This is so great-- I've never been to the Biltmore (or Asheville) and you give a vivid sense of its presence and history. I love the Sargent portrait of GWV! Is it there on site like the two other Sargent portraits? That's worth the trip alone. I'll have to make one.
(I confess I've had a lingering idea to write a whole book about 1895.... It just seems like such a dramatic turning point for the 20th century. Freud's Studies in Hysteria, the Oscar Wilde trial, the Lumiere brothers. The Biltmore wouldn't exactly fit in there but every time I see that year I asterisk it in my head, as context for my hypothetical book. Your post has the quality I admire, of reaching across fields and characters to see the pattern that connects them. Thanks for that!)
I ran a half marathon on the Biltmore grounds- a fun way to see the estate and gardens (though the race doesn't go inside the house). But that gives a person a sense of how vast the property is.
A great piece. I visited Biltmore several years ago, and have been to the Newport mansions a couple of times. The scale of these places is hard to comprehend until you're there.
Biltmore is wonderful, although my favorite visit was in the early ‘90s, before the big crowds and before velvet ropes controlled how you explored the mansion. Quite a place!
Asheville has always meant Thomas Wolfe to me. I didn’t know about this astonishing creation and the lives intertwined there. Your photos complement the text beautifully, taking me there.
I've never toured the Biltmore! A big gap in my cultural education. (And randomly, I marvel at how the name "Edith" has disappeared almost entirely. I always wonder how that happens.)
This is so great-- I've never been to the Biltmore (or Asheville) and you give a vivid sense of its presence and history. I love the Sargent portrait of GWV! Is it there on site like the two other Sargent portraits? That's worth the trip alone. I'll have to make one.
(I confess I've had a lingering idea to write a whole book about 1895.... It just seems like such a dramatic turning point for the 20th century. Freud's Studies in Hysteria, the Oscar Wilde trial, the Lumiere brothers. The Biltmore wouldn't exactly fit in there but every time I see that year I asterisk it in my head, as context for my hypothetical book. Your post has the quality I admire, of reaching across fields and characters to see the pattern that connects them. Thanks for that!)
I ran a half marathon on the Biltmore grounds- a fun way to see the estate and gardens (though the race doesn't go inside the house). But that gives a person a sense of how vast the property is.
A great piece. I visited Biltmore several years ago, and have been to the Newport mansions a couple of times. The scale of these places is hard to comprehend until you're there.
Biltmore is wonderful, although my favorite visit was in the early ‘90s, before the big crowds and before velvet ropes controlled how you explored the mansion. Quite a place!
So interesting!!
Asheville has always meant Thomas Wolfe to me. I didn’t know about this astonishing creation and the lives intertwined there. Your photos complement the text beautifully, taking me there.
I've never toured the Biltmore! A big gap in my cultural education. (And randomly, I marvel at how the name "Edith" has disappeared almost entirely. I always wonder how that happens.)