Wharton
T
his book explores, deeply, the question of how
writers construct their material lives, and implicitly, how
this secondary project relates to, and bolsters, their art.
I have discovered for myself that the two projects are in
fact cohorts: inseparable, symbiotic. A settled, beautiful
domain supports the unfolding of novelistic, poetic or
dramatic art, so often channeled through difficult, even
unruly creative psyches and lives.
For years, from one apartment and even country to
another, I transported Lennard's earlier book, Writers'
Houses. Her serious—and sensuous—treatment of the
subject gave me license to decorate, in the company of
HYLAND
