A Library Jay Gatsby Would Have Felt At Home In...

I visited Hearst Castle (in San Simeon, California) for the first time when I was in high school.  

I had just read The Great Gatsby, and my visit to this hilltop estate brought F. Scott Fitzgerald's story to life for me. I couldn't help but picture Jay Gatsby feeling quite at home in this Gothic chateau - complete with its grand dining room and guest rooms, lushly landscaped garden and pool areas, priceless art, and many antiquities that were part of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst's [1863-1951] own private collections.  

This past week my husband and I visited Hearst Castle and took the "Upstairs Suites Tour".  One of my favorite rooms was the exquisite, low-ceilinged library - home to many of Hearst's first-edition books and his collection of 150 ancient Greek pottery vases.

William Randolph Hearst's estate was under construction for 28 years!  It was finally completed in 1947. 

Among many other incredible requests, Hearst commissioned architect Julia Morgan to create several lampshades from the leaves of a medieval choir book.

I was pleasantly surprised by the two books that were on display in Hearst's beautiful Gothic study (his personal office and private library):  Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and Jack London's The Call of the Wild.  

After enjoying the indoor tour, my husband and I ventured out to see the gorgeous grounds of the estate... 

The landscaped gardens were a riot of color, profuse with all kinds of flowering spring bulbs and trees.

We followed the pathways which led us down to the outdoor Neptune Pool.

Aside from the surrounding mountains, the pool area was quite a perfect setting for one of the "Great Gatsby's" parties, don't you think?

Our afternoon at Hearst Castle ended with a quick visit to the fabulous indoor Roman Pool.

I hope you enjoyed my little photo blog of Hearst Castle. Want to see other libraries Jay Gatsby might have liked?  Go here: The Libraries, Studies, and Writing Rooms of 15 Famous Men - from "The Art of Manliness" Blog.

And go here to read more about the various tours offered at Hearst Castle (there is even a night tour offered, where tourists can mingle with docents who are decked out in period costumes).

About as Close to The Emerald City as You Can Get: Hotel del Coronado!

We just returned from an idyllic family vacation at the Hotel del Coronado near San Diego, California. The weather was sublime.

The stunning Hotel del Coronado - The Emerald City?

And guess who else loved this place -- L. Frank Baum, who first visited the turn-of-the century seaside resort with his family in 1904.  He wrote at least three of his Oz books while staying at "The Del"...

Although L. Frank Baum hailed from the Midwest, he preferred to winter in the warm and welcoming sunshine of the picturesque community of Coronado, California, just across the bay from San Diego. 

Doesn't the Emerald City look familiar?

Some people think the author based his design of the bejeweled Emerald City on the Hotel del Coronado; but Baum had already written the first book which included the fictitious Emerald City (The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, published in1900), before ever visiting the hotel in 1904.

L. Frank Baum had storytime with children on the lawn at the
Hotel del Coronado. (photo 1904, source]

Still, you can see why Baum found the hotel so entrancing. With its whimsical design, vibrant red roofs, magical spires, and one-of-a-kind setting, the "Hotel Del" is as close to Emerald City as you'll ever get!  

And Baum is credited with designing the stunning chandeliers in the "Crown Room" of the hotel - don't you think they're fit for the Cowardly Lion? [From Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920's by Kevin Starr, source]

Chandeliers in the Crown Room, of the Hotel del Coronado,
designed by Baum [source]

L. Frank Baum - who suffered from a weak heart - usually resided at the hotel for months at a time; in later years he would sometimes rent a house nearby.  During his years in Coronado, Baum wrote the third, fourth, and fifth books of the Oz series: Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz (1908); The Road to Oz (1909); and The Emerald City (1910).

The house L. Frank Baum's would sometimes rent on Star Park Circle,
 just around the corner from the Hotel Del Coronado. [source]

Something else to see in Coronado: The children's area of the Coronado Public Library is home to nine beautiful glass panels (a permanent exhibit, by Brenda Smith) displaying Oz culture and featuring many of Baum's characters. 

Wizard of Oz Glass panels, Coronado Public Library [source]

Detail: Dorothy and the Munchkins [source] 

Baum moved to Hollywood in 1910, where he spent the last nine years of his life at his home, "Ozcot" (he was one of the community's earliest residents).  

He passed away in 1919, but his memory and his legacy in California cultural history live on. 

I hope you can "follow the yellow brick road" someday to Coronado Island, and the Hotel Del! You won't be disappointed.

• Source info: "The Hotel del Coronado and L. Frank Baum"; and "How Frank Baum Became the Wizard of Coronado".
• Scanned color illustrations of the first edition OZ books can be seen here.

Vintage Shopping Near the Mission Inn

During our recent stay at the Mission Inn (see yesterday's post), my husband and I had fun exploring downtown Riverside.  Come along for a little tour...

After the used bookstore, we headed over to Simple Simon's Bakery for coffee and a croissant.

And then on to Mrs. Tiggy-Winkles, just down the street!

As we left Riverside later that afternoon, we drove past the beautiful City Hall, Metropolitan Art Museum, and lots of restaurants and antique stores. We'll definitely be back for another visit!  I've heard that the Festival of Lights in December at the Mission Inn is not to be missed!

Sun-kissed in Riverside, California

My husband and I just returned from a wonderful little getaway for our 30th Wedding Anniversary. We stayed in Riverside, California, at the famed Mission Inn.

How did this historic landmark, complete with antique bells, flying buttresses, a medieval clock, Tiffany stained glass windows, Mediterranean domes, and a five-story rotunda come to be in a Southern California?

Riverside was the birthplace of the California citrus industry. In the late 1800’s, wealthy easterners and Europeans flocked to Riverside in search of both a warmer winter climate and to invest in the area’s profitable new sun-kissed commerce...

In the 1870's a second "Gold Rush" began in California with the arrival of golden sweet and seedless navel oranges.  Two trees were brought to Riverside from Brazil. Talk about perfect timing: in 1877 the Transcontinental Railroad was completed, allowing shipments of the luscious and sturdy fruit to be delivered to eager East Coasters!

The "citrus heyday" lasted from the 1880's - 1955.
During this time, citrus growers commissioned imaginative paper labels
from lithography companies in San Francisco and Los Angeles
to capture the attention of Eastern wholesale dealers.
(I saw these vintage labels in a used bookstore - more tomorrow!)

By the early 1900's people were coming to Riverside not only for its navel oranges, but for the Mission Inn! The Mission Inn evolved along with its surrounding community.

The hotel started as a two story adobe home, built in 1874 by the Miller family, who took in paying guests and soon added additional wings, calling it the Glenwood Hotel. But it was their 23-year-old son Frank, who purchased the home/hotel from his parents in 1880 and eventually made it into a popular resort, re-named the Mission Inn.

By the 1890’s, Riverside was the richest city per capita in the United States. The consistent influx of tourists to Riverside made Frank Miller recognize the desperate need for a grand resort hotel.  In 1902 he modernized it, and added a garden. He also hired an architect and added more wings. Then he began traveling the world...

Miller's travels took him to Europe and Asia, where he loved visiting shrines with his family and began collecting art and objects of interest (his favorites were bells and crosses) for his Inn.  He even had to create new areas of the hotel to accommodate his finds!

It is truly amazing how much he did to transform the hotel before his death in 1935. (Read more here...)

The medieval clock and fourth (top) floor rooms, "Author's Row" - where we stayed!

The next time you peel a sun-kissed (Sunkist) orange, I hope you'll think about Riverside, California and the Mission Inn.                                           Tomorrow I'll tell you about some children's books I found in Riverside (and more)... 

Daffodils and A.A. Milne

On a recent visit to the Santa Ynez Valley to celebrate my upcoming birthday (it's a big one this year, more on that in another post) my husband and I stayed in the tiny town of Ballard, at a quaint bed and breakfast inn.  



Springtime was in evidence everywhere - we saw wisteria, ranunculus, poppies, and A.A. Milne's favorites: daffodils.

I learned this interesting tidbit about Milne from my blog friend, Brian Sibley (Brian is a multi-talented British radio broadcaster, writer, and photographer. I hope you check out his blog.)  

We were commenting back and forth on a photo he'd posted of daffodils, "Easter Gold", with a short verse by Milne.  He told me that Milne was especially fond of daffodils, called his wife, Daphne, "Daff", and had included this poem in Now We Are Six (April is National Poetry Month, after all)...

Dafodowndill

She wore her yellow sun-bonnet,

She wore her greenest gown;

She turned to the south wind

And curtsied up and down.

She turned to the sunlight

And shook her yellow head,

and whispered to her neighbor:

"Winter is dead."

Brian's comment and Milne's poem prompted me to comment further that I knew of a picture book by Milne, The Magic Hill, about a princess named Daffodil. Published in 2000, with illustrations by Isabell Bodor Brown, it was written originally by A.A. Milne in 1925.  I had been so excited to discover a fairy tale by Milne and had included it in this post I did about Princess books!

Brian gave me details about the history of Milne's original story - why is Brian so knowledgeable about A.A. Milne?  Mr. Sibley wrote all about Milne's bear in Three Cheers for Pooh!, to commemorate Pooh's 75th Anniversary.
  

Brian is really a walking encyclopedia when it comes to many classic authors, illustrators, books, films, and Disney!   

He commented: "The Magic Hill first appeared in a curious book, A Gallery of Children: a collection of stories written by Milne to accompany a series of paintings by Henrietta Willebeeck Le Maire in 1925. Here is her original painting of The Magic Hill" (linked).

Well - now I've got to add A Gallery of Children to my own library!  It contains twelve A.A. Milne stories along with Henrietta Le Maire's gorgeous artwork - you can see some of the illustrations here.

Back to Santa Ynez Valley, where all this talk of daffodils started...the town of Ballard is so cute, I have to share some pictures.  In reality, it is more of an intersection than a town, with our B&B on one corner, and a church on the other!

One morning we walked around the corner and down the street from our B&B, and saw a wonderful little red schoolhouse. It was founded in 1882 (ironically, that was the year A.A. Milne was born).  The best part is that the school house is still in use!

There are modern facilities that were built right next to it in the 1980's, as more classroom space for K-8 was needed. You can read about the history of the Ballard School here.

So here's to small towns, Easter, daffodils and A.A. Milne - from my house to yours!