Lincoln’s dream of death has a counterpart in the life of Samuel Clemens who, as author Mark Twain, wrote such literary classics as Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer.

Working as an apprentice pilot aboard the Mississippi River steamboat Pennsylvania, Clemens dreamed of his younger brother Henry’s death. Henry Clemens was employed as a clerk on the steamboat.

Visiting his sister in St Louis, Clemens dreamed that he stood gazing down at an open metal coffin that lay across two chairs. Within the coffin lay his brother and, upon his chest, a bouquet of white flowers with a brilliant crimson flower at its center.