readers & reading, writing & writers
I like this questioning of cause versus effect in the writing – and reading – of novels. Does writing and reading them compel us to remember, or is it our inability to forget which compels us to read and write them? Some novels allow us to forget...
poetry mojo, writing & writers
In fact, a prayer for any writer. Having just read John Drury’s marvelous appreciation of George Herbert’s life and his vivifying skills of poetry, I am more conscious than usual of the need for such fortifying. Drury’s Music at Midnight is, among...
places & spaces, writing & writers
From the multiple versions described by his wife, it seems it took many years and experiments for John Steinbeck to settle on the perfect writing space. And in the end, he simply built it himself, with the help of a local carpenter. In homage to the name he gave to...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
