Q&A with Elise Hooper

 

Photo by Chris Landry Photography

 

 

Elise Hooper is the author of the new novel The Library of Lost Dollhouses. Her other books include Angels of the Pacific. Also an educator, she lives in Seattle.

 

Q: You write in your new novel’s Author’s Note that the idea came from your own family dollhouse. Can you say more about that?

 

A: When I was 7, I received a dollhouse for Christmas that had been built in the late 1800s for my great-grandmother and passed down to my grandmother, then my mother, then me.

 

As a girl, I played with that dollhouse for hours and learned many creative skills—like sewing, knitting, painting, and basic woodworking—to make tiny furnishings for the dollhouse. It taught me to view at the world as a place of possibility, where anything could be adapted for the dollhouse.

 

During that time I spent playing, I also learned how to tell stories, and this turned out to be a skill that shaped my interest in writing.

 

Decades later when I finished my fourth novel and was considering what to write next, I thought about how much my old dollhouse charted the course for my creative life and decided to write about it.

 

But the dollhouse was a mess. Peeling and stained wallpaper, broken pieces, decrepit furniture—everything needed help, so as I brought it back to life, I developed ideas for my book’s characters and plot.

 

Q: How did you create your character Tildy, and how did you choose the historical figures to include in the novel?

 

A: For Tildy, I knew I wanted a character whose life had grown very small. I imagined a woman who had experienced loss and grown isolated. Her work at the library would be her only outlet to a wider world, but discovering a hidden pair of dollhouses would disrupt this narrow existence and set her on a journey to rediscover herself and create new relationships.

 

As for the historical figures, I’ve always been interested in Isabella Stewart Gardner and her museum, so I imagined a Californian version of her, complete with library. The other real-life women crept into the story organically as my dollhouse maker found new clients.

Q: The novel covers a lengthy period of time--how did you research it, and what did you learn that especially intrigued you?

 

A: Of all my books, this one required the least amount of “traditional” historical research, meaning I didn’t need to sit down and read big books about world wars, the Great Depression, and other heavy topics, because world events remain in the background of this novel.

 

I already knew most of what I needed from those periods, although I did search out very specific aspects of how illusions have been used in wars—that’s how I uncovered the history of Fake Paris during World War I and Boeing’s Wonderland during World War II.

 

Instead, I focused most of my research on the history of dollhouses and the miniaturists who crafted them. I learned how women throughout Europe used dollhouses as status symbols to show off their wealth, and in Germany, young women used dollhouses to learn how to run a home. It wasn’t until mass manufacturing after World War II that dollhouses as toys became widespread.

 

After I discovered Frances Glessner Lee (1978-1962), a woman who built tiny dioramas of crime scenes to help train law enforcement agents, I knew the dollhouses in my story would also hold clues that would reveal the hidden truths about the women who had once owned them.

 

I was also fascinated by how Walt Disney initially envisioned Disneyland as a traveling miniatures show and knew he’d need to be a figure in the book.

 

As I delved deeper and deeper into the history of dollhouses, I noticed that miniatures tend to grow in popularity during difficult times.

 

For example, at the end of World War I Queen Mary commissioned a grand dollhouse from England’s leading artisans as a way of lifting the nation’s spirits. After the dollhouse was finished, over a million and half people showed up to see it exhibited.

 

In the United States, the Art Institute of Chicago’s well-known Thorne Rooms and Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle were created and exhibited during the Great Depression to raise money for charitable causes.

 

And then in 2020, while people were stuck in their homes during the pandemic, another flourishing of modern miniatures took hold once again and captured people’s imaginations on social media. I love this proof of how art plays an important and positive role in our lives.

 

Q: The writer Marie Benedict said of the book, “As Tildy solves the dollhouses' mysteries, she also answers long-standing questions about herself in this compelling tale.” What do you think of that description?

 

A: I love it! I believe good art challenges us to be more reflective and thoughtful about ourselves and the world around us, so it’s my hope that Tildy grows and changes as she spends more and more time with the dollhouses.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m currently at work on a novel set in 1950s Seattle, which is fun because this is the first time I’ve written about where I live. At the moment, that’s all I can say!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: If you want more adventures in dollhousing, follow me on Instagram at @elisehooper. In June I’ll be heading to a week-long school on the coast of Maine run by the International Guild of Miniaturist Artisans to learn more about making miniatures. I can’t wait!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Elise Hooper.