These Were the Writers in My Neighborhood
December 18, 2011 6:42 PM Subscribe
Have your Chipotle burrito at John Dos Passos' house. Read Silent Spring in Silver Spring. You can now take a real or virtual walking tour of literary DC, from Roald Dahl to Philip K. Dick to Zora Neale Hurston with DCWriters.org. Two DC-area poets have put together a compendium of 123 (and growing) residences in the DC area where novelists, poets, and playwrights plied their trade. The buildings may not all have plaques, but they are still standing: Dan Vera and Kim Roberts focused on not "documenting what used to be here, but what people could actually go and take a look at."
If anyone wants to come over to see where I write my tweets it's cool just please BYOTaco.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:00 PM on December 18, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:00 PM on December 18, 2011 [2 favorites]
Wow -- this is cool! Actual writers that I respect. DC has always been such a backwater to me.
(And, I'm a native, 5th generation Washingtonian.)
posted by vhsiv at 7:02 PM on December 18, 2011
(And, I'm a native, 5th generation Washingtonian.)
posted by vhsiv at 7:02 PM on December 18, 2011
This is neat, but...like...where's Poe?
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:09 PM on December 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:09 PM on December 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
I used to live at Edith Hamilton's house! The rent is really cheap.
Anyhow, in the backyard, there's a small stone griffin. I took this as a trace of Edith.
posted by quadrilaterals at 7:21 PM on December 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
Anyhow, in the backyard, there's a small stone griffin. I took this as a trace of Edith.
posted by quadrilaterals at 7:21 PM on December 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
Kim Roberts has also posted a meticulously-researched guide to Walt Whitman's homes and workplaces in DC.
This is neat, but...like...where's Poe?
Poe visited DC, but never lived closer to it than Baltimore and Richmond.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:29 PM on December 18, 2011
This is neat, but...like...where's Poe?
Poe visited DC, but never lived closer to it than Baltimore and Richmond.
posted by ryanshepard at 7:29 PM on December 18, 2011
Neat; thanks for posting this!
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:17 PM on December 18, 2011
posted by LobsterMitten at 8:17 PM on December 18, 2011
Sorry, nope. PKD is a California writer.
posted by charlie don't surf at 8:47 PM on December 18, 2011
posted by charlie don't surf at 8:47 PM on December 18, 2011
charlie don't surf: "Sorry, nope. PKD is a California writer."
From the PKD page:
He lived in DC from 1936 to 1938, attending DC Public Schools for grades two through four.
posted by Philby at 11:58 PM on December 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
From the PKD page:
He lived in DC from 1936 to 1938, attending DC Public Schools for grades two through four.
posted by Philby at 11:58 PM on December 18, 2011 [1 favorite]
I saw this in the Post yesterday and it made me happy. Though is it really fair to count Ezra Pound (committed to St Elizabeth's)?
posted by Cocodrillo at 4:19 AM on December 19, 2011
posted by Cocodrillo at 4:19 AM on December 19, 2011
I read that PKD was in DC for 3 years in his childhood. That doesn't make you a DC writer.
Sorry, nope. PKD is a California writer.
posted by charlie don't surf at 5:11 AM on December 19, 2011
Sorry, nope. PKD is a California writer.
posted by charlie don't surf at 5:11 AM on December 19, 2011
Sorry, nope. PKD is a California writer.
You're welcome to him. He was a hack, and not in the good way. There. I said it. I know a lot of people think he was great, but the stuff I've read was virtually unreadable. I like the movies, where the ideas can escape the poor writing, but you can have the books. You can take Cormac McCarthy at the same time, although I'd like to punch him in his conservative and ultraviolent dick before you do.
posted by OmieWise at 5:34 AM on December 19, 2011
You're welcome to him. He was a hack, and not in the good way. There. I said it. I know a lot of people think he was great, but the stuff I've read was virtually unreadable. I like the movies, where the ideas can escape the poor writing, but you can have the books. You can take Cormac McCarthy at the same time, although I'd like to punch him in his conservative and ultraviolent dick before you do.
posted by OmieWise at 5:34 AM on December 19, 2011
Though is it really fair to count Ezra Pound (committed to St Elizabeth's)?
And when he was committed there it was a federal enclave, not DC proper.
posted by OmieWise at 5:35 AM on December 19, 2011
And when he was committed there it was a federal enclave, not DC proper.
posted by OmieWise at 5:35 AM on December 19, 2011
What could be more of 'DC proper' than being locked up in an institution inured to the outside world trapped in an insane ideology babbling out the windows?
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:23 AM on December 19, 2011
posted by Potomac Avenue at 6:23 AM on December 19, 2011
Neat site. But why is John Dos Passos classified as a "Latino" writer?
posted by chavenet at 6:35 AM on December 19, 2011
posted by chavenet at 6:35 AM on December 19, 2011
DC is slowly getting cooler, especially since I left in '09.
posted by windowbr8r at 9:58 AM on December 19, 2011
posted by windowbr8r at 9:58 AM on December 19, 2011
This is neat! I would bump it up to "fantastic!" if it included (where possible) how long the writers were resident at each address, and what pieces, if any, they were working on while living there.
posted by EvaDestruction at 11:42 AM on December 19, 2011
posted by EvaDestruction at 11:42 AM on December 19, 2011
"PKD is a California writer."
A California writer who lived in DC as a young boy.
Did you RTFA? It's a walking tour, not a museum.
posted by bardic at 6:57 PM on December 19, 2011
A California writer who lived in DC as a young boy.
Did you RTFA? It's a walking tour, not a museum.
posted by bardic at 6:57 PM on December 19, 2011
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posted by OmieWise at 6:51 PM on December 18, 2011