Visiting the Homes of Writers

26°f/-3°C, dusting of snow this morning.

Have you ever visited the home of a famous writer?

A friend asked that question on Facebook, and it got me to thinking about the homes of authors that I have visited. Not many, really, which surprised me. I came up with three:

1) Pearl Buck's birthplace, in Hillsboro, West Virginia. 

I was invited to present a writing workshop there in 2019, so in preparation I read some of Buck's works. I was surprised to realize I had never actually read anything by her! So I tackled a few; The Good Earth was far and away my favorite, and what a parable for our times of the seemingly insatiable quest for wealth.

Buck only lived in Hillsboro for about three years; her parents were missionaries and she grew up in China, which of course explains a lot of her writing. But the homeplace does not reflect anything of her writing life 

Not far from Hillsboro is the homeplace of West Virginia poet Louise McNeill. Her work, Gauley Mountain, established her on the national writing stage, and she became the Poet Laureate of West Virginia in 1979, a position she held until her death in 1997. Her home has never been open to the public, but I often passed it when at workshops in Pocahontas County, and her work influenced my writing whenever I was there.

2) Cross Creek, Florida was the home of Pulitzer Prize Winner Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. We stopped there on our way ro Miami in 2021.

I have never read the book that earned her the prize,  The Yearling. But I did read the autobiographical Cross Creek, which detailed her life after moving from New York City to a rundown orange grove in north central Florida. I was entranced by her struggles as a single woman to reclaim the farm, repair the house, and write. This was in the early 1930s so you can imagine just how rural it was! 

Rawlings did most of her writing right here on the screened porch. That's her typewriter on the table.

She slept out here too. I was intrigued by all the ways people managed to stay cool in the hot Florida summers before electricity and air conditioning. 

Cross Creek is still one of the best books I have ever read, and I highly recommend it. There is a movie too, not quite as good as the book but still fascinating, and one we have watched over and over. Visiting her place was a bucket list item for me, and it did not disappoint.  

3) The Bronte sisters home in Haworth, England was also on my bucket list, and it far exceeded my expectations.  I was there in 2019 while on a trip to England with two of my sisters 

I have been curious about the writers of those wild novels since I first read them in my early 20s, and seeing their home, the village, and the surrounding countryside was eye-opening. 

Like Cross Creek,  the home and the Bronte's belongings have been remarkably preserved, and ot was easy to envision the Brontes in their front parlor, writing or sewing, while their brother lay drunk upstairs. They were a talented if strange family, and all but one sister died far too young--apparently poisoned by their drinking water which was tainted by runoff from the nearby graveyard.

 

Their father, who never drank water but only tea or whiskey, lived to a ripe old age, and was instrumental in identifying the contaminated water in the town and working to get clean water.

There are a few other places I have been with connections to famous writers: a room we stayed in in Aberystwyth, Wales, was the room where the Welsh poet Waldo Williams once stayed, perhaps while a student at the college there. The room had no view, and seagulls screaming was our morning alarm clock, which made me wonder if Mr. Williams was able to write at all in that room. But the city itself, yes, beautiful and full of places that could make an author pen memorable words.

In 2016 we visited Jamaica Inn in Cornwall, where Daphne DuMaurier wrote her famous book by that title. 

It is still a spooky place! We drove through mossy, foggy, narrow lanes to get there, so i could really get the feel of her inspiration when we were there. My only regret is not staying there for a few days.

The upstairs windows in this photo is in her room, and she had her typewriter on a desk below the window so she could look out while she wrote. What a view it must have been.

And then in London in 2019, I stayed in a small hotel that was once the home, for about a year, of George Orwell. Which they proudly announced on a plaque on the outside wall. At the time we were there, it wasn't in the best part of town, shall we say. 

A few other near brushes with authors' homes  include passing by but not visiting Hemingway's Key West home (too crowded with tourists), and attending a workshop near the home of Kentucky writer Jesse Stuart. There are probably others but these are the ones I remember right now. 

I have been lucky enough to meet many authors in my life as a storyteller, librarian, and occasional writer, and am lucky to count many among my friends. Maybe one day their homes will be as famous as these others!

How about you? Do you visit the homes of authors? Any favorites or memorable ones on your list?

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.