Homes of Writers

Writers are known much more for their way with words than for their ability to put impressive roofs over their heads. Of course, there are many exceptions, and their names can be found on the bestseller lists. 

One notable writer’s home came to the spotlight earlier this year when Truman Capote’s former townhouse, originally listed for $18 million, sold for $12 million to Dan Houser, creator of "Grand Theft Auto." The 11-bedroom, seven-bath house is the most expensive single-family home ever sold in Brooklyn’s most exclusive neighborhood: Brooklyn Heights, where numerous famous writers have managed to find shelter: W.H. Auden, Thomas Wolfe, Walt Whitman, Carson McCullers and Arthur Miller.

Given that bit of real estate intrigue, it’s high time to investigate the digs of other writers. Using photos from Realtor.com and other sources, we have the homes of authors — from literary fiction to paperback beach reads to a Hollywood screenwriter, a journalist, and the authors of ‘tween fiction embraced by adults.

By Colleen KanePosted 21 May 2012

Location: New Orleans
Price: $3.19 million
Bedrooms: 6
Bathrooms: 7
Square footage: 7,609

Some of bestselling novelist Anne Rice’s stories are set in New Orleans, and the author herself is a native and long associated with the Crescent City. Her Uptown Victorian, which is currently on the market, certainly looks the part of a house owned by the writer of “Interview with the Vampire” and numerous other gothic tales.

Rice’s former house on First Street in New Orleans, the Brevard House, is said to be haunted, and it inspired the setting for her novel “The Witching Hour.”

Location: Barnard, Vt.
Price: $10,000 in 1928
Bedrooms: N/A
Bathrooms: N/A
Square footage:  N/A

Sinclair Lewis’ wife, journalist Dorothy Thompson, was savvy enough to devise a prenup when he proposed. She said yes to his marriage proposal, but only if he would buy her a farm in Vermont. She even stipulated it must have sweeping lawns, orchards and “delicious air.” It worked.

The Nobel Prize-winning novelist, whose works include “Babbitt,” picked up this 1795 farmhouse and 300 acres in 1928 for just $10,000. The couple named it “Twin Farms,” and there they hosted legendary parties attended by politicians and literary guests. It changed hands after their deaths, eventually becoming a bed and breakfast in the 1980s, and it remains a small adults-only resort today.

Location: Cave Creek, Ariz.
Price: Realtor.com’s estimated value $467,920
Bedrooms: 5
Bathrooms: 4
Square footage: 3,242

The author of the “Twilight” series was America’s bestselling author in 2008 and made the list again in 2009.Her single-story desert home was built in 1998. It occupies just 1.11 walled-in acres, but Meyer and her family are making use of almost every bit of that yard with a pool and hot tub, basketball court, and batting cage.

Location: Monrovia, Calif.
Price: $1.1 million
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 2
Square footage: 2,380

This 1923 Spanish Colonial was the home of Upton Sinclair from 1942 through 1966. The home that once housed the Pulitzer-winning muckraking journalist who wrote “The Jungle” sold for just over $1 million last year, following several price cuts, according to Realtor.com.

Sinclair’s house is listed on the national Register of Historic Places, is a National Historic Landmark, and is a Monrovia Historic Landmark.

Location: San Francisco
Price: N/A
Bedrooms: N/A
Bathrooms: 9
Square footage: 14,966

The French Baroque limestone chateau in Pacific Heights known as Spreckels Mansion was built in 1911 for the son of a sugar tycoon and appeared in the 1957 Frank Sinatra film “My Pal Joey” as a nightclub. It is now the home of Danielle Steel, the queen of romance novels, and not coincidentally the author of “The House,” a novel about a San Francisco woman restoring a mansion.

Steel also owns a more modest home elsewhere in San Francisco, a single-story house under 3,000 square feet.

Location: Oxford, Miss.
Price: N/A
Bedrooms : N/A
Bathrooms: N/A
Square footage: N/A

Rowan Oak was the Greek Revival home of William Faulkner and his family for more than 40 years, distinguished by its alley of cedars leading up to the front entrance. It’s now a museum where visitors can see Faulkner’s outline for “A Fable” still handwritten in pencil on the wall of his study. Oxford was the model for Faulkner’s fictional city of Jefferson, and some of his characters were based on local residents.

Part of Rowan Oak’s 2005 renovation was funded by another writer, sometime Oxford resident John Grisham, who graduated from Ole Miss law school.

Location: Bangor, Maine
Price: see below
Bedrooms: N/A
Bathrooms: N/A
Square footage: N/A

Even if you didn’t know whom it belongs to, it wouldn’t be hard to guess that this 150-year-old Italianate mansion belongs to Bangor’s most famous resident, Stephen King, and his wife, novelist Tabitha King. It’s also known as the William Arnold House and is said to have been built for $7,000 in 1856.

The Kings have lived here since 1980. A car crashed into the emblematic spider web gates in 2010, nearly destroying them, but after an extensive repair job, they are back looking fresh as wrought iron spider webs can be.

Location: Los Angeles
Price: $950,000
Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 3
Square footage: 2,399

Bruce Vilanch has co-written such cultural touchstones of the 20^th century as the infamous “Star Wars Holiday Special” and the “Brady Bunch Variety Hour,” not to mention being a writer and celebrity square on “Hollywood Squares.”

Vilanch put his post-and-beam Hollywood Hills home on the market last year. Despite it being rather dark both inside and out, owing to the old-growth trees, the house sold for nearly $1 million.

Location: Amalfi Coast, Italy
Price: $17.87 million
Bedrooms: 6
Bathrooms: N/A
Square footage: N/A

When Gore Vidal could no longer easily navigate La Rondinaia (“Swallow’s Nest”) in his wheelchair, his retreat on Italy’s Amalfi Coast, he put it on the market. It sold for nearly $18 million, according to reports, and it is now a luxury rental retreat.

It has 6 acres of gardens including olive trees, chestnut trees and lemon trees, and 20 terraces overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea. Guests have included Sting, Bruce Springsteen and Mick Jagger.