Elizabeth Gilbert profile

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.

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