If you are planning a trip out of the country in the near future, here are some authors’ homes that might work into your itinerary. All except one (Gertrude Stein’s apartment) are open to the public. It is advised to book ahead if you would like to visit any of the houses. Some of the houses have wonderful architecture and most have original interiors and many possessions that belonged to the writer.
Virginia Woolf’s Monk House is in Sussex, England. It was home to Virginia Wolff and her husband Leonard for fifty years, 1919–1969. The cottage and gardens are open to the public.
Monk’s House is a modest 17th-century cottage and very charming. Virginia and her husband Leonard bought it in 1919, having fallen in love with the “shape and fertility and wildness of the garden”. This garden would become Leonard’s obsession and refuge for Virginia when she was suffering from depression. Her writing cottage was tucked into the trees and her daily walk from house to desk was one that she loved. Today Monk’s House belongs to the National Trust, and visitors will find the house returned to the style of its Bloomsbury days, filled with the Woolfs’ collections of furniture, books and art. Because the house is small, visitors must book in advance of visiting.
George Orwell – Scotland
In May 1946 George Orwell and his son arrived at the Barnhill Farmhouse in Jura, Scotland, so that the writer, in rapidly deteriorating health from tuberculosis, could complete his final, most successful novel, 1984. Jura is an island in the Inner Hebrides and is remote. It is still owned by the Fletcher family who rented it to Orwell. It can be rented today and is much the same as when Orwell lived there. There is a generator for electricity, a gas-powered fridge, a cast iron stove in the living room and heat from a coal-fired Rayburn. https://www.jurahotel.co.uk/things-to-do/orwells-barnhill/
Elizabeth Gaskell’s House- Manchester, England
This English novelist, biographer and short story writer lived at 84 Plymouth Grove in Manchester, England with her husband William. Her novels include Mary Barton, Cranford, North and South and Wives and Daughters. Her home and gardens have been beautifully restored.
Open to the public, this Grade II* listed neoclassical villa was the home of Elizabeth and William Gaskell from 1850 to 1865 and 1884 respectively.
Agatha Christie – England
For the best-selling novelist of all time, Greenway house, on Dart River Estate, was love at first sight. Agatha Christie has used her beloved vacation home as an inspiration in many of her wonderful murder mysteries. This Georgian style house was built in the late 1700’s. The walls of the library have artwork dating back to World War II because the house was rented to American soldiers during that time. The first floor consists of Christie’s bedroom and has a gorgeous view of Dart River.
Born and brought up in Torquay, Agatha Christie had known Greenway all her life. She described it as ‘A white Georgian house of about 1780 or 90, with woods sweeping down to the Dart below, and a lot of fine shrubs and trees,’ declaring it: ‘The ideal house, a dream house.’ She bought it in 1938 and it became a vacation spot until her death in 1976, as well as the lightly fictionalized setting for many of her stories. It belongs to the National Trust.
Dylan Thomas – The Boathouse, Laugharne, Wales
In 1949, four years before his death, the poet Dylan Thomas moved with his family to the Boathouse in the Welsh village of Laugharne. It’s a beautiful location, set on a cliff edge above the Taf Estuary, overlooking the Gower, which Thomas found highly inspirational. Today, visitors to Laugharne can see both The Boathouse and Thomas’s Writing Shed, the garage that he transformed into a creative haven and where he wrote some of his most famous poems, including Do not go gentle into that good night, and Over St John’s Hill, depicting eagles and egrets wheeling and crying over the river mouth. The boathouse was relatively inaccessible for visitors which allowed Thomas some peace and tranquility.
Gabriel Garcia Márquez House and Museum– Aracataca, Columbia
The fiction of Gabriel García Márquez – arguably South America’s greatest novelist – had its beginnings in Aracataca. García Márquez’s family moved here in 1910 so his grandfather could escape his remorse at killing a man in a duel. It was in this small river town that Márquez began to read voraciously and encounter the good and evil spirits that infuse his novels. The original house was blown over in a storm, but the eight room abode was reconstructed in 2010 as a place of literary pilgrimage, filled with the author’s memorabilia. Gabriel Garcia Márquez won the Nobel Prize in 1982. In his best-known work, 100 Years of Solitude, he fictionalized his family house as Macondo. The author died in 2014.
Oscar Wilde – Dublin, Ireland
The 18th century home of the Irish author is in Dublin, Ireland and was a cultural center for over 20 years. While Oscar Wilde did not spend a long time in this home, it was important in establishing a foundation to his early life. He was only 10 when he left this house in pursuit of higher education, but he returned to live at home for his first year at Trinity College. His house in Merrion square has now been converted into a museum and university. The house was constructed in 1760 and features Georgian style of architecture. The period furniture is still intact. A green door flanked by two roman columns leads the way into the house. The interiors of the house are Victorian with mouldings on the ceilings and doors. https://oscarwildehouse.com/?v=0b3b97fa6688
William Shakespeare – Stratford-upon-Avon, England
William Shakespeare is perhaps the most renowned playwright in the world, and his timeless works such as Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Othello, are being reprised and reinterpreted even today. His birthplace town, Stratford-upon-Avon in England is a popular destination for visitors, housing several places linked to him such as the Mary Ardern home, the Anne Hathaway cottage, and most importantly, his very own residence – Shakespeare’s Birthplace.
Shakespeare’s Birthplace is a 16th century Tudor style half-timber house. Half-timber houses can be recognized by the exposed wooden framework that stands out against the rest of the building which is usually filled with brick, plaster, or wattle-and-daub. Pre-booking is encouraged. https://www.shakespeare.org.uk/visit/shakespeares-birthplace/
Charles Dickens – London
The brilliant mind behind Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and David Copperfield, resided in 19th century London, in the very heart of the city. On 48 Doughty Street in London, a museum now stands where Charles Dickens’ home once was. The beautiful Georgian house gives an insight into the writer’s life. Inside the home, Dickens’s living room, kitchen, study, and furniture pieces belonging to him are found. Many features from the original 19th century house remain intact. Before Dickens rented this house in 1837, he had lived in 21 different residences from 1812 to 1837. The museum opened in 1925 and is celebrating its centennial this year. In the years Dickens lived in this house he wrote Oliver Twist, The Pickwick Papers, and Nicholas Nickleby.
https://dickensmuseum.com/?srsltid=AfmBOor4Tq-csBARWRq0uzXHVVf5eAO_QhALgasrlzcZ1xxnC5lO3aNG
C.S. Lewis – Oxford, England
Best known for The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis was an Irish-born British author and scholar. His home, the Kilns, on the outskirts of Oxford is preserved by the CS Lewis Foundation. He lived at the Kilns from 1930 to his death in 1963. This 20th century British home is made of bricks and stones. The surrounding perimeter of the house is covered by greenery and there is a pond not far from the home. Inside the house many belongings of Lewis are there, including his typewriter and chair. Tours of the home must be booked and are offered on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
The Brontë Sisters – Haworth Parsonage – West Yorkshire, England
Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë aka Brontë sisters are the inimitable, brilliant minds behind novels such as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Agnes Grey, and more. They were a 19th century literary family which resided in the village of Haworth, Yorkshire in England. The parsonage was the Brontë home from 1820 to 1861. It was in the dining room of the house where the sisters wrote their famous works. Emily Brontë describes her house and village in her book Wuthering Heights.
The Brontë sisters and their other siblings all died before the age of 40. The house is maintained by the Brontë Society. Brontë house, now known as Brontë Parsonage museum, serves to honor the writers’ work. https://www.bronte.org.uk/
Gertrude Stein – Paris, France
The famous apartment and salon of American Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo was famous as a salon for the best and brightest artists and writers of the time. She entertained Paul Cézanne, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and more. Her literary salons were crucial influences in defining modernism in both literature and art. Stein lived in the apartment with her partner Alice B. Toklas. Toklas held her own salon for the girlfriends and wives of Stein’s friends in a separate room in the apartment. Stein wrote The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas here. The apartment is not open to the public but there is a plaque marking the important literary address. https://www.urbansider.com/sightseeing/gertrude-steins-apartment/
Jane Austen spent the last eight years of her life in this cottage in the village of Chawton in Hampshire, England. It is now a museum honoring her. She shared the house with her mother and sister until her death in 1817. The Victorian style home contains many belongings of the author. The 17th century house is an old English manor, with lovely green gardens surrounding it.
One of the most iconic Regency era authors, Jane Austen is renowned for the publication of her six novels which enjoyed immense success posthumously and are relevant even today. She was born in Stevenson, Hampshire, UK in 1775. However, it was her cottage in Chawton, Hampshire that ended up being the birthplace for her six novels. Pride and Prejudice is considered the most famous of her novels.
The manor has now been converted into a museum and library. https://janeaustens.house/
The Anne Frank House is where the Frank family lived from 1942 to 1944, and where the Franks hid from Nazis during World War II. Anne Frank, then a teenager, kept her journal that later became The Diary of a Young Girl. It is open to the public, and often has flowers left on the steps in tribute to Anne Frank. It is located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Tickets should be purchased in advance. https://www.annefrank.org/en/
Leo Tolstoy – Tula, Russia
Leo Tolstoy was born in the house called Yasnaya Polyana which means ‘bright glade’. He lived there much of his life. He referred to the house as his “inaccessible literary stronghold”. Tolstoy wrote War and Peace in 1867 in the house and Anna Karenina in 1877. The estate includes the mansion, the school he founded for peasant children, a park where he is buried, and other outbuildings that reflect the life of the Tolstoy family. https://en.visittula.com/places/usadby/yasnaya-polyana/
Vladimir Nabokov’s Rozhdestveno Memorial Estate, Siverskaya, Russia
Nabokov was born into one of Russia’s most prominent aristocratic families, spending his childhood between estates in Siverskaya, and the large St Petersburg townhouse at 47 Bolshaya Morskaya Street – a place he would describe as ‘the only house in the world’. In 1916, aged sixteen, he inherited the dramatic 18th-century mansion at Rozhdestveno from his uncle. He did not live there long because his family fled the revolution less than a year later. The writer would never return to Russia, or see his childhood homes again, but both have now been established as museums to his literary legacy.
https://visitmuseums.ru/en/museum-2eddcce1-ecc6-4b51-aaf0-b2001f4939f2.html
