Famous writers' rooms
The Guardian has published a collection of annotated photos of famous writers' "writing rooms." I haven't lived in one place long enough for a decade to have a real writing room, but I'm hoping to put down roots soon and get something more permanent than a flat-pack desk covered in random toys surrounded by unsorted piles of books. Maybe a mahogany study lined with creepy Haunted Mansion-style busts, a wall of exotic masks and swords, deep horsehair armchairs, secret panels, and a fireplace.
I especially like the rooms from Geoff Dyer and Will Self (holy war room, Batman!), and JG Ballard's room is pretty swank:
Link (via Kottke)On the desk is my old manual typewriter, which I recently found in my stair cupboard. I was inspired by a letter from Will Self, who wrote to me on his manual typewriter. So far I have just stared at the old machine, without daring to touch it, but who knows? The first drafts of my novels have all been written in longhand and then I type them up on my old electric. I have resisted getting a computer because I distrust the whole PC thing. I don't think a great book has yet been written on computer.
I have worked at this desk for the past 47 years. All my novels have been written on it, and old papers of every kind have accumulated like a great reef. The chair is an old dining-room chair that my mother brought back from China and probably one I sat on as a child, so it has known me for a very long time. A Paolozzi screen-print is resting against the door, which now serves as a cat barrier during the summer months. My neighbour's cats are enormously affectionate, and in the summer leap up on to my desk and then churn up all my papers into a huge whirlwind. They are my fiercest critics.
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Ballard doesn't think a great book has been written on the computer? Pffft. Whatever, J.G.
Jill Krementz (Kurt Vonnegut's wife) did a book called "The Writer's Desk" -- b&w photos of the writing rooms of many famous authors, including Vonnegut, Updike, and dozens of others.
Amazon lists it as out of print, but of course it can be had at a price. (http://www.amazon.com/Writers-Desk-Jill-Krementz/dp/0609000489/ref=pd_bbs_sr_8/102-6821976-1188128?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1190371258&sr=8-8)
I've been looking at this for the past couple weeks (since doing a search for Diana Athill, one of the authors featured), and since yesterday when Kottke posted, I've been feeling the way that one always feels when someone finds something that you feel you found first: Hey! That's mine!
You can see a 360 degree view of Will Self's writing room in 71 photos on his website:
http://www.will-self.com/writing-room/index.php