Writers’ Lives

We discover our favorite writers through the works they’ve written, and we cherish them without knowing much about them. What can we learn about their lives? Have their works been influenced by them? These seven realistic and fictional stories can help you better understand writers’ lives, as they tell the stories of writers from a point of view outside the author’s.

Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës by Isabel Greenberg

History is filled with famous siblings such as the Brontë sisters. You are most likely familiar with their works such as Jane Eyre, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and Wuthering Heights. But have you heard of Glass Town? Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës by Isabel Greenberg showcases a lesser-known work from the Brontës. The reader gets to clearly see the Brontës’ lives through their childhood creation, an imagined place called Glass Town. Isabel Greenberg tells this graphic novel story through the blending of her own imagination alongside real information from the Brontës’ lives including their Glass Town.

Glass Town starts with the shattering of the Brontë family. Charlotte is depressed, as she is the only living Brontë sibling. Charles Wellesley, a fictional creation of Charlotte’s, comes to visit her. He convinces Charlotte to remember her siblings by going on a trip—a trip of the imagination to Glass Town. Glass Town was created after the two oldest Brontë siblings, Maria and Elizabeth, died. All Brontë siblings (Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne) are reunited as they all live at home again with their father Reverend Patrick Brontë. But their imaginations leave their sad past and move into Glass Town.

Isabel’s graphic novel takes place in two worlds. There is the world of Glass Town, where Quashia Quamina is the son of the King of the Ashantee people. The Duke of Wellington and his army slaughter and enslave the Ashantee people, and Quashia Quamina is “adopted” by The Duke of Wellington, who plans to civilize him. But Quashia doesn’t like this new arrangement; he is a king who plans on freeing his people. This conflict of colonialism is woven together with many different plotlines in the story of Glass Town.

The Brontës’ real lives also have their own set of conflicts. For example, Branwell Brontë is the English Rob Kardashian, as he’s the only boy in a family full of girls. He likes having his own creative freedom in Glass Town; he also wants to be a painter. Yet Branwell’s plans seem to be abstract. This leads to conflict with his siblings. What will happen when the Brontës’ fantasy world and their real-world collide? Will their dual existence shatter their relationships with each other? You’ll have to read Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës by Isabel Greenberg to find out!

Jane Austen: Behind Closed Doors

Suggested further reading: Jane Austen at Home: A Biography by Lucy Worsley

Jane Austen: Behind Closed Doors is a BBC documentary that opens Austen fans’ view into Jane’s personal life.  One house where Jane stayed was her brother Edward’s, as Jane Austen couch-surfed for months at her wealthy brother’s house at Godmersham Park. While occupying her niece, one activity involved Jane turning her brother’s house into a theater. Jane’s stay at this luxurious Airbnb could have even created a longer visit in her mind, as Godmersham Park might have been Jane’s inspiration for her novel Mansfield Park.

Another place where Jane lived was in Bath. Jane’s social life was not all that glamorous in the city of Bath. She once attended a social event where the entertainment was the reading of a smallpox pamphlet. That snooze-fest plunged Jane’s enjoyment of the evening down the drain. Occupy your mind by watching Jane Austen: Behind Closed Doors to open more doors into her fascinating personal life.

Shirley

Based On: Shirley by Susan Scarf Merrell

The historical fiction movie Shirley is not an adaptation of one of Shirley Jackson’s works such as “The Lottery” or The Haunting of Hill House. Instead, Shirley takes place during the time when Shirley Jackson was working on her 1951 novel Hangsaman. The film begins with the arrival of a young married couple Fred and Rose Nemser in Bennington, Vermont. Fred is an aspiring professor who has moved to Bennington to help Shirley’s husband Professor Stanley Hyman, who works at Bennington College. Rose is a student at Bennington College.

The newlyweds quickly face another change in their happy-ever-after. Stanley approaches Rose with an offer of becoming his and Shirley’s new housekeeper since the new housekeeper quit. Shirley also can’t possibly do the housework due to her agoraphobia. Stanley raises his offer to include free room and board to Fred and Rose, who decide to move in with the horror novelist and her academic husband.

Living with a famous writer and a well-respected professor seems like a fantastic learning experience. But have Fred and Rose truly won the lottery? Shirley is a recluse who likes to stay in bed. While Stanley is a demanding husband who wants Shirley to stay focused on her writing. How will both couples react to their living situation?  Watch Shirley to encounter the horror of domestic life.

Mark Twain and Me

Based On: Enchantment: A Little Girl’s Friendship With Mark Twain by Dorothy Quick (later republished as Mark Twain and Me)

Mark Twain and Me is a Disney Channel film that tells the magical story of the friendship between a young girl and the famous writer Mark Twain. Their friendship starts on an unexpected journey. In London in 1908 American Dorothy Quick sees Twain in a London Hotel talking to a hotel receptionist. This is no ordinary celebrity spotting, as Twain is questioning the legitimacy of an ashtray since it can’t hold his oversized cigar. Unfortunately, Dorothy and Twain don’t cross paths in London, and they finally converge on their return aboard the SS Minnetonka. Dorothy approaches Twain and talks about her love of his books, including Tom Sawyer.

Twain shapes Dorothy Quick into a Tom Sawyer-like figure. Dorothy Quick enjoys Tom Sawyer because the book encapsulates what her life is not. Dorothy doesn’t have friends her age because she doesn’t go to school. Her chronic bronchitis causes her to stay at home and learn from a private tutor. Mark Twain also mentors Dorothy by encouraging her interest in writing.

Mark Twain is not the only teacher in his friendship with Dorothy. He knows that he is nearing the end of his life and regrets not spending more time with his kids while they were young. Dorothy takes Twain past his pen name by helping him nurture his relationship with his daughter Jean. She also makes Twain feel young again. There is a jovial scene in Mark Twain and Me where Mark Twain accompanies Dorothy to the Brooklyn Public Library to confront a librarian who had banned Huckleberry Finn. Watch Mark Twain and Me to learn more about Dorothy Quick’s magical friendship with Mark Twain.

Hemingway: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. 

Hemingway: A Film is a three-part documentary series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. The series dispels the caricature of Ernest Hemingway as a macho man. He was more complicated than that, and the series explores his consideration of gender roles in his personal life and work. A different glimpse of Hemingway happened in 1935: Hemingway only viewed Florida as a place that had unjust taxation—until a disaster occurred in 1935. 

On Labor Day in 1935, a hurricane hit Florida killing 400 people, among them 259 homeless World War I veterans. The veterans had been sent to the South by the Roosevelt administration to build highway bridges to bring more visitors to the Florida Keys. This tragedy caused Hemingway to burst into action. Hemingway joined volunteers in gathering up the dead. He also wrote a piece blaming the Roosevelt administration for the veterans' deaths. How will you view Hemingway?

My Salinger Year 

Based On: My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff

 In 1995, Joanna leaves her boyfriend and moves to New York City to become a writer. She finds a job as a secretary at a literary agency, a job that will bide her time until she becomes a writer. The agency has represented writers such as Agatha Christie, yet Joanna is secluded from the world of writing. Her orbit consists of her old-fashioned boss having her transcribe tapes on a typewriter.

Joanna also learns that her agency represents Jerry (J.D Salinger), who lives in seclusion. It has taken over Salinger’s letters and fan mail, which happened after Salinger stopped responding to them in 1963. The agency decides to put Joanna is put in charge of the letters and fan mail, and she’s handed a formulaic template on how to respond to each request such as an interview request or celebrity auction.

Joanna must also keep her distance from Salinger’s fans. She is forbidden from personally responding to Salinger’s mail. Joanna has also never read any of Salinger’s stories. Yet Salinger’s mail connects her to him. Joanna reads mail from a wide variety of people who are touched by Salinger’s stories. This urges the aspiring writer to want to write back to Salinger’s fans. Will Joanna restrain her emotions, or will she personally respond to Salinger’s mail? Watch My Salinger Year to catch the story of the connection between the aspiring and secluded writer.

The Pale Blue Eye

Based On: The Pale Blue Eye: A Novel by Louis Bayard

The Pale Blue Eye is a period piece film that takes place in Hudson Valley, New York, in 1830. Augustus Landor is a legendary detective who is called into the United States Military Academy after the suicide of a West Point Cadet. Landor doesn’t see the need for a detective investigating a suicide. That is, until the military reveals that the dead cadet sustained additional injuries. Unknown perpetrator(s) who were inside the hospital ward carved the dead cadet’s heart from his chest. This revelation springs Landor into action, and he starts his investigation into the removal of the dead cadet’s heart. 

You are now probably wondering which writer appears in The Pale Blue Eye. That writer is Edgar Allen Poe. But it’s no ordinary role: in The Pale Blue Eye, Poe is assisting Augustus Landor’s investigation.  Poe is an outcast cadet at West Point. One day, he confides to Landor his theory that a poet must have cut the dead cadet’s heart out. Landor is intrigued by Poe, so he hires him for his investigation.

The real Poe was a cadet at West Point. But he was no detective. Despite this, The Palest Blue Eye remains intriguing. The movie’s winter setting adds to its gloomy ambiance. The film also cleverly references Edgar Allen Poe. You can play detective by finding the references corresponding to Edgar Allen Poe’s life. Check out The Pale Blue Eye to start your own investigation into the gothic writer’s life.