Writers' Sheds: From Chaotic to Clean

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If you think your home office is disorganized, check out Dylan Thomas' writing shed. Papers cover the desk and floor, and books are stacked haphazardly on shelves. Or take a look at Roald Dahl's home office, which he refused to have cleaned and is, to this day, as messy as it ever was. On the other hand, Mark Twain's garden house seems well kept, just like the rest of his elaborate home in Elmira, New York. Click through the photos above and the links below to learn which shed belongs to which writer...

• 1 Dylan Thomas' Writing Shed: Kenny Hemphill under license by Creative Commons
• 2 George Bernard Shaw's Writing Hut from Shedworking
• 3 Roald Dahl's Writing Hut
• 4 Mark Twain's Writing Hut via Workalicious
• 5 Virginia Woolf's Writing Shed from the Guardian UK

There's something very intimate about these small spaces, converted from humble garden sheds into a backyard writing room. The messiness that's been preserved in many of them gives a glimpse into the way our favorite authors really lived, and even the clean, organized desks offer some sense of how these writers thought.

Comments (8)

Bless real spaces where people live/lived real lives!!

posted by uselessinfo on May 26th 2009 at 7:36pm
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Hooray for creative energy! : D

posted by ponytailed_informant on May 26th 2009 at 7:59pm
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Well put uselessinfo!

posted by sfteri on May 26th 2009 at 8:52pm
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very cool to see Virginia Woolf's room of her own...

posted by jessbink on May 26th 2009 at 9:33pm
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These aren't messy at all- by my write-at home standards... Yeah I need a little healthy diasarray to get the creative ball rolling..

posted by mskk on May 26th 2009 at 11:43pm
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Michael Pollan, in his pre-foodie days, wrote a whole book about building his own writer's shed -- A Place of My Own. Pics here: http://www.michaelpollan.com/writing_house.php

posted by Michelle of Montreal on May 27th 2009 at 8:28am
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Thanks for posting this. Lovely in their humbleness. Great to see real spaces of creativity (not hatched from prescriptive design manuals).

posted by reb on May 27th 2009 at 10:54am
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Thanks for using my Dylan Thomas pic and crediting it. That shed is in a very beautiful and remote location. It sits by the side of a path by the River Taf estuary in South Wales. The view must have been inspirational, but it must also have been freezing in the winter.

posted by Kenny Hemphill on May 28th 2009 at 6:17am
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