This project documents the homes of literary authors who once lived in the greater Washington, DC region. We wanted to honor the widest range of literary authors possible, including authors of different backgrounds, writing styles, and influences. We include novelists, poets, playwrights, and memoirists. We do not include writers who were solely journalists, and, with few exceptions, authors of genre literature. We have tried hard to include authors from a range of time periods, from the city’s founding in 1800 through the present.
Recent Additions
What’s New?
We got a great review in the Washington City Paper in August 2020, calling our project “an online database of more than 300 writers and their D.C. homes [that] offers a glittering who’s who of Washington literary history.”
Our official relaunch celebration took place on November 29, 2018. After a decade of implementing this project independently, co-editors Kim Roberts and Dan Vera were pleased to celebrate the project’s new permanent home. Sponsored by HumanitiesDC, this updated version of the website features a responsive design easily navigable by desktop or smartphone users. They have promised to continue and preserve our research on writers’ homes in perpetuity.
HumanitiesDC is one of 56 state humanities councils and the capital’s local affiliate for the National Endowment for the Humanities.
With our latest additions, we are now documenting the homes of 405 writers who lived and wrote in the greater Washington, DC region!
Featured Author
Douglass Wallop
Douglas Wallop III, a novelist and Tony Award-winning playwright, is best known for the comic novel, The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant (1954), which he later adapted into the popular musical Damn Yankees. He is the author of 13 books, including he novels Night Light (1953), The Mermaid in the Swimming Pool (1968), Mixed Singles (1977), and The Other Side of the River (1984), and the nonfiction book Baseball: An Informal History (1969).
Wallop grew up in DC, graduated from The University of Maryland, and worked as a journalist. He was married to the writer Lucille Fletcher.
Just some of our many homes...
Robert Rice Reynolds
1 2nd Street Northeast, Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, USA
David Shears
6525 32nd St NW, Washington, DC, USA
Julia Magruder
1906 Calvert St. NW
Edward Everett Hale
1741 N St. NW, Washington DC
Erico Verissimo
3609 34th St. NW
Gwendolyn Bennett
1454 T St. NW, Washington DC
Richard Schayer
1318 30th St NW
L. Ron Hubbard
1812 19th St NW, Washington DC
Marita Bonner
1805 2nd St. NW, Washington DC
Marita Bonner
2201 2nd St. NW, Washington DC
Ward Dorrance
1517 30th St. NW, Washington DC
Ward Dorrance
1524 29th St. NW, Washington DC
Jean Kerr
1003 Varnum St. NE
Jean Jules Jusserand
2460 16th St. NW
Art Buchwald
2650 Virginia Ave. NW
Art Buchwald
4327 Hawthorne Place Northwest, Washington, DC, USA
Lucille Fletcher
3435 8th St S
Jean C. Bower
2500 Q St. NW, Washington DC
Elinor Wylie
1707 N St. NW, Washington, DC
Elinor Wylie
2153 Florida Ave. NW
Edwin Palmer Hoyt
756 11th St. SE
Saint-John Perse
1621 34th St. NW
Saint-John Perse
2800 Woodley Rd. NW
Elmer Davis
923 16th St. NW, Washington DC
Jim Morrison
2320 N. Evergreen St., Arlington, VA
Jim Morrison
1327 South Glebe Road, Arlington, VA, USA
Murray Leinster
639 8th Street NE
Louis J. Halle
1423 Shepherd St. NW
Edward Weismiller
2400 Virginia Ave. NW
Latest from Twitter
A Twitter List by TwitterDevAuthor Birthdays
in January
William Douglas O’Connor (January 2, 1832)
Julia Thompson Von Stosch Schayer (January 7, 1842)
William Henry Babcock (January 19, 1849)
Terence Vincent Powderly (January 22, 1849)
Samuel Gompers (January 27, 1850)
Augustus Thomas (January 8, 1857)
Alice Tisdale Hobart (January 28, 1882)
Elmer Davis (January 13, 1890)
Harvey Fergusson (January 28, 1890)
Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891)
Muna Lee (January 28, 1895)
John Dos Passos (January 14, 1896)
Catherine Drinker Bowen (January 1, 1897)
Carlos Peña Rómulo (January 14, 1899)
May Miller (January 26, 1899)
Tallulah Bankhead (January 31, 1902)
Ruth Moore (January 1, 1903)
Jeane L. Dixon (January 5, 1904)
Harry Sylvester (January 19, 1908)
Audrey Wurdemann (January 1, 1911)
John Killens (January 14, 1916)
Henry Morgenthau III (January 11, 1917)
Jean Johnson (January 1918)
Mary Zurhorst Gray (January 6, 1919)
William Meredith (January 9, 1919)
Anthony Hecht (January 16, 1923)
Ann B. Knox (January 31, 1926)
Betty Parry (January 5, 1927)
Irene Munson Rouse (January 1, 1928)
William Peter Blatty (January 7, 1928)
Larry L. King (January 1, 1929)
Barbara F. Lefcowitz (January 15, 1935)
Lou Stovall (January 1, 1937)
Judith McCombs (January 20, 1939)
Charles Sebree (January 1, 1985)