Goannatree

Home Libraries: Neil Gaiman

2013-02-24T21:07:20Z

Here’s what contemporary author Neil Gaiman said about his enviable, Mark Twain style writing gazebo in the book Shedworking:

“I had the gazebo built about 15 years ago, and go through phases of using it, and then I’ll abandon it for 5 years, then rediscover it with delight. I love walking to the bottom of the garden, and settling down to write.

Nothing ever happens down there. I can look out of the window and some wildlife will occasionally look back, but mostly it’s just trees, and they are only so interesting for so long, so I get back to writing, very happily.

There are heaters down there, because it gets cold here in winter, and blankets on the chairs, ditto, and I have to try and remember not to leave bottles of ink on the table as they freeze. It’s just out of reach of the house Wifi, too, which is a good thing.”

And here’s an inside view

I love the gazebo idea! Cozy, with great views (and room for a dog) – what more could you want?!

Home Libraries: Norman Mailer

2013-02-24T21:04:04Z

So this week’s home library is a corker! Meet Norman Mailer’s whole house!

Photo Source

Norman Mailer’s apartment did not have a dedicated library; rather, the whole apartment was a library, with bookshelves sitting against many of the walls and volumes stacked hither and thither. Seen here as it looked a few years after his death, the Mailer-designed apartment has a nautical theme, complete with galley-like rooms and gangplank style walkways that lead to loft areas. Mailer designed the apartment partly to conquer his vertigo, and in his younger years, he hung a hammock between the rafters, a trapeze from the ceilings, and rope ladders from the different levels.

While this nook was Mailer’s study, he actually did not do any writing at home. To get away from distractions, he would write in a small, undecorated room down the block from his apartment.

I am huge fan of those built in to the gaps between the studs bookshelves!

Home Libraries: Ernest Hemingway

2013-02-24T20:59:01Z

Ernest Hemingway lived in this house in Key West, Florida for more than 10 years. This is where he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls and Death in the Afternoon. Needing a place where he could drink a glass of scotch, smoke a cigar, and write, Hemingway turned the old carriage house on the property into his personal writing studio. The main features in the room are the Cuban cigar-maker’s chair and his Royal typewriter. Throughout the room, Hemingway placed mementos he collected from his adventures in Africa and Cuba.

I think my favourite parts are the sconces, the easel, and the massive impala head!

Home Libraries: Jay Walker

2013-04-30T11:29:06Z

If William Randolph Hearst had lived in the 21rst century and been a lot geekier, this is what his library might have looked like. Created by the founder of Priceline.com, Jay Walker, to be a tribute to the human imagination, the 3,600 square foot library consists of three eye-popping levels, which were inspired by M.C. Escher’s famous sketches of floating stairs. The platforms are connected by glass-paneled bridges that allow you to see the first floor of the library as you stand on top of it. The railings are also made of glass, etched and illuminated with images depicting the discovery of great inventions and ideas. The library houses thousands of eclectic and rare books and artifacts, including one of seven surviving Sputniks, books bound in rubies and diamonds, fossilized dinosaur eggs, and the napkin upon which FDR scribbled his plan for winning WWII.

The fascinating details and images of Walker’s library are amazing and i heartily recommend checking out the articles here and here to learn more about it, and to get a better look, you can take a virtual tour in this video.

Home Libraries: Jack London

2013-02-24T20:55:52Z

When the stone mansion (“Wolf House”) Jack London was building on his Sonoma Valley ranch burned down in 1913, he built a tranquil, windowed annex onto the large “cottage” he and his wife Charmian had been living in for years. The study–in which he penned his final stories and novels–was adjacent to his “sleeping porch.” A sleeping porch is kind of essential in a hot climate and this one, with its beautiful view, is awesome!

Photo Source

Photo source

Home Libraries: Sherlock Holmes

2013-02-24T20:53:51Z

So last week, I shared the study of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and this week it is the turn of onr of his creations, and someone with a fabulous home library!

Though, Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character, his study has been lovingly recreated from the descriptions given by his creator, Doyle. There is one at the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221B Baker Street:

And one at The Sherlock Holmes pub in Westminster:

Home Libraries: Arthur Conan Doyle

2013-02-24T20:50:56Z

Today I’m excited to be able to share images of Arthur Conan Doyle’s study!

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lived in his Windlesham home on the outskirts of Crowborough in East Sussex for 23 years. When he died there in 1930, his request was to be buried in a garden next to a writing hut he had built on the property. But during his life, he actually preferred to write in the study on the first floor of his home. There he penned several of his famous Sherlock Holmes works, including The Poison Belt, in which he describes the view looking out from his study and across the Crowborough Common to distant Rotherfield.

Home Libraries: Roald Dahl

2013-02-24T20:41:38Z

When Roald Dahl moved to Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire in 1965, he built a small writing hut (you can take a 3-D tour here) for himself. Dahl’s family has kept the hut much like it was when the author died, but even during his life it was a pretty dark, bare bones, ramshackle sort of place. No one could enter the hut but Dahl himself, and no one was allowed to clean it either; it reeked of tobacco and the floor was covered with pencil shavings and cigarette ash.

Within the hut, Dahl would sit in a big chair (because desks hurt the back he injured in WWII) and write on a large pad of paper (he didn’t type).

The solitude of his hut inspired Dahl’s creativity; he wrote all of his children’s stories from within its little walls. Here’s how Dahl described the power of the place:

“You become a different person, you are no longer an ordinary fellow who walks around and looks after his children and eats meals and does silly things, you go into a completely different world. I personally draw all the curtains in the room, so that I don’t see out the window and put on a little light which shines on my board. Everything else in your life disappears and you look at your bit of paper and get completely lost in what you’re doing. You do become another person for a moment. Time disappears completely. You may start at nine in the morning and the next time you look at your watch, when you’re getting hungry, it can be lunchtime. And you’ve absolutely no idea that three or fours hours have gone by.”

Home Libraries: William Randolph Hearst

2013-02-23T22:56:14Z

To call this week’s Home library does seem a little of an understatement. Maybe we should just call it “The Home Library” but this was a library in the home of William Randolph Hearst. Hearst was a very rich man. Very rich people seem to own lots of stuff.

Hearst was such a prolific collector of art, books, and antiques, that his castle was purpose built around how to display the collection that had formerly been sitting in warehouses. All of his books still didn’t fit into the castle’s two libraries however, leading him to stick them in odd places, such as in bookcases that lined the walls of his movie theater room.

Personally, I love the idea of bookshelves in pretty much every wall cavity!

Built in San Simeon, California by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, Casa Grande, or Hearst Castle as it is now known, boasted 56 bedrooms, 61 bathrooms, 19 sitting rooms, 127 acres of gardens, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a movie theater, tennis courts, an airfield, and the world’s largest private zoo. Hearst himself lived in the castle’s third floor Gothic Suite. The floor’s library (seen above) housed more than 4,000 books, along with 150 vases from ancient Greece.

Hearst had more than one library in his home! He called this space, The Gothic Study. It held Hearst’s most prized books and manuscripts along with 3,000 books. The room served as a private library and office from which Hearst controlled his media empire and as an executive boardroom.

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Home Libraries: William F Buckley

2013-02-23T22:38:58Z

They say a messy desk is the sign of a creative tenant. William F. Buckley was certainly prolific!

It has been said that if you were looking for William F. Buckley during his life, the first place to check was his study, which he converted from a garage. It was here, surrounded by mementos, books, and paintings (some of which he did himself), that he would toil on his columns and novels, and it was here that he was found dead when he passed away in 2008.