Members of the Forum,
Ever since the London _Independent_ published an article about the 
forthcoming Autobiography earlier this week, I've been asked by various 
news media and individuals some 476 times what I could tell them about 
Mark Twain's use of sex toys as documented in said Autobiography. I 
didn't hae an answer for that question, so I commissioned one of the 
Mark Twain Project editors, Ben Griffin, to fill me in. I thought the 
Forum might profit from what he had to say, which follows:
*[To the Person Vibrating in Darkness]*
by Benjamin Griffin, Mark Twain Project, 25 May 2010

The /Autobiography of Mark Twain/ does not contain any references to sex 
toys or vibrators of any kind.

When the Mark Twain Project comes to publish volume 3, we do expect to 
append the “Ashcroft-Lyon MS.,” which does contain a leaf (debatably 
part of the MS.) which refers to a pair of vibrating machines. It’s 
relevant, however, to know a little about the history of these 
appurtenances.

Vibrating machines were marketed extensively in the first years of the 
20th century. They were sold as remedies for rheumatism, headaches, 
neuralgia and many other ailments. No naughty connotations attached to 
their public mention: they were advertised in newspapers and sold in 
high-profile stores.

Clemens was an owner and user of the “Arnold Vibrator” and so was his 
secretary Isabel V. Lyon. She found that it “stops headaches”; Clemens 
himself wrote that it

cures and limbers lame and stiff backs … it stirs up the circulation 
quite competently and tones up the nerves—and that is really /the/ 
essential function of osteopathy and kindred treatments.

He recommended it to his friends, the Rogerses, in the 1908 letter 
quoted here, which the Mark Twain Papers published in 1969.

That Isabel Lyon bought a vibrator for Mark Twain is certain. Laura 
Skandera-Trombley’s assertion that it was a “present,” or even that it 
was Lyon’s idea to purchase the item, is undocumented. The relevant 
passage from Lyon’s 1908 Date Book (in the Mark Twain Papers) reads:

We got an electrical vibrating machine for the King [/i.e. Clemens/], in 
N.Y., and tested it on me and on him [/i.e. Ralph Ashcroft/].

“[F]or the King” doesn’t necessarily imply a gift; it may equally well 
imply a commission by Clemens, to be carried out since Lyon was going to 
New York anyway.

That Clemens would have recognized the vibrator as a potential sex toy 
is entirely Laura Skandera-Trombley’s idea; and since Skandera-Trombley 
specifies that it was a sex toy “for women,” its meaning as a putative 
present /to Clemens/ would be deeply puzzling.

In sum,

(1) the /Autobiography/, contrary to reports, contains no references to 
vibrators either in a sexual or asexual capacity;

(2) Clemens both used and recommended the then-popular health aide the 
Arnold Vibrating Machine, a very above-board medical appliance which 
Clemens recommended to friends, but this is not news.

(3) That Lyon made a “present” of the machine to Clemens, or recommended 
it to him, has not been documented.


Reproduced below is a characteristic ad, from a 1913 issue of /Popular 
Mechanics/, which may help to put the appliance back into its 
contemporary context.

[I have omitted the illustration in order to transmit this message to 
the Forum.]