Who used the money from short stories to buy art?

December 2, 2005 6:33 PM

I remember reading at some point about a fairly well known author who, every time he (or she) sold a short story, used the money to buy a piece of artwork. Who is/was this?
posted by almostbarefoot to Grab Bag (2 answers total)

The bell this rings for me is Jeanette Winterson, who talks about her relationship to paintings in her book Art Objects. She says, “When I sold a book I bought a Massimo Rao. Since then I have been filling my walls with new light.”
posted by cgc373 at 6:52 PM on December 2, 2005

Hubert Selby (Requiem for a Dream), perhaps?

These days were idyllic. I had made some money writing a film for TV and we bought a nice home pretty much in the midst of the Borscht Belt of LA and I loved to watch the families walking to temple on Friday night, and Saturday. So all I had to do was write, I did not have to work at a job to support us. We didnt have any furniture other than beds and kitchen table, and were always talking about getting some when extra money came in. But every time that happened we bought a painting or a statue. We much preferred that to furniture. After all, we/re New Yorkers and we like to sit around the kitchen table and talk. On the surface it seemed like all our troubles were behind us.

This seems strikingly familiar, as if there's an aphorism attached to the story, but I can't place it otherwise.
posted by dhartung at 10:14 PM on December 2, 2005