House-hunting

 

    Following on from our glimpse of writers' houses, I'm drawn to read A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses by Anne Trubek - has anyone read it?

"What is it we hope to accomplish by trekking to the home of a dead author?" Anne Trubek wonders, and she travels across America visiting numerous writers' homes in an effort to find out.

"With a gimlet eye and indefatigable curiosity, Anne Trubek peers through the veil of domestic veneration that surrounds canonized authors and neglected masters alike. In the course of her skeptical odyssey, she discerns the curious ways in which we turn authors into household gods [... and] carries us along as she falls at least a little bit in love with each stop on her itinerary and finds in each some truth about literature, history, and contemporary America".

    Coming closer to home, this book looks like an excellent vade mecum: A Reader's Guide to Writers' Britain by Sally Varlow. Both a practical guidebook, a reference book and a source of anecdote and whatnot, "Essential reading for everyone who loves books and places to visit in Britain," says one reviewer; it's gone on my wishlist, too.

Comments

[Nancy]

Do you have a favorite one you've visited?

I like that sort of thing - visiting the homes of authors. I've always wanted to visit the various places Agatha Christie lived, but haven't yet. I think the list I made covers about all the ones I've done in England (in the order visited, over the years) - there may be one or two more.

It's too late & I'm too foggy to remember many of the Americans - other than (& I know there are more): Kate Chopin (Louisiana), Mark Twain, & Harriet Beecher Stowe (Hartford CT) - ohhhhhh!!! How can I forget!! I live a couple of blocks from Emily Dickinson's home and have been a number of times. :-)

British writers homes:
Haworth: Bronte Parsonage
Far Sawry: Beatrix Potter
Stratford on Avon: Shakespeare
Chawton: Jane Austen
Lamb House, Rye: E.F. Benson & Henry James
Hampstead Heath: John Keats
Higher Brockhampton, Dorset: Thomas Hardy
Clouds Hill near Wareham: T.E. Lawrence (tiny, tiny!)
Sissinghurst: Vita Sackville-West (gardens & writing tower)
Burwash / Bateman: Rudyard Kipling

G'night, now...

[Myrtle]

A Reader's Guide to Writers' Britain is going on my wishlist immediately. I love to get the background to the book, as it were. Also, I think you can tell a lot about people by the books they keep - I know I always turn the pages round in house magazines to read what's on the bookshelves.

Nancy, I'm very impressed with the number of writers' houses you've visited. I live here and can only chalk up Keats' house in Hampstead from you list!

[Nancy]

In my mind England = authors. :-)
A number of trips over since 1985, but those represent only 6 visits. I should plan a trip just for that. One thing I realize got left off was Lincoln, where EFB lived as a child while his father was at the cathedral there. I've been to Rye many times & one year we went on after the Tilling event in Rye to attend a 'Benson Family Day' in Lincoln.

[Sandy]

I do like visiting locations in books & have retraced the steps of the Swallows & Amazons amongst others. The Reader's Guide to Writers' Britain seems very ambitious in covering so many authors - but the info in 'look inside' at Amazon is very detailed and it seems to have a lot of information. I'll see if the library has it 1st!

[Dark Puss]

You didn't get in to the Isokon Building (about 1 km at most from Keat's house) before it was renovated? Agatha Christie lived here during WW2.

Interested in your comment I think you can tell a lot about people by the books they keep. What sort of things? What could you tell about me for example?

[Dark Puss]

England = authors

What about Wales and Scotland?

:-)

[Dark Puss]

Visitng literary locations I can have some empathy for but I've never been all that motivated to visit writer's houses unless (like the Isokon) they are themselves interesting buildings. I don't visit the laboratories of dead, famous physicists unless I'm meeting the currently active inhabitants either.