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from my struggle book 2 posted in literature by ratsnamgod
Twelve times we sang hi to our friend before all the children had been named and we could move on. The next song was about parts of the body, which, of course, the children should touch when they were mentioned. Forehead, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, stomach, knee, foot. Then we were handed some rattle-like instruments that we were supposed to shake as we sang a new song. I wasn't embarrassed, it wasn't embarrassing sitting there, it was humiliating and degrading. Everything was gentle and friendly and nice, all the movements were tiny, and I sat huddled on a cushion droning along with the mothers and children, a song, to cap it all, led by a woman I would have liked to bed.
- My Struggle Book 2, Karl Ove Knausgaard
view full location details...ambassador east hotel
from travels with charley, john steinbeck posted in literature by nevereatshreddedwheat
I think I am well and favorably known at the Ambassador East, but this need not apply when I arrive in wrinkled hunting clothes, unshaven and lightly crusted with the dirt of travel and bleary-eyed from driving most of the night.
– Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck
The Ambassador East was sold in 2010, renovated and reopened as the Public Chicago Hotel.
the macefield house
from edith macefield posted in literature by pete_nice
Edith Masefield was living in this small cottage in the fishing village of Ballard (near Seattle) when she was offered $1 million from developers to tear down her home to make room for a Lifetime Fitness and Trader Joe's. She refused the offer, and the "mixed-usage" commercial building engulfed the rest of the block, but her house defiantly remained.
As William Yardley at the New York Times put it: Ms. Macefield’s refusal to sell her house made the news more than once. In a city knotted over its shifting identity, she seemed a familiar face, old Seattle, vulnerable but resistant to the march of gentrification and blandness.
Edith Masefield spoke English, French, German and Italian. She was the cousin of Benny Goodman, and she played the clarinet and sax. She self-published a book that was 1,138 pages long called Where Yesterday Began un
view full location details...iowa house hotel
from raymond carver, john cheever posted in literature by donkeyoti
John Cheever and Raymond Carver taught at the Iowa Writer's Workshop at the same time in 1973.
From a Paris Review article:
"When we were teaching in the Iowa Writers' Workshop in the fall semester of 1973, he and I did nothing but drink. I mean we met our classes, in a manner of speaking. But the entire time we were there—we were living in this hotel they have on campus, the Iowa House—I don't think either of us ever took the covers off our typewriters. We made trips to a liquor store twice a week in my car."
view full location details...heinold’s first and last chance saloon
from jack london posted in literature by corporate_sunshine
Originally constructed in 1880 from the remnants of a whaling ship, this building was purchased and coverted into a saloon in 1883 by Johnny Heinhold. The name refers to the first and last place sailors could get a drink before hitting the open sea, and the pub was frequented by sailors and adventurers.
After Jack London returned from a fishing trip to Japan and gold-prospecting in the Klondike, the 17-year-old would study at the bar to complete his high school education. London told Heinhold of his desire to attend college to become a writer, and Heinhold lent him the money to attend the University of California at Berkeley.
Although London only finished one year at the university, London used many figures from his time at Heinhold's in his writings (including Captain Alex MacLean, who became Wolf Larsen in The Sea Wolf).
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