by beatriceotto | Apr 19, 2019 | places & spaces, writing & writers
Another in a series of accounts by John Steinbeck’s wife, Elaine, of his perpetual search for the perfect writing space. This bright idea came of his frustration at one point of a writing room which had no sound insulation and therefore no privacy. But his...
by beatriceotto | Apr 12, 2019 | places & spaces, writing & writers
These quirky comments by Steinbeck charmed me – first his reaction to the first room he chose to work in, and then his decision to move elsewhere on the old property they rented near Glastonbury. ‘We lived in an ancient cottage that was listed in the...
by beatriceotto | Apr 5, 2019 | places & spaces, writing & writers
Another example of Steinbeck’s search for a perfect writing spot, in different houses, places, times of his life, as described by his wife. She never entered these spaces without being invited, which on occasion led to some surprises.This is a writing room high...
by beatriceotto | Mar 22, 2019 | places & spaces, writing & writers
Another description by Steinbeck’s widow of yet another of his writing spaces, which comprised mostly rooms but some other curious places. Here a ‘room of one’s own’ is complemented by pervasive love. ‘Now I am married to Elaine and in...
by beatriceotto | Mar 15, 2019 | paper shaper, places & spaces, writing & writers
Steinbeck wrote with pencil on the ubiquitous American yellow pad. Computers and word-processing came too late for him, and so I was curious about his wife’s assumption that while he would have liked and mastered them, he’d probably have stuck with...
by beatriceotto | Mar 8, 2019 | places & spaces, writing & writers
Recently I read an old penny-paperback of The Grapes of Wrath. I was about three-quarters of the way through when I left it on a plane – I hope someone picked it up and read it. So I bought another copy of the same edition as it had a foreword by...
by beatriceotto | Mar 1, 2019 | places & spaces, readers & reading
Antonio La Cava, a retired school teacher, converted a quintessential Italian vehicle, the three-wheeler micro-van, into a travelling library.For 20 years he’s been visiting remote villages and hamlets in his home province of Basilicata to bring books –...
by beatriceotto | Feb 22, 2019 | places & spaces
We visited the Palladio Museum in a suitable palazzo down a charming side street in Vicenza. Only by chance on our way out, we peeked around the corner of the courtyard and ventured into the tucked away library.Expecting a haughty enquiry into our qualifications for...
by beatriceotto | Nov 30, 2018 | places & spaces, print & publish
This vast languishing resource was first brought home to me in Erik Reinert’s How Rich Countries Got Rich … and Why Poor Countries Stay Poor, which highlighted a lemming-level of group-think compounded by ignorance of an entire ‘other canon’ of...
