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8/13/2019 Elizabeth Gilbert profile
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8/13/2019 Elizabeth Gilbert profile
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SPOTLIGHT
On a visit to an 18th-century estate along the Schuylkill River, the best-selling
author whose botany-infused novel, The Signature of All Things, is out now
talks plants, people and the past with landscape architect Barbara Paca.
By Norman Vanamee
Photos by Barry Sutton
OCTOBER 2013
PHILADELPHIA STOR
E l i z a b e t h G i l b e r t s
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On a sunny Sunday morning September, Elizabeth Gilbert stand
foyer of The Woodlands, a 230-
neoclassical mansion in western Phil
that now presides, somewhat eerily
rambling urban cemetery. She wears a bright gre
and sneakers and holds in her arms her small bro
Rocky, who stares up at her with expectant eyes
is the author of eight books, including Eat, Pray, L
2006 memoir that tenaciously held a position on
York Timesbest-seller list for 187 weeks. At the tim
short pilgrimage to The Woodlands (Gilbert lives
hours drive away, in Frenchtown, New Jersey), h
book, a novel called The Signature of All Things, is
momentarily, and she is about to begin a 15-city ga
readings, signings and lectures. But on this bright
day, shes eager for a tour. Do you think we can g
to the cellar? she asks. Its my favorite part of the
Elizabeth Gilbert set her latest novel, The Signature of All early-19th-century Philadelphia, where her heroine lives in
inspired by The Woodlands, a city landmark to this day. Pr
page: photo by Ryan Collard, courtesy of The Woodlands
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The riverfront facade o
with its central ne
flanked by symmet
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T
he Signature of all Things is Gilberts first
work of fiction in more than a dozen years,
and its a big, rich novel unlike anything shes
published. Set in the 18th and 19th centuries,
it tells the tale of a wealthy Philadelphia
woman who dedicates her life to botany. (It has receivedwarm and, in some cases, ecstatic reviews.) Gilbert first
came to The Woodlands in 2011 while researching the book,
and she used the mansion and records of its gardens and
landscaping pre-cemetery as inspiration for her main
characters estate, which she called White Acre. It was
great to be able to picture what the light might have been
like, what the view might have been, Gilbert explains. It
almost becomes a character in the novel.
The houses saloon its main entertaining space opens onto the
portico. While almost entirely devoid of furnishings, the interior is
filled with natural light.
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W
hile conducting her resea
the novel, Gilbert consulte
numerous experts b
historians and architects them. These included Barbara
noted New York- and Maryland-based landscape a
and scholar of early American garden design. On
of the publication of Signature,Gilbert and Paca
to visit Woodlands together for a tour of the ho
by Aaron Wunsch a Woodlands board membe
assistant professor of historic preservation at the
University of Pennsylvania and wound up eng
a lively discussion about landscape, plants and t
theyve long played in American society.
Im having a flashback, Paca says shortly a
emerges from her dusty Volvo station wagon. I ca
twenty years ago to examine the stable block,
almost exactly the same as the one at Wye Hall. (P
done preservation research at this 18th-century pl
on Marylands eastern shore, which was the hom
ancestor Governor William Paca.)
Landscape architect Barbara Paca and Gil bert stroll down
Woodlandss front drive. Paca was one of many experts Gi
sulted in the course of researching her novel.
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The Woodlands was built in
1780 by William Hamilton, a
wealthy landowner with Tory
sympathies and the airs of
a gentleman scholar. Its an
imposing stone mansion, with a central
two-story portico on its southern side that
once overlooked gardens sloping down to
the Schuylkill River. Now, trees and train
tracks have encroached on that view, and
tombstones and mausoleums have figured
in the vista since 1840. Thats when a privatecemetery company took over the estate,
intent on protecting this rare tract of open
land from the industrialization that was
rapidly transforming Philadelphia.
The house has many now-familiar attributes
of post-Revolution-era design, but at the
time of its construction, it was considered
extraordinary. To have a dining room thrust
out into the surrounding landscape was quite
unusual, says Wunsch, gesturing toward the
rooms bay of tall French windows. Even
more so because the rooms oval shape
mirrors planting beds that were part of theestates landscape. An avid gardener in her
own right, Gilbert carefully surveys the room.
She set her novel in a time when a
and high society intertwined. M
Hamilton dabbled in art, architec
science, and their houses and garde
often open to genteel visitors. H
character, Alma Whittaker, writes
for academic journals and turns h
into a laboratory for research. (The
a tortured love story, not to mentio
searching trip around the world.)
was one of the few sciences that w
women, Gilbert says. Or at least it time. I was very concerned that all th
I had Alma do were plausible.
f
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There werent really any
architects in America in 1780,
Wunsch tells the women as
they continue their circuit of
the ground floor. One theory
is that Hamilton designed Woodlands
himself with the help of a local builder.
The house features a great number of
architectural innovations, including a
cryptoporticus thats tucked under the front
steps and serves as a hidden passageway,and a spiraling back staircase that runs
from basement to attic. Both allowed
servants to move through the house
without being seen, Wunsch explains.
They also provided great ventilation. Shall
we move into the next room? The dog
lets out a sigh. But Rocky, Gilbert says,
holding his face. I know youre a fan of
early-American architecture.
Views of the house (and, bottom right, stable
block) show its various states of conservation.
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Among the Woodlandss most
impressive features were
its elaborate grounds and
large greenhouse. Hamilton
collected rare botanical
specimens from around the world. In Gilberts
novel, Almas father, Henry Whittaker, is a
low-born Englishman who finds his way to
Philadelphia after a youth spent traveling
the globe in search of specimens for the
noted English botanist Sir Joseph Banks,
and makes his fortune selling plants formedicinal purposes. I borrowed details
from the life of John Bartram, Gilbert says
of Hamiltons neighbor, another American
botanist. (She rejected as muse the house at
Bartrams Garden, just down the Schuylkill,
because she found Bartrams Quaker taste
too restrained for the likes of brash Henry
Whittaker.) There was big money in
horticulture.
Paca nods her head. Wealthy Americans
collected plants to display their status but
also for the betterment of the country, she
says. Finding new crops or anything thatoffered refinement it was considered a
form of nation building.
Since its sale in 1840, the house has bee
within a park-like 54-acre private cemete
by Ryan Collard, courtesy of The Woodla
In the homes saloon, or entertain
which opens onto the portico, the w
shallow alcoves to hold statues and
doors were once hung with mirrors
the things I got from speaking with B
Gilbert says, was the idea that wom
often in charge of these estates w
husbands were away making mone
laughs and says, Yes, it was, Im
the West Indies for five years, darling
the grounds while Im gone.
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IT WAS GREAT TO BEABLE TO PICTURE WHATTHE LIGHT MIGHT HAVE
BEEN LIKE, GILBERTEXPLAINS, WHAT THE
VIEW MIGHT HAVE BEEN.
Only a few of the propertys t
vive from William Ham iltons d
Collard, courtesy
Gilbert with her d og Rocky at right explains
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With Wunsch in t
the women ma
way to the ba
and Rocky
begins to
interest. If theres a rat behind thRocky will find it, Gilbert says, c
stepping through a warren of rooms
Wunsch explains, servants once c
ate, slept, kept watch over the fami
and wine stores and generally insur
the household ran smoothly. (Hann
Groot, the no-nonsense houseke
Signature, oversees all these opera
White Acre.)
When I started the book, I was
to have Alma be a brilliant scient
nobody listened to because she
woman, Gilbert explains, as she
the horsehair plaster of the walls
I decided she would be taken se
but that she would be plagued by
and couldnt present her work unt
absolutely perfect. Thats an eveinsidious problem, and it persi
women in the workforce today.
Gilbert, with her d og, Rocky, at right, explains
that visiting The Woodlands helped her
bring to life her books historic setting.
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Lunch soon follows, set out upon a table placed
on the houses sun-drenched back porch. After
the basements cool darkness, the contrast is
striking. Gilbert and Paca start chatting about
novels that have landscape as a major focus
Wuthering HeightsandAtonementare mentioned. Gilbert
is the center of calm, speaking in carefully constructed
sentences. Paca is more animated as she recalls arcane
texts and research projects. Its hard not to see a little of
Alma in both of them.
After you finished the novel, what surprised you most
about the process? Paca asks. Gilbert closes her eyes
for a moment and then says, How quickly I wrote it. I
over-researched and over-prepared. So when I finally sat
down, it came very fast. She points to the columns of
the porch, their new coat of paint one of the buildings
few visible refurbishments. Its like when youre fixing up
a room, after youve moved all the furniture out, done the
sanding, done the taping. At that point you can just roll
the paint on.
Following up on the remarkable success of her 2006 memoir, Eat,
Pray, Love,Gilbert is enjoying nearly unanimous critical praise for
her new novel.