THE WHITE HORSES OF THE CAMARGUE REGION OF FRANCE©

When most people think of France, they generally think of Paris, the wine-producing regions such as Bordeaux and Burgundy, and perhaps Provence in the South of France where Impressionist painters such as Renoir, Van Gogh and Cezanne captured the soft pinkish-gold light which blankets the landscape.

The Camargue region, however, in the Southwest of France close to the Iberian Peninsula, and Spain in particular, is sometimes known as the “Wild West of France.”  It is Western Europe’s largest river delta -- a panorama of rippling swamps, marshes, rice paddies, and ancient villages. 

This part of France attracts nature lovers from around the world for its diverse population of wildlife. These visitors may know the region from its emblematic white flamingos, their flocks blooming like flowers from the marshes. Hundreds of thousands of birds converge there during migrating season in Spring and Fall.  In fact, the Camargue Natural Park area includes a massive UNESCO designated wildlife reserve.

The Camargue horses are an ancient breed of horse indigenous to the Camargue area in southern France.  Some researchers believe they are descended from the ancient Solutré horse hunted during the Upper Paleolithic period.  Their distinctive colouring develops through their aging process.  The underlying skin is black, and during their early years, their "coats" initially lighten from dark to light grey -- ultimately becoming increasingly white at their maturity and in their later life.

Extensive archeological evidence has been found in the present-day Burgundy region of France.  The Camargue breed was appreciated by the Celtic and Roman invaders who entered the Iberian Peninsula where their genealogy is closely tied with Iberian horses,  especially those of the northern part of the Peninsula.  Generally considered one of the oldest breeds of horses in the world, for centuries these small horses have lived wild in the harsh environment of the Camargue marshes and wetlands of the Rhône delta.  

The original Spanish "jaca" is often considered to be a cross between the Celtic pony and the Camargue breed.  The resulting breed was later crossed with Northern European horse types and ultimately with the Southern Peninsula horse as the Moors spread their influence toward the Pyrenees in the Middle Ages between the late 8th and the late 15th Centuries.

Cross-breeding with both Northern European and the Iberian Peninsula horses, created strong, very hardy horses related to the Camargue horse, and which likely came to the New World as the warhorse accompanying the Spanish explorers and conquistadors in the 16th and 17th Centuries. 

In 2014 K.J. Wetherholt wrote an interesting article for the Huffington Post on these horses. “Horses and humanity have had a deeply intertwined history; horses have been an ancient fixture in antiquity,” she described. “Seen on the most ancient of cave paintings, from Lascaux and Chauvet, to other examples of early art, when human beings first tried to capture the most powerful symbols often dramatically depicting their connection with the environment.”

Today, The Camargue are the traditional mounts for "gardians", mounted cattle herdsmen in the Gard Department of Southern France in Provence.  The Camargue also participate in local events and festivals featuring equestrian competitions for which their calm temperament, stamina and agility are particularly suited.

(Primary Sources:  National Geographic Newsroom, July 9, 2017; Photos and primary source credit:  Kike Calvo;  Hendricks, Bonnie L., International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007).

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SPOTLIGHT TOUR: THE NATIONAL STEINBECK CENTER in SALINAS, CALIFORNIA©

 

Located just a couple of blocks from Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck's birth home in Salinas, California, the National Steinbeck Center (NSC) is an interactive "museum of his books" which is totally engaging as well as educationally and historically significant.  It is always on my "must do" list whenever I visit the Central Coast of California, specifically the Carmel Valley.

John Steinbeck was what we refer to today as a political activist for social, environmental and political change.  He and documentary photographer Dorothea Lange chronicled in words and pictures the plight of "the common man" during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl years of the 1930s.  Their published articles raised awareness across the entire country and of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which led to the creation of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) relief program in 1935 that put almost 9-million Americans to work during its 7+ years of existence.

Steinbeck Birth Home in Salinas
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National Steinbeck Center, Exterior
©Steinbeck.org

The Steinbeck Center Foundation was established in 1983.  The National Steinbeck Center itself was completed and opened to the public on June 27, 1998, and ever since has been enhancing awareness of Steinbeck's works and ideas, as well as of the written word. For more than twenty years, the NSC has fostered dialogues on issues relating to social justice, the environment, biological sciences, the "common good", ethical action and diversity, and racial diversity.

The Center houses the largest collection of Steinbeck archives in the United States -- over 45,000 historical and family documents, manuscripts, interviews, photographs, films and artifacts pertaining to Steinbeck's life, as well as to the history of Salinas and the Salinas Valley.  It is the focal point for activities which encourage learning about literature, human nature, agriculture, and the fine arts.

A number of educational and multi-media programs are provided regularly for the public, in particular, students and teachers.  The NSC conducts approximately 50 events each year, including the Annual Steinbeck Festival, Steinbeck's Birthday Celebration, and the Steinbeck Young Authors Program. The year I attended Steinbeck's Birthday Celebration, a special Brunch was served in his birth home, pictured above, followed by a tour of the home conducted by docents who had known him and his family.

The National Steinbeck Exhibition Hall is designed as a journey through John Steinbeck's "Valley of the World".  The Exhibit is organized geographically so that visitors can visit locations where Steinbeck lived, traveled to and wrote about.

Interior, Exhibition Hall
©Steinbeck.org

The different stops along the "journey" include displays which bring his novels and short stories to life through theatrical sets, allowing visitors to step into the scene or time period. Throughout the experience, visitors can watch clips from motion pictures made of his books, listen to sound clips, participate in hands-on activities, and view original artifacts that cover the life and writings of Steinbeck.

Interior, Exhibition Hall
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Doc's Lab Exhibit in National Steinbeck Center
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Included are Doc's Lab (Cannery Row), the Trask car (East of Eden), the Joad house (Grapes of Wrath), and Steinbeck's gypsy wagon in which he traveled with his dog, Charley.  There is also a video of his acceptance speech from when he won the Nobel Prize for literature.

Travels with Charley Exhibit
©Steinbeck.org

Nobel Prize Exhibit
©Steinbeck.org

The overall experience gives visitors the opportunity to connect their own life experiences to the universal themes of Steinbeck's major works, the Salinas Valley of California, and to understand Steinbeck's message that "words matter".

The National Steinbeck Center has announced its re-opening date of May 6, 2021, following temporary closure in 2020 due to COVID-19. 

(Primary Source:  National Steinbeck Center)

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THE ONCE-THRIVING BLACK COMMUNITY OF EARLY 20th CENTURY SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA - Part 2 of a Series: Beginning of the 1900s©

 

Santa Monica, California, located approximately 20 miles from Downtown Los Angeles, has appealed to L.A.-area residents since it was first launched in mid-1870s as a prospective port city with a wharf and a railroad.

Its natural scenic and environmental assets, however, coupled with it having a long stretch of coastline sandy beaches at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, turned Santa Monica instead into a beach resort and an attractive place to live instead of an industrial port.  Most of Santa Monica was agricultural at the time, filled with fields of flower barley and beans.

Aerial view, Santa Monica
circa 1920
Photo source:  Wikipedia Commons

Incorporated in 1886 as a separate city within the geographical parameters of Los Angeles County, Santa Monica quickly became a popular place to take a "day trip by horse and buggy (and later by motorcar) to the beach" for Angelenos seeking to escape the summer heat in the more inland residential areas, such as Bunker Hill, Angeleno Heights, West Adams, Hollywood, Hancock Park and Beverly Hills.. 

Blacks began moving to Los Angeles and its surrounding towns, such as Santa Monica, from the southern USA states in the late 1880s because they hoped to get away from the overt racism they were experiencing in the American South, and to find better opportunities.

Growth was stimulated once electric trolleys began running in 1896, linking Santa Monica to the City of Los Angeles.  New residential areas sprang up, and the town of Ocean Park became part of Santa Monica.  

Piers, often with accompanying amusement parks, were a great attraction for coastal cities, and Santa Monica was no exception -- at one time having no fewer than five piers.  The current Pier, built in 1909 and in 1916, with its historic Carousel, is the last remaining amusement park on the West Coast. 

Santa Monica Pier and Amusement Park
circa 1900
Photo source:  L.A. Water and Power Archives

There was a period of time in the early 1900s prior to the end of World War I when Santa Monica's Black community thrived due in part to job opportunities in several new, emerging industries -- film and aircraft.  

For a few years prior to 1920, the film industry had a presence in Santa Monica, the most famous being the Vitagraph Film Company which was located next to a saloon.  Although filming on the beach had a certain appeal, by 1915 the Santa Monica-based film companies had decamped and moved to Hollywood where coastal fog did not regularly hamper production.  

It was during the 1920s that Santa Monica experienced significant  growth in industry and population.  Douglas Aircraft took up residence in one of the abandoned film studios, and was the location for the starting point of the first around the world flight in 1924 by Douglas World Cruisers. 

With the boom in industry and job opportunities during the 1920s, came expansion in residential development and commercial development.  Henshey's Department Store  and the Criterion Theatre opened, and the central business district extended eastward onto Fourth Street.  Most notably was the neighborhood within what was known as the Belmar Triangle, no longer extant and where the City's Civic Center, famous  Auditorium, and Historic Belmar Park currently are located.  A number of upscale beach clubs opened, albeit segregated, and film celebrities began building beach-front houses north of the Pier, some of which still stand today behind colourfully painted tall privacy walls with their garages opening close to the edge of Pacific Coast Highway (Highway 1) on the now uber-crowded, highly sought after multi-million-dollar sandy stretch of beach which has come to be known as "The Gold Coast".  

Unfortunately, Santa Monica did not turn out to be the refuge from racism and discrimination which its Black residents had hoped it would be, and eventually, many of their neighborhoods were totally erased in the name of "progress and redevelopment".

(Primary sources:  Santa Monica Conservancy)

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UPDATE: "THE WALLIS": A REIMAGINED HISTORIC POST OFFICE TRANSITIONS INTO A PERFORMING ARTS VENUE©

We first visited the brand new Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, fondly referred to as "The Wallis", shortly after it opened in October of 2013.  It seems fitting that we should revisit it again, seven years later, now that it has become firmly entrenched in both the Beverly Hills and the Los Angeles, California cultural scenes.

When The Wallis was constructed, it transformed an entire city block in the heart of the Beverly Hills commercial district near the Civic Center into a vibrant cultural destination for artists and visitors from around the world and audiences of every age.

Exterior, The Wallis at night.
Former Beverly Hills Post Office
and new Performing Arts Center
Photo credit: stageandcinema.com

Its 2013-2014 Inaugural Season coincided with Beverly Hills' Centennial Celebration making the 100th birthday of the City's incorporation.

Consisting of two separate but connected buildings, the most notable of the two buildings which comprise the performing arts complex is the much-loved historic 1933 Italianate-style Beverly Hills Post Office which had been built during the Great Depression of the 1930s in the United States as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project during the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.   For decades, some of Beverly Hills' most recognizable residents from film and television kept post office boxes there, such as Fred Astaire and Jimmy Stewart. 

In 2013, the City of Beverly Hills designated the Beverly Hills Post Office as a historical landmark under the City's Historic Preservation Ordinance.  The building had previously received designation on the National Register of Historic Places by the US Department of the Interior.

Grand Lobby
in former Beverly Hills Post Office
Photo credit:  stageandcinema.com

The Grand Lobby for The Wallis is the interior of the historic post office building. 

A striking 70,000 sq. ft. building, The Wallis itself is an excellent example of "constructivism architecture", a futuristic-looking style which developed in the 1920s and 1930s in the former Soviet Union that combined technology and engineering, and applied a 3-dimensional Cubist vision to entire abstract non-objective constructions by adding a kinetic element.  

Exterior façade of The Wallis at night
Photo provenance unknown.

Although this movement in artistic expression borrowed ideas from the Cubism and Futurism movements, the interpretation in architectural expression for The Wallis superimposed ideas from the Bauhaus, Suprematism and Neo-Plasticism movements. 

The façade of The Wallis, comprised of fiber cement, is evocative of envelopes being sorted -- an homage to the historic Post Office on the same site.  Designed by architect Zoltan E. Pali, The Wallis has garnered six architectural awards since it opened. 

The interior space of The Wallis includes the contemporary 500-seat, state-of-the-art Bram Goldsmith Theatre and the 150-seat Lovelace Studio Theatre.  Also on site is an open-air plaza for outdoor performances, and the GRoW@TheWallis, a space for arts education for all ages.

Goldsmith Theatre in The Wallis
Photo provenance unknown.

"The Wallis"  is included in our "Los Angeles Architecture -- An Eclectic Landscape"©  custom-designed itinerary. For more information about this unique and comprehensive heritage and cultural tour covering L.A.'s architectural history from "early settlement to the present", visit us at http://www.snobbytours.com/EclecticLAarchitecture.html

Reservations close on February 15th of the specified calendar year that we offer this Tour.

 

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(Research and photo sources :   The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts; Beverly Hills Convention and Visitors Bureau; stageandcinema.com; archdaily.com)

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THE KALITA HUMPHREYS THEATRE -- FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT-DESIGNED AND HOME TO THE AWARD-WINNING DALLAS THEATRE CENTRE©

Texas is not known for having many buildings designed by the famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959);  however, The Kalita Humphreys Theatre in Dallas can boast of having that distinction.  Home to the award-winning Dallas Theatre Centre since it opened in 1959, "The Kalita Humphreys" as it is fondly called, is considered a local treasure well-deserving of the historic landmark designation it received in 2007 from the City of Dallas.  It is named for an actress who had died in a plane crash in 1954 who had worked with the founding and first Director of the Dallas Theatre Center, Paul Baker.  Following her death, her parents had donated $120,000. to the Theatre as a memorial.

The Kalita Humphreys is Frank Lloyd Wright's only freestanding performing arts theatre built during his lifetime.  Construction began in 1955 and was completed in December of 1959, nine months after his death at a cost of over $1-million.  It represented the culmination of his vision for a unique new theatre type, and was "hailed as the most innovative and interesting theatre in the country".  

Exterior and Entry circa 1960
Image:  Messina Studios

Located in an older section of Dallas' upscale Highland Park and built into the limestone bluffs and cantilevered over a heavily wooded area adjacent to Turtle Creek, the Theatre consists of sculptured concrete cylindrical forms on an angled grid.  Typical of Wright's designs, the building and the surrounding woods are organically integrated, creating a beautiful primordial setting.

The architecture of The Kalita Humphreys Theatre was considered both innovative and bold at the time it was constructed back in the mid-1950s, although the original design had been created by Wright back in 1915 for a West Coast theatre and later adapted for a theatre in Hartford, Connecticut -- neither of which had ultimately been built.  

Over the course of Wright's career, which spanned approximately 70 years, he created what has become to be known as "organic architecture", his signature design style in which unification of a building's form and function, the harmony of the building with its natural setting, and an aesthetically pleasing use of space all work together compatibly.

Because Wright's design for The Kalita Humphreys was based on nature, the interior spaces all at a 30/60-degree angle.  The only 90-degree angles inside the theatre are where the walls meet the ceiling and floor, where not curved due to the cylindrical format of the building's overall exterior design.  The cylindrical overall design which includes inter-connected "blocks" significantly lends itself as well to curved interior walls, auditorium design and seating, and multi-level interior spaces for various uses from public places, hallways and stairwells to classrooms, workrooms for making props and costumes, staff offices, dressing rooms and alternative performances areas.  

The first stage production at the Theatre which premiered at its dedication on December 27, 1959, was Thomas Wolfe's "Of Time and The River", based on his 1935 novel.  Almost immediately after its opening, the auditorium of The Kalita Humphreys became a powerful environmental space with a revolving stage that created an intimate relationship between the performers on stage and the audience seated in a theatre-in-the-round setting.

It also was the ideal site for the cutting- edge experimental theatre favoured by its founding director, Paul Baker. 

In February of 2020, the Dallas Theatre Center announced plans to renovate the Kalita Humphreys, and selected  architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro to draft a new master plan for the nine-acre site. The firm has been tasked not only with re-imagining the Kalita Humphreys Theater and enhancing its access to the adjacent Katy Trail, it will also design two new theaters for the campus that will address spacial, programming, and educational needs.

In keeping with Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic, nature-inspired vision, the Master Plan will connect the Katy Trail, Dean Park and the surrounding neighborhoods of Uptown, Turtle Creek and Oak Lawn to the Kalita Humphreys Campus, making the entire site an accessible public space for all.

 

(Sources:  dallastheatercenter.org; wrightinthepark.org; D Magazine article by Peter Simek published 02/25/2020)  

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EXPLORING RESIDENCES OF ICONIC AMERICAN AUTHORS, PLAYWRIGHTS AND POETS©

 

I recently ran across a wonderful article in an online travel magazine which showcased former residences of a number of famous American authors.  This inspired me to explore the topic further myself during this Holiday Season by creating a list of my own, which also inevitably resulted in my including a couple of authors' residences mentioned in the above-referenced article -- as we bid a "not-so-fond adieu" to 2020.

Some of these residences have been turned into museums, designated as local historical landmarks, placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and are open to visitors.

Herein below is my "short list" --  by no means all-inclusive -- of a few of my own favourite 19th and 20th Century American authors, playwrights and poets, starting with Nobel Prize winner, Pulitzer Prize recipient and champion of the "common man", John Steinbeck.

JOHN STEINBECK (1902-1968)

            Steinbeck, whose book The Grapes of Wrath published in 1939, along with the stark, unforgiving photographs of Dorothea Lange, brought to America's attention, and to the attention of then-US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the dire plight of displaced farmers from the American Midwest during the Great Depression which was exacerbated by the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and which drove many of them to the West Coast, particularly California, seeking a new life.

            John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California in 1902.  His birthplace and boyhood home still stands.  It is a Queen Anne style Victorian house built in 1897 that the Steinbeck family purchased in 1900 and where they raised their children.  It was subsequently purchased in 1973 by The Valley Guild, eight enthusiastic women who shared a common interest in gourmet cooking and who wanted to showcase Salinas Valley produce.  The Valley Guild renovated and restored the house after purchasing it,  and opened the Steinbeck house to the public as a restaurant on February 27, 1974 —the 72nd anniversary of John Steinbeck’s birth. The residence is located two blocks west of the National Steinbeck Center at 132 Central Avenue in Salinas. which is a "museum of his books".  

John Steinbeck Birth Home in Salinas, California
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            It was not in his boyhood home, however, but in his final residence in Sag Harbor, New York, that Steinbeck lived from 1955 until his death in 1968.  While living there, he wrote several of his best- known novels in a small structure located on the property known as his "writing house",  including East of Eden, Zapata, The Winter of Our Discontent, and, of course, Travels with Charley. 

Steinbeck Home in Sag Harbor
Photo Credit: NY Times, circa 2010

            

Steinbeck's "Writing House" in Sag Harbor
Wikimedia Commons
Photo Credit: ©MTmoney, circa 2013

            It was from and back to his home in Sag Harbor that Steinbeck's 11-month, 10,000-mile journey across the USA with his standard poodle Charley took place in 1960 -- providing the inspiration for his book, Travels with Charley, published in 1962. 

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS (1911-1983)

            Tennessee Williams, born Thomas Lanier Williams in Columbus, Mississippi in 1911, was a prolific 20th Century writer, primarily of stage plays primarily set in the US South, such as "The Glass Menagerie", " The Rose Tattoo", "A Streetcar Named Desire", and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" -- the latter two for which he earned Pulitzer prizes -- and all of which were made into films.  He also wrote two novels, a novella, numerous short stories and his autobiography. 

             From the late 1940s into the 1950s, as Williams' writings were receiving increased public recognition and accolades, he leased the first floor of a multi-story townhouse on East 58th Street in New York City's Manhattan district from Buffie Johnson, a well-known 20th Century painter.  While living there, Williams won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for his play "A Streetcar Named Desire", received a Tony Award in 1950 for his play "The Rose Tattoo", and completed his play "Summer and Smoke". 

Tennessee Williams residence/Buffie Johnson House
Photo Credit:  NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, ©2017

            Williams shared this residence with his long-term partner Frank Merlo who hired an interior decorator to turn their residence into a style to which Williams referred as "Victorian chic". 

LOUISA MAY ALCOTT (1832-1888)

            One of the most beloved books for many young girls is Little Women, written by Louisa May Alcott.  In 1857, Alcott's father, Amos Bronson Alcott, paid $945. for 12 acres of land in Concord, Massachusetts with a existing manor house that had been on the property since the 1660s.   

            The grounds surrounding the house contained an orchard of 40 apple trees which greatly appealed to Amos Alcott -- so much so that he named his home "Orchard House."   After having moved more than twenty times during the previous thirty years, the Alcotts had finally found a place where they could set down roots.  The family resided at Orchard House for the next 20 years, until 1877. 

Alcott Family Home known as "Orchard House"
Photo Source:  Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House
Photo provenance unknown.

            The manor house is most noted for being the place where, in 1868, Louisa May Alcott wrote, and set, her beloved classic, Little Women -- sitting at a half-moon shaped "shelf desk" that her father built especially for her.  During the American Civil War, however, it was also a "stop" on the Underground Railroad for slaves escaping from Southern pro-slavery states.  

            There have been no major structural changes in Orchard House since the Alcott family lived there;  and almost all of the furniture and personal items regularly on display belonged to them, which makes a walk through the house like stepping back in time.  In Louisa May Alcott's bedroom is the sewing kit which she had with her while she was a nurse taking care of injured soldiers following the famous Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862.

Louisa May Alcott's Bedchamber with built-in writing shelf
Photo Source:  Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House
Photo credit:  Trey Powers

            Little Women is based upon Alcott's own family and personal experiences during the harsh years of the American Civil War in the 1860s.  The book's timeless humanity is one of the reasons it has endured in popularity well into modern times, continuing to enchant and engage each new generation of readers. 

LANGSTON HUGHES (1901-1967)

            African-American poet and writer Langston Hughes is considered one of the foremost figures of the Harlem Renaissance.  Hughes lived and worked on the top floor of a "rowhouse" on East 127th Street from 1947 to 1967, the last 20 years of his life. The building, built in 1869, was owned by Emerson and Ethel Harper, a couple Hughes had met in the 1930s whom he considered his adopted uncle and aunt.

Harlem Rowhouse occupied by Langston Hughes
Photo credit:  Christopher D. Brazee
NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, 2016.

 

            Hughes' lifelong fascination with Harlem is evident in much of his writing, which often features the neighborhood and the people he encountered there.  He referred to Harlem as "the greatest Negro city in the world".    He, in turn, would come to be referred to as the “Poet Laureate of Harlem".

            Already an accomplished writer before moving into this rowhouse, Hughes continued to write many important works while living there that explored Black life and culture.  Some of these works include poetry collections such as Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) and The Panther and the Lash (1967); the Jesse B. Semple book series based on the "everyday person" in Harlem; Hughes' second autobiography I Wonder as I Wander (1956); and children’s books such as The First Book of Jazz (1954) and The First Book of Africa (1960).

Interior of Hughes' Harlem Apartment, circa 2017
Photo provenance and credit unknown.

            In recognition of Hughes’ significance to New York City and American history, this Harlem building was designated a New York City Landmark in 1981, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, and the block of East 127th Street on which he lived has been named “Langston Hughes Place” in his honor.

                       

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Herein below are some other iconic and famous American writers of the 19th and 20th Centuries whose residences were mentioned in the article that I previously referenced:

EMILY DICKINSON (1830-1886)

            Emily Dickinson penned nearly all of her 1,800 poems in her modest room on the second floor of the Dickinson family home in Amherst, Massachusetts, known as "The Homestead", where she was born in 1830 and spent her entire life.  

Dickinson Family Home "The Homestead"
Photo source: Wikipedia Commons
Photo provenance and credit unknown.

            Now part of the Emily Dickinson Museum, which also includes the frozen-in-time next-door residence of the poet’s brother Austin and his family, The Homestead has been carefully restored to look as it did when Dickinson herself resided there -- from the pale yellow exterior to the floral wallpaper in her bedroom. 

            The room in which Dickinson did her writing contains one of the poet’s plain white dresses which has a pocket for holding a pencil and scraps of paper.  A replica of her tiny square writing desk faces a window overlooking Main Street. 

Emily Dickinson's bedroom/writing room
Photo credit: Emily Dickinson Museum

            Dickinson's most prolific creative years were between 1855-1865.  Amazingly, none of Dickinson's 1,800 poems penned during her lifetime were published until after her death in 1886.

            After publication near the end of the 19th Century, however, and commencing in the 20th Century, her poetry has since been included in the curricula of courses in American literature and poetry for students from Middle School through College, her poetry is frequently used as text by well-known musical composers, schools and educational journals have been established in her name, and she has come to be considered an enduring and formidable figure in American culture.

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD (1896-1940) 

AND ZELDA FITZGERALD (1900-1948)

            F. Scott Fitzgerald first met the teenaged Zelda Sayer at a country club dance in 1918 hosted by members of Montgomery, Alabama "society" during World War I, while Fitzgerald was stationed at Camp Sheridan, the nearby army training base. After they married in 1920, the Fitzgeralds lived in New York City and Paris, where they became the "IT" couple, epitomizing the flamboyant and frivolously carefree "Jazz Age" of the 1920s.

            By 1930, however, Zelda's psychological issues had become increasingly apparent, and she was diagnosed as being schizophrenic. The first of what would become frequent periodic sanatorium stays over her lifetime initially began that year in Paris, followed thereafter by a sanatorium stay in Geneva, Switzerland.

            In 1931, the Fitzgeralds returned to Zelda's hometown of Montgomery, Alabama, briefly living in a house where both writers were highly productive.

F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Residence in Montgomery, AL
Currently the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum
Photo credit: The Fitzgerald Museum

            The Fitzgeralds lived in this house from 1931 until 1932, each of them writing portions of their respective novels, Save Me The Waltz (1932) by Zelda, and Tender Is The Night (1934) by Scott -- the latter which foreshadowed the decade -- the 1930s -- which would be the most destructive and disappointing for the couple, both personally and professionally.

Interior, Fitzgerald House and Museum
Photo credit: F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum

            Built in 1909, the house in Montgomery is the only former residence of the Fitzgeralds still extant, and currently is the location of the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum -- the only museum in the world dedicated to the lives and legacies of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

(Supplemental sources: Blog Article by Paige Grande in Literary Traveler, April 1. 2005; Blog Article by Sarah Sargent, NY LGBT Historic Sites Project, circa 2017; Blog Article, author unknown, in NY LGBT Historic Sites Project, circa 2017; Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House; Blog Article by Zac Thompson in Frommer's, circa 2020; The Emily Dickinson Museum; The F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum.)

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