by Kate Kennedy
First published 2020
What secrets do the homes of great artists hold? Kate Kennedy and Hermione Lee gather distinguished writers to examine this question through the dwellings of literary giants, composers, and political figures. Simon Armitage, Julian Barnes, Margaret MacMillan, and Jenny Uglow join other notable contributors in exploring how physical spaces shaped creative lives. The collection moves from W.H. Auden's chaotic New York apartment to W.B. Yeats in his Irish tower. Readers encounter Benjamin Disraeli maintaining his facade and Virginia Woolf in her vanished residences. The essays also examine those without homes, like poet John Clare wandering England's roads and Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera on London's streets. Through forty illustrations, the book reveals how we use houses to understand both ourselves and history, offering fresh insights into the relationship between place and identity.
Genres: biography, history, essays, 20th-century, 21st-century, art-history, academic, cultural-studies
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family
Setting: England, Ireland, London, New York, Zimbabawe
Period: 19th-century, 20th-century, 21st-century
304 pages · Hardcover · Princeton University Press