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A brass plaque affixed to the desk records the history of its creation: In fact, the majority of Thoreau’s writing—a draft of A Week on the
H.M.S. Resolute, forming part of the expedition sent in search of Concord and Merrimack, the multiple drafts of Walden, the thousands
Sir John Franklin in 1852, was abandoned in Latitude 74º 41’ N. of pages of the journal, inspirational letters to Harrison Gray Otis Blake,
Longitude 101º 22’ W. on 15th May 1854. She was discovered and wearisome letters to book publishers, as well as lectures, magazine articles,
extricated in September 1855, in Latitude 67º N. by Captain and graphite invoices—was done at this desk, which today is on display
Buddington of the United States Whaler George Henry. The ship at the Concord Museum in Concord, Massachusetts.
was purchased, fitted out, and sent to England, as a gift to Her In 2020, Cameron Turner, an author and teacher at Regis Jesuit
Majesty Queen Victoria by the President and People of the United High School in Aurora, Colorado, decided to take an American
States, as a token of goodwill & friendship. This table was made from Literature unit in a different direction. Instead of just reading about
her timbers when she was broken up and is presented by the Queen Henry David Thoreau’s experiment in self-reliant living he worked
of Great Britain & Ireland, to the President of the United States, as a with his students on a project to re-create Thoreau’s writing desk –
memorial of the courtesy and loving kindness which dictated the offer using hand tools! The result was a hands-on appreciation for the skills
of the gift of the “Resolute.” required to enable a life of self-reliance.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU’S WRITING DESK VIRGINIA WOOLF’S STANDING DESK
At this simple Hepplewhite-style desk made of painted pine sat American author Virginia Woolf (1882-
American naturalist, essayist, 1941) favored desks made of plywood boards
poet, and philosopher, she held on her lap and sloped standing desks.
Henry David Thoreau. Around 1904, Woolf designed and
It was at this humble ordered a writing desk to be made for her at
piece of furniture that which one would stand. The sloping top of
Thoreau penned Walden, the desk features a central panel in two
universally acknowl- pieces, with hinges at the top. The panel lifts
edged as one of the great to reveal a storage compartment underneath.
books of American litera- Two drawers are located below the storage
ture, as well as Civil area, one on each side of the desk. At three
Disobedience, one of the feet six inches high, it required her to stand
most influential essays in to work. Her sister painted standing up, and Virginia Woolf
the worldwide democratic “This led Virginia to feel that her own
tradition, and the first pursuit might appear less arduous than that of her sister unless she set
draft of his book, A Week matters on a footing of equality.”
on the Concord and Woolf used her standing desk at her Asheham home, and then at
Merrimack Rivers. the writer’s lodge she had made for herself at Monks House, a cottage
Made in Concord, The writing desk of in the village of Rodmell that she and her husband, the political
Massachusetts in about Henry David Thoreau activist, journalist, and editor Leonard Woolf, bought at auction.
1838 by a cabinetmaker was made in 1838.
who charged perhaps two dol- photo: concordmuseum.org
lars for it, the desk was first
used by Thoreau when he set up a school with his
brother John in the fall of 1838. This desk has a
pencil inscription on the inside of the backboard that reads “Summer
of 1838.”
John Thoreau’s failing health made it impossible for him to continue
to teach past the 1840 academic year, and in 1842, he died. It was in
part to write a book in tribute to his brother that Henry Thoreau went
to live at Walden Pond in 1845, in a house he built himself on land
owned by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson. He had this desk with him
at Walden.
Thoreau then moved this desk with him to the Emerson house,
where he stayed for a while after leaving Walden. Thoreau wrote to Virginia Woolf’s writing desk on display at the
Emerson in 1847: “I sit before my green desk, in the chamber at the Rubenstein Library, part of Duke University
head of the stairs, and attend to my thinking …” Libraries, after conservation.
photo: twitter.com/dukelibraries

By 1912, the habit of writing standing up began to take its toll, and
in 1929, Woolf offered the desk to her nephew, Quentin Bell, who
took it to Charleston, the home of his parents, Vanessa and Clive Bell.
Bell painted the figure of Cleo holding a trumpet on the top of the desk
at that time. At some later date, his wife, Olivier Bell, shortened the
desk’s legs by six inches. Later in her life, Woolf often wrote in a low
armchair with a plywood board across her knees (as her father,
Sir Leslie Stephen, 1832–1904, had done) or sat at a worktable, which
was seldom used.
In his autobiography, Woolf’s husband wrote:
“To write her novel of a morning she sat in a very low armchair, which
always appears to be suffering from prolapsus uteri; on her knees was a large
board made of plywood which had an inkstand glued to it, and on the
board was a large quarto notebook of plain paper which she had bound up
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), Walden, with an introduction by for her and covered herself in (usually) some gaily-colored paper. The first
Bradford Torrey. Illustrated with photogravures (Boston, New York: draft of all of her novels was written in one of these notebooks with pen and
Houghton, Mifflin and company, 1897) photo: Concord Library
ink in the mornings …”
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