This essay about Henry Miller in Paris is included in my new book The Modern Salonnière. The 34 other essays in the book feature similar literary…
View More Henry Miller the Paris YearsTag: Yale University
Yale University has become an important literary laboratory for me since I found the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, visiting as an independent researcher.
During a number of trips, I’ve reserved work by writers whose literary legacies are decidedly important to the advancement of writing and criticism. My first archival foray introduced me to Edmund Wilson’s journals, Henry Miller’s Paris diaries, and letters and sonnets written by Petrarch (on parchment; in his own hand)! I’ve combed through Edith Wharton’s papers and explored a number of Edna St. Vincent Millay’s dossier, which includes her correspondences with Arthur Ficke Davison, Floyd Dell, Bunny—as Edmund Wilson’s friends referred to him, and others.
Each choice was significant to projects I’m working on, and each time I think about holding their words between my fingertips, I’m in awe that I have access to such important documents. I’ll be returning in just a little over a month to delve into Gertrude Stein’s papers, the ten boxes I’ve reserved contain letters passed between her and other writers, photographs of her travels and drafts of works she created along the way. I’m grateful that such a place exists and that it is open to me as I attempt to craft my own literary legacy.
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…
View More A Backward Glance on rue de VarenneHenry VIII’s Cult of Cloth
A trip to Frankfurt to attend Heimtextil a week from today has inspired me to share one of my favorite anecdotes about Henry VIII and…
View More Henry VIII’s Cult of ClothTouching Literary History
I will once again be touching literary history soon, as the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University reopened yesterday following a 16-month…
View More Touching Literary HistoryIt Is Time to Experience More
Experience more. It sounds like a simple directive but how many of us really take the time to savor what is happening right in front…
View More It Is Time to Experience MoreNarratives That Illuminate Design
Narratives That Illuminate Design If you believe that design-centric coffee table books contain nothing more than visual surveys of portfolios, I am out to change…
View More Narratives That Illuminate DesignHorace Walpole Shops The Decorative Fair
The books I’ve been reading about Horace Walpole since I returned from my trip to London to attend The Decorative Antiques & Textiles Fair in…
View More Horace Walpole Shops The Decorative FairThe End of an Era
Now I am quietly waiting for the catastrophe of my personality to seem beautiful again, and interesting, and modern. A voiceover of Don Draper reciting…
View More The End of an EraBeatrix Farrand Gardens
Powerful things happen in a garden. Beyond the miracle of riotous color and the vibrancy of burgeoning life, momentous occurrences have transpired on the garden…
View More Beatrix Farrand Gardens