It’s much easier to picture the studios of artists and designers – but it’s not so easy to imagine where writers write.
Based on the excellent Writers’ Houses site, A.N. Devers and design duo Michael Fusco and Emma Straub explore the houses of famous writers through a series of stunning screenprints. (above)
Over on www.writershouses.com you can see the houses of nearly 100 writers, you can learn about Virginia Woolf, who of all writers knew the importance of ones surroundings while writing. She went on to write “A Room of One’s Own”, expanding on the idea that, in order to write, a woman must have “five hundred a year and a room with a lock on the door.”
“In the summer of 1919, Virginia and Leonard Woolf attended an auction in Rodmell, Sussex, intending to purchase Monks House, (left) a cottage they’d recently become enamored with. Despite the fact that the couple had a minimal income and either owned or rented five other properties––including 22 Hyde Park Gate and three Cornish Cottages––they walked away from the auction with a new home.
“Virginia quickly settled into the new house’s rhythm. She loved Monks House. They spent their summers there, as well as the war years, when it was no longer safe in London. She had a particular fondness for the grounds. Of particular pride to Virginia was the writing lodge in the garden “with large windows and a view of the downs,” as she noted in a letter to Vanessa Bell. She began to plan for the room in March 1929. On the 28th of that month, Virginia wrote in her diary that she meant to hire a local builder to help with a planned extension to Monks House. The extension would allow for a study, looking out on the garden, and a bedroom above.”