THE TAKEAWAY:
“The ritual of nesting into a new house and location helped all these writers and women retrench and start over.”
“Significantly, the relocation helped provide redirection and a renewal of artistic energy.”
Elizabeth Fishel
Edith Wharton: She created an autobiographical house for herself. All the choices in it reflected her personality – from the sky blue bedroom where she would write and let the pages drift the floor.
Style Manual about the house and beyond:
- The Decoration of Houses, Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman
Books written while living in the house:
M.F.K. Fisher: She created the house she desired. She built her last house at age 63 in which she settled after moving some 34 times before. Last house is being opened to the public. She lived large in her small house for 20 years. The house fit her perfectly like a well designed dress.
Books written about her experience of living in the house:
- Last House – Memoire pieces of living in her home
Maxine Hong Kingston: A 1991 Oakland firestorm destroyed her house and manuscript. She was 51. She rebuilt the house many years later.
Books written in her rebuilt house:
| “Home stands for the sure center where individual life is shaped and from where it journeys forth. What it ultimately intends is that each of its individuals would develop the capacity to be at home in themselves. “ John O’Donahue from ‘To Bless The Space Between Us’as quoted by Elizabeth Fishel |