Lower Basilica, but its burial site remained a mystery until its rediscovery in 1818. Image
2. Assisi, in Umbria, is both the birthplace and resting place of Saint Francis, and its basilica dates back to 1228.

Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is an iconic Christian pilgrimage destination and serves as an important example of the Gothic style in Italy.
Read 16 tweets

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