10 iconic authors inspired by an animal muse
Literary history is full of women whose charisma fired up writers’ creative urges. Zelda Fitzgerald, Louise Joyce and Vivienne Eliot are common examples. Not all muses have been human. For many writers, this role was filled by a furry or feathered friend.
These animals were more than pets. They were an essential part of the creative process. Here are ten iconic authors and the animals that inspired them.
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was obsessed with his cat, a large tabby named Catterina. The cat often chose a commanding spot to roost on his shoulder while he was writing. Poe considered the feline his literary guardian. He noted that she purred as if in complacent approval of the world proceeding under her supervision.
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens had a beloved pet raven named Grip. The bird made frequent cameos in the writer’s fiction. Grip died in 1841 after swallowing a paint chip. Dickens had him stuffed. Literary historians believe the bird inspired Edgar Allan Poe’s poem The Raven.
Ernest Hemingway
Despite his manly bravado, Ernest Hemingway had a soft spot for felines. He lived amongst dozens of polydactyl cats in Key West during the 1930s. In Cuba, he hosted over sixty cats on his estate. He held a black and white kitty called Boise in highest esteem. The cat appears as a character in Islands in the Stream.
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler’s animal muse was a black Persian cat named Taki. He considered Taki a useful critic. Chandler wrote that Taki would spend time quietly gazing out of the window from a corner of the desk as if to say the work was a waste of time.
Gertrude Stein
Alice B. Toklas, the love of Gertrude Stein’s life, wanted a white poodle after reading Henry James’s The Princess Casamassima. The couple eventually got one and named him Basket. Basket was succeeded by Basket I and Basket II. Both dogs were later photographed by Man Ray and Cecil Beaton.
Mark Twain
Mark Twain once said that if a man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve the man but deteriorate the cat. Twain combined his love for cats and pocket billiards by tucking a kitten into a corner pocket while playing. The antics of the cat pawing at passing balls relaxed Twain and helped him write later in the day.
William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs was a dedicated cat lover. He revealed a gentler side of his icy literary persona in The Cat Inside. He adored his psychic companions Fletch, Ruski, Spooner and Calico.
Flannery O’Connor
Flannery O’Connor’s affection for chickens came from a childhood surrounded by poultry. As an adult, she kept pheasants, ducks, turkeys and quail. O’Connor famously mail-ordered six peacocks, a peahen and four peachicks. These birds later populated her fiction.
Sir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott was a keen horse rider. He composed his poem Marmion while on horseback. He noted that he had many a grand gallop among the braes while thinking of the work.
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