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by Maxine Carter-Lome, publisher

t is said that Kurt Vonnegut used his hardwood floor as his desk. CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870)
He worked from his lap with everything—papers, notes,
Idrafts—spread out around him. Virginia Woolf often wrote in a Considered one of the
low armchair with a plywood board across her knee. Henry David greatest novelists of the
Thoreau wrote Walden on a simple Hepplewhite-style desk made of Victorian era, Charles Dickens
had a very specific routine to
painted pine. his daily schedule, treating
Whether it’s a table at a local coffee shop, where J.K. Rowling is writing much like any day job.
said to have written Harry Potter, a writer’s shed far from the After waking at 7 a.m.,
maddening crowds, a custom-outfitted home office, bar stool, or a breakfast at 8 a.m., he was in
lone corner with an inspirational view, writers are as much inspired his study working by 9 a.m.,
by their writing tables as they are the writing routines that keep not leaving until 2 p.m. when
them engaged until the last word gets on the page. he had lunch with his family.
Looking for some inspiration and creativity for your own writing After that, he’d take a
project? Consider what’s worked for these famous writers: vigorous three-hour walk.
These walks were integral to
JANE AUSTIN (1775-1817) Dickens’s success as an
author. Not only did they
provide him with space to
muse on his writing and
consider future developments,
Charles Dickens, in 1858, at his writing but they were also key to
desk. photo: Old Photo Archive Dickens’s unrivaled knowledge
of the city. The rest of his
evening was spent in relaxation and contemplation. With this rigid
schedule, Dickens was able to keep up with his constant deadlines and
could easily produce 2,000 words a day.

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT (1832-1888)

Louisa May Alcott is most well known for her classic novel Little
Women. She wrote by hand at this
writing desk at Orchard House. After
years of disappointing reception to
her writing, her publisher suggested
that she try writing a “girl’s story.”
She composed the book that became
Little Women in two and a half
Jane Austen's writing desk, given to her by her father in 1794.
months, basing it on her own life
In 1794 Jane Austen’s father gave her this portable “writing box.” experiences with her sister. Neither
When open, it provides a slope on which to rest paper while writing. Its she nor her publishers were impressed
various compartments include a space for an inkpot and a lockable by the manuscripts, but it was
drawer for paper and valuables. Between 1795 and 1799 Austen published and quickly sold out of the
produced first drafts of what would later become Sense and Sensibility, first edition. The book was an
Pride and Prejudice, and Northanger Abbey, perhaps using this very overnight success that still stands as
writing desk. While traveling through Dartford in 1798 she almost lost great literature today. Guests of
it—and her savings of seven pounds—when it was accidentally placed Orchard House, the Alcott family
in a horse-drawn chaise heading for Dover. When Austen died in 1817, home-turned-museum in Concord,
aged 41, the desk was inherited by her sister Cassandra. It was later Massachusetts, can find her simple
passed down through her eldest brother’s family. In 1999, Joan half-moon shaped writing desk where Louisa May Alcott’s desk in her
Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen’s great-great-great-niece, generously entrusted her father built it, between two light- home, Orchard House.
it to the care of the British Library. filled windows in her bedroom.
photo: nadinewalks.com
30 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles