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Alice Walker and the Chickens

Alice Walker, the first African-American female novelist to win the Pulitzer Prize, was a chicken lover. She made a cozy coop for her chickens and even read books to them. She named one of the chickens “Gertrude Stein” and took great care of it. She even published “The Chicken Chronicles,” a collection of her letters to the chickens and the observation notes she wrote while raising 12 chickens. She once said, “The chickens penetrated into open spaces that I have never even attempted to enter,” implying that she considered chickens her life teacher.

Murakami Haruki and the Cat

Cats are frequently featured in the novels of Murakami Haruki, one of Japan’s most renowned best-selling novelists. The characters in “Kafka on the Shore” can communicate with cats and “1Q84” is set in a village of cats. In reality, he also has cats. In fact, the publication of one of his bestsellers was reportedly influenced heavily by a particular cat named “Muse.” Before he became known as a novelist, Murakami Haruki was running a bar and a jazz café and the cat Muse accompanied him all day long. When he was done for the day, he would put Muse on his lap and write a novel while sipping beer. When he had to leave Japan and live abroad for a few years, he asked a friend working at a publisher to take care of Muse while he was gone. In return, he promised to write a long novel. This is how his bestseller novel Norwegian Wood was born.
When he returned to Japan, he hurried to see Muse. He said his heart was beating on the way as if he were on his way to meet his girlfriend. In other words, years of him missing Muse probably were his inspiration to write the masterpiece.

Charles Dickens and the Raven

Charles Dickens had a special family: Grip. Grip is a raven kept as a pet by Dickens. In a letter to a friend, Dickens said, “I love no one here except the raven.” This shows that he relied heavily on Grip. Grip often acted funny. In particular, she mimicked how people talked, and Dickens adored her so much whenever she did. When Grip died, Dickens expressed his grief in his own way. He stuffed Grip and had her on display in his study. She was even the basis for the same-name character in his novel Barnaby Rudge. Inspired by this novel, Edgar Allen Poe wrote the masterpiece “The Raven.”

Pablo Neruda and the Dog

To Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet, his pet dog Kuthaka was his family and life saver. One night, he went out for a walk with Kuthaka. He tripped and fell onto the tracks just as a train was coming toward him. Kuthaka barked like crazy and the train conductor heard the dog barking. Fortunately, he stopped the train and Neruda was able to get off the track unhurt. When Kuthaka died, Neruda wrote an ode to the dog titled “A Dog Has Died.” The poem describes faithful Kuthaka's eyes that were always fixed on him, and the devoted love that Kuthaka gave him without asking for anything in return.

Hermann Hesse and the Garden

Hermann Hesse spent more time during the day on gardening than on writing. Every morning, as soon as he woke up, he would rush to his garden. In the middle of winter, he would simply look for a long while at a section of the garden where the grass was dry. When he spotted wild flowers carefully and slowly peeking out, he would be excited to start gardening, knowing spring was back. Instead of being busy writing, he would spend all day capturing fields, flowers, and clouds on a canvas. He started writing only after the sunset because he wanted to spend as much time as he could in his garden.
He said he felt bliss when he was part of the landscape of flowers and trees. Hesse had to move to different places during the two World Wars, yet still managed to grow a garden each time. To him, a garden was a spiritual sanctuary and a shelter.