What do the Paris and New York City cafés that served as historical backdrops for some of the world’s most brilliant creatives say about the differences in France and America? Quite a lot, actually. Since the fabric of New York is woven by revolving real estate, citizens of Gotham learn not to get too attached […]
Tag: famous writers
As a writer who puts words on a page (screen) every day, I’m in awe of the famous writers of the past. I take the time to read their works, visit the neighborhoods where they lived when I can and delve into their papers when possible.
Presenting one of my strongest diary entries about famous writers, I take you to Paris where I have explored Hemingway’s former neighborhoods on the Left Bank quite extensively. Using his memoir A Moveable Feast, I’ve channeled his mood as I made my way between the addresses of his apartments and studio to his favorite cafes, one of which is La Closerie des Lilas. I admire his muscle, which I’ve read in letters to others in their papers at the Beinecke Library at Yale University.
in a letter to Malcolm Cowley in 1945, for instance, he wrote, “Been working every day and going good. Makes a hell of a dull life too. But it is more fun than anything else. Do you remember how old [Ford Madox] Ford was always writing how [Joseph] Conrad suffered so when he wrote? How it was un métier du chien [a dog’s trade]. Do you suffer when you write? I don’t at all. Suffer like a bastard when I don’t write, or just before, and feel empty and fucked out afterwards. But never feel as good as while writing.” I have a number of posts under this tag so if you’ve enjoyed this snippet, I hope you’ll stop by and read about other famous writers.
The Personality of Place
So, this is how it feels to experience a medieval Tuscan village that has existed on a hillside in some form for almost 1000 years! My view from the courtyard of Castel Monastero encompasses a string of buildings that meander along the edge of a quaint piazza. The bricked courtyard is paved in a herringbone […]
Far from Oblivious in Bologna
If you find yourself strolling along the streets of Bologna near the city’s center, don’t be surprised if you turn a corner and come upon an anomaly. It will stand unapologetically as traffic whizzes by, a thumb of unruly masonry with its flanks sawed off. The amputations were necessary to make way for thoroughfares teeming […]
Eudora Welty Finds Her Voice
When a writer begins to grapple with how to mine the outside world for inspiration, the process can be challenging. In her memoir, One Writer’s Beginnings, Eudora Welty describes how travel helped her awaken to what it means to embrace a broader reality, writing about a train ride she took with her father when she […]
Exploring Frankfurt with Goethe
I am returning to Frankfurt am Main next week to attend Heimtextil for the second time, an experience I truly enjoyed last year for the breadth of textiles the show holds and the depth of the trend forecasting its organizers achieve. I look forward to seeing the new products that will debut, my favorites to […]
The Sensuous Delight of Place
Like Katherine Mansfield’s enigmatic stories, the book Place by Tara Bernerd feels like “a thread with a subtly woven texture embracing ecstatic feeling, sensuous delight.” The quote is from an essay by Angela Smith in a remarkable book titled The Modernist Party. Edited by Kate McLoughlin, the collection of literary explorations surveys the dinner party through […]
Badgley Mischka Fashion at Home
Mark Badgley and James Mischka introduced their new furniture collection, Badgley Mischka Home, during April’s High Point Market. I had the pleasure of sitting down with the design duo to talk with them about the new effort, their first foray into the furnishings market after designing fashion as a team since 1988. The furniture actually […]
Earnest in Paris
This comparative look at Wes Anderson and Ernest Hemingway, Earnest in Paris, is a guest post by Miles Stephenson, a talented young writer whom I had the great pleasure of haunting locales touched by the Lost Generation during the trip to Paris he is presenting on The Modern Salonnière today, an earnest post I throughly enjoy […]
A Backward Glance on rue de Varenne
The narrow sidewalks push their black iron batons up out of the ground to protect the buildings hemming them; the rain turns the cobblestones to muted mirrors of damp light—I’m visiting her again on the anniversary of her 155th birthday, and it dawns on me that I’ve never seen the statuesque green door with its […]
Architecture with Heart in Bordeaux
In the preface to the book Grand Bordeaux Châteaux: Inside the Fine Wine Estates of France, Philippe Chaix describes discovering Bordeaux as a bewitching act: on foot, he reports, it means ambling through the city of stone and gazing into its mirror-like river. Setting off to explore the Mèdoc and Saint-Èmilion, he notes, the experience makes […]