Peek Inside the Homes of Some of the South’s Most Creative People

Inspiration abounds in a beautiful new coffee-table book  

The writer Sam Lubell believes you can learn a lot about a person by peeking into his or her living room. In his new book, Life Meets Art, Lubell, who has written eight books on architecture including a mid-century modern travel guide to the East Coast, takes readers inside the homes of 250 thinkers and creators, including writers, musicians, artists, and designers, both contemporary and canonized. “I’m interested in helping readers get to know people on a different level,” he says. “Especially in this age where everyone sees everyone else as one-dimensional—we all have more to us than meets the eye.” Take Clementine Hunter, for instance, who lived and worked on Melrose plantation outside of Natchitoches, Louisiana until her death in 1988. A walk through the plantation today reveals the self-taught painter’s bright and telling depictions of rural Louisiana. Or Ernest Hemingway—perhaps known most as a transient writer and thinker—who loved hiding out at his lush and vivid Key West bungalow. “Reading his novels gets you so far, but there’s nothing quite like seeing where he sat, looking out the window of his home,” Lubell says. “When we can travel again, I want to encourage people to go out and explore and learn about these great people.” In the meantime, flipping through Life Meets Art brings you pretty close.