Flappers & Fiction

This article surveys the literary and scientific community of Washington, D.C., describing it as a uniquely conducive environment for intellectual pursuits with its wide, shady streets and village-like sociability. The author profiles numerous distinguished residents, including historian George Bancroft, who completed his comprehensive History of the United States and recently celebrated his eighty-ninth birthday. Other notable figures include Librarian of Congress Ainsworth R. Spofford, Lincoln biographers John Hay and John G. Nicolay, adventurous journalist George Kennan who exposed Russian prison conditions, and scientists like Professor Langley of the Smithsonian Institution. The piece presents Washington as America’s true literary center, where writers integrate naturally into society rather than forming separate intellectual cliques.

“Washington is essentially a city of homes,” and a stranger driving through the fashionable quarter in 1889 would certainly agree. From the President’s modest “Red Top” surrounded by rolling clover to the haunted colonial halls of “Grasslands” where a gouty admiral once lived, this architectural tour opens the heavy oak doors of the capital’s elite. We peek into Mrs. Whitney’s famous crimson ballroom and the eclectic library of Sunset Cox, discovering the private parlors where state secrets were whispered over rare wines and velvet turf.