In her fourth literary travel companion, Alice Leccese Powers explores one of the most seductive regions of the world through more than two centuries of fiction, poetry, essays, letters, and memoirs by English-speaking visitors to northern Italy. The poet Shelley called Tuscany “a paradise of exiles”; it has long been a magnet for literary travelers and expatriates. Here are writers who have made their home in Tuscan villas, castles, and farmhouses, from the Shelleys, Byron, and the Brownings to Frances Mayes. Here too are Charles Dickens, Edith Wharton, Henry James, and E. M. Forster on the glories of Florence, Pisa’s leaning tower, and the enchanting Tuscan countryside, alongside the tart wit of Mark Twain, Mary McCarthy, and Erica Jong. From James Boswell’s record of his romantic dalliances to Laura Fraser’s memoir An Italian Affair to Sarah Dunant’s novel The Birth of Venus , Tuscany in Mind assembles a glittering mosaic portrait of an unforgettable place. Kinta Beevor • James Boswell • Elizabeth Barrett Browning • Robert Browning • Lord Byron • Bruce Chatwin • Ann Cornelisen • Charles Dickens • Sarah Dunant • Lawrence Ferlinghetti • Penelope Fitzgerald • E. M. Forster • Laura Fraser • Paul Gervais • Barbara Grizzuti Harrison • Robert Hellenga • William Dean Howells • Henry James • Erica Jong • D. H. Lawrence • David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell • Robert Lowell • Frances Mayes • Mary McCarthy • H. V. Morton • Eric Newby • Iris Origo • John Ormond • Elizabeth Romer • John Ruskin • Mary Shelley • Percy Bysshe Shelley • Kate Simon • Tobias Smollett • Matthew Spender • Stephen Spender • Mark Twain • Edith Wharton As this anthology amply demonstrates, the first-person account of Tuscan living is not merely a contemporary phenomenon but has a noble lineage. Tuscan geography, food, history, and culture have prompted all manner of literary responses. Robert Browning versified over paintings encountered in Florence's galleries. D. H. Lawrence reveled in the pre-Roman Etruscan city of Volterra with its steep streets. In Florence, Mary McCarthy discovered a "masculine" aesthetic, contrasting with Tuscany's "feminine" city, Siena. Elizabeth Romer praised Tuscan cooking in her luscious description of a Tuscan wedding banquet. Eric Newby detailed the architectural glories of a small Tuscan church. Versifying in quatrains, John Ormond extolled the regal beauty of Tuscan (and Umbrian) cypresses. But no one captures the essence of Renaissance Florentine architecture better than John Ruskin in his erudite essay on Santa Croce. Lovers of Tuscany will find poetry and prose here examining their well-beloved land from myriad vantage points and from multiple centuries, all validating their obsession with this singular part of Italy. Mark Knoblauch Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved In her fourth literary travel companion, Alice Leccese Powers explores one of the most seductive regions of the world through more than two centuries of fiction, poetry, essays, letters, and memoirs by English-speaking visitors to northern Italy. The poet Shelley called Tuscany "a paradise of exiles"; it has long been a magnet for literary travelers and expatriates. Here are writers who have made their home in Tuscan villas, castles, and farmhouses, from the Shelleys, Byron, and the Brownings to Frances Mayes. Here too are Charles Dickens, Edith Wharton, Henry James, and E. M. Forster on the glories of Florence, Pisa's leaning tower, and the enchanting Tuscan countryside, alongside the tart wit of Mark Twain, Mary McCarthy, and Erica Jong. From James Boswell's record of his romantic dalliances to Laura Fraser's memoir An Italian Affair to Sarah Dunant's novel The Birth of Venus, Tuscany in Mind" assembles a glittering mosaic portrait of an unforgettable place. Kinta Beevor - James Boswell - Elizabeth Barrett Browning - Robert Browning - Lord Byron - Bruce Chatwin - Ann Cornelisen - Charles Dickens - Sarah Dunant - Lawrence Ferlinghetti - Penelope Fitzgerald - E. M. Forster - Laura Fraser - Paul Gervais - Barbara Grizzuti Harrison - Robert Hellenga - William Dean Howells - Henry James - Erica Jong - D. H. Lawrence - David Leavitt and Mark Mitchell - Robert Lowell - Frances Mayes - Mary McCarthy - H. V. Morton - Eric Newby - Iris Origo - John Ormond - Elizabeth Romer - John Ruskin - Mary Shelley - Percy Bysshe Shelley - Kate Simon - Tobias Smollett - Matthew Spender - Stephen Spender - Mark Twain - Edith Wharton Alice Leccese Powers is the editor of the anthologies Italy in Mind , Ireland in Mind , and France in Mind , and coeditor of The Brooklyn Reader: Thirty Writers Celebrate America's Favorite Borough . A freelance writer and editor, she has been published in The Washington Post , The Baltimore Sun , Newsday , and many other newspapers and magazines. Ms. Powers also teaches writing at the Corcoran College of Art and Design. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband. Kinta Beevor (1911-1995) In 19