March 3, 2008

Another photo quiz.

Here's a distinctive house in Brooklyn Heights where a famous writer lived from 1924 to 1925:

A house in Brooklyn Heights

Who was it?

AND: The first commenter — jroosh — gets it right. It's Henry Miller. The plaque read:
Raised in Brooklyn, the best-selling author is noted for his imaginative, controversial novels Tropic of Cancer (1934), which chronicles his colorful life as an expatriate in Paris, and Tropic of Capricorn (1939), which depicts his adult life in New York City. Both books were banned in the U.S. until 1961.

25 comments:

Johnny Roosh said...

Henry Miller?

George M. Spencer said...

The guy who wrote all the scripts for the Patty Duke TV show?

Ann Althouse said...

Yay, jroosh! You are right.

Eli Blake said...

I bet on Halloween it would make a great haunted mansion.

George M. Spencer said...

Henry Miller wrote the Patty Duke show?

Anais Nin played her mom.

Eli Blake said...

All you need is mother sitting silently in the window, and a "Welcome to the Bates Motel" sign.

Palladian said...

Or an elderly blind priest, guarding the gates of Hell...

Oh, that was a different building.

Nobody will know what I'm talking about.

From Inwood said...

Heck, I was just gonna guess Betty Smith(A Tree Grows In Brooklyn).

Ann Althouse said...

Palladian, it must be WH Auden or Thomas Wolfe, but I don't know the blind priest reference.

Craig Nolen said...

no more fish eye. it's like beating a dead horse

Ann Althouse said...

Craig, do you think this is a fisheye picture?

Palladian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Palladian said...

Oh Ann, you're thinking far, far too highbrow....

Yes, it's a terrible movie, but it does have a certain atmosphere and it was actually filmed in and around that house at 10 Montague Terrace.

This is absolutely the best scene from the film [NOT SAFE FOR WORK OR ANYWHERE FOR THAT MATTER]. Beverly D'Angelo's forgotten, er, mast..erpiece.

Palladian said...

In fact, that scene with Beverly D'Angelo and Sylvia Miles may rank among the best scenes in cinema history.

Ann Althouse said...

Thanks. That was cool.

I'm not really being highbrow. I've just walked there a lot and read the plaques.

ricpic said...

I believe Miller lived there with the girl he had encountered in a dance hall, the legendary Mona. One of the shockers of Tropic Of Capricorn, to me at least, is the casual throwaway manner in which he mentions that in order to go off with her he had to leave his wife and two kids. One sentence. No exposition. No anguish. No regret. He was a cold cat, that HM.

Palladian said...

Oh, take some photographs of 10 Montague Terrace, pretty please!

I'd give anything to live there.

And not because of "The Sentinel" either!

Ann Althouse said...

Okay!

blake said...

I knew it was The Sentinel!

Damn me and my day job.

I would've guessed Betty Smith, too, though, not Henry Miller.

I was too young to see The Sentinel when it came out and keep thinking I'll watch it on cable--but there's a far more recent movie by the same name--and that's all they ever show.

mtrobertsattorney said...

Are you sure this isn't the place where H.P. Lovecraft stayed when he was in New York?

Cogitor said...

I moved out of Brooklyn in 2006 and I've been delighted to watch as you've posted picture after picture of my old neighborhood. Now you've even taken a picture of my former home! I lived in this building for seven years.

Ann Althouse said...

Cogitor, that's so cool.

Anonymous said...

Mtrobertsattorney, Lovecraft lived in Red Hook, couple miles or so south of the Heights. Van Brunt Street, to be exact. It was there that Lovecraft first developed his virulent racism, and that's why there's quite a bit of controversy in that burg as to whether his residency should be commemorated with a plaque a la the Miller house or the Auden house in the Heights. Some relatives of mine are long term-residents of the Heights and co-founders of its Historical Society, which puts up all those informative plaques...

Craig Nolen said...

Ann,
Sorry. No I didn't think this one was a fisheye. I met to post on a different post and accidentally had too many of your fantastic posts open. My condolences.

Craig

Anonymous said...

That's Father Hallarin in 5A. He just sits by the window. He's blind.