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
John Claggett Proctor
John Claggett Proctor lived his entire life in Washington, DC. He began working at age 15 as a printer, then earned a law degree from the National University Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1894. Proctor was active in several DC organizations, including the Masons, the Society of Natives, the Association of the Oldest Inhabitants, Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, the Columbia Historical Society, and the DC Federation of Citizen’s Associations.
He wrote articles for The Sunday Star newspaper from 1928 until the early 1950s, which were collected in the 1949 volume Proctor’s Washington and Environs. In 1950, he self-published his volume of collected poems, Proctor’s Poems. He is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery.
Just some of our many homes...
Clarice Lispector
4421 Ridge St., Chevy Chase, MD
Saint-John Perse
1621 34th St. NW
Saint-John Perse
2800 Woodley Rd. NW
Rose Elizabeth Cleveland
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Manley Wade Wellman
400 Shepherd St. NW, Washington, DC
Julia Magruder
1906 Calvert St. NW
James M. Cain
6707 44th Ave.
Natalie Clifford Barney
2306 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Alain Locke
1326 R St. NW, Washington, DC
Alain Locke
1309 R St. NW, Washington DC
Joseph Story
1801 F St. NW, Washington, DC
Sterling A. Brown
1222 Kearney St. NE
Robert Penn Warren
2445 39th St NW, Washington, DC, USA
Essex Hemphill
3351 Mt. Pleasant St. NW
Henry Brandon
3005 O Street Northwest, Washington, DC, USA
Emily Hawthorn
1516 Q Street Northwest, Washington, DC, USA
Emily Hawthorn
1231 W Street Northwest, Washington, DC, USA
Owen Dodson
1813 16th St. NW, Washington DC
Owen Dodson
1707 Columbia Rd. NW
Yoonmee Chang
5004 Fulton St NW, Washington, DC, USA
John F. Kennedy
1400 34th St. NW
John F. Kennedy
1528 31st St. NW
John F. Kennedy
3321 Dent Place NW
John F. Kennedy
2808 P St. NW, Washington, DC
John F. Kennedy
3307 N Street NW, Washington DC
John F. Kennedy
2480 16th St. NW
John F. Kennedy
1147 Chain Bridge Road
John F. Kennedy
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Cordwainer Smith
2831 29th St NW
Siv Cedering Fox
11008 Picasso Lane, Potomac MD
Elinor Wylie
1707 N St. NW, Washington, DC
Elinor Wylie
2153 Florida Ave. NW
Latest from Twitter
A Twitter List by TwitterDevAuthor Birthdays
in February
Emma Willard (February 23, 1787)
Henry Lytton Bulwer (February 13, 1801)
Harriet Ann Jacobs (February 11, 1813)
Frederick Douglass (February 1818)
Ellen Tarr O’Connor Calder (February 21, 1830)
Margaret Louisa Sullivan Burke (February 1836)
Henry Adams (February 16, 1838)
Jean Jules Jusserand (February 18, 1855)
Cecil Arthur Spring-Rice (February 27, 1859)
Philander Chase Johnson (February 6, 1866)
Zitkala-Sa (February 22, 1876)
Millicent Todd Bingham (February 5, 1880)
Alice Roosevelt Longworth (February 13, 1884)
Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885)
Mariano Brull (February 24, 1891)
Lillian Rogers Parks (February 1, 1897)
Luis Muñoz Marín (February 18, 1898)
Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902)
Una Marson (February 6, 1905)
St. Clair McKelway (February 13, 1905)
Dee Brown (February 28, 1908)
Selden Rodman (February 19, 1909)
Stephen Spender (February 28, 1909)
Elizabeth Bishop (February 8, 1911)
Herman Taube (February 2, 1918)
Howard Nemerov (February 29, 1920)
Betty Friedan (February 4, 1921)
Margaret Truman (February 17, 1924)
Roger Mudd (February 9, 1928)
Toni Morrison (February 18, 1931)
Edward Moore “Ted” Kennedy (February 22, 1932)
Roland Flint (February 27, 1934)
Martin Galvin (February 21, 1937)
Siv Cedering Fox (February 5, 1939)
Donald Britton (February 16, 1951)