Entertainment

'The Glass Castle' Was Just The Start For Jeannette Walls

by Allie Gemmill

Just watching the trailer for Oscar-winner Brie Larson’s new film, The Glass Castle, makes it feel like your heart is going to break. Based on the memoir of the same name, The Glass Castle details the story of one woman’s childhood, which was spent mostly living in poverty with parents who were big on dreams but low on real-world sensibility. While the film is set to look back on her rocky past, where is The Glass Castle author Jeannette Walls today?

With her story set to reach a bigger audience than ever before, it’s only natural to question how Walls is getting on in the world these days. After working for more than 20 years as a gossip columnist and writer with bylines at outlets like MSNBC.com, Esquire, and New York magazine, Walls left New York City, according to a recent profile in the New York Times, and moved to a 205-acre horse farm in Virginia with her husband, journalist John Taylor. The author is currently enjoying the quietude of farm life, although she told the Times that the move to the countryside was a bit unnerving at first.

“I didn’t think I’d like it out here. But I thought, let’s give it a shot," Walls says in the profile. "I will say that I have always had the compulsion to put down roots. I love having a house. I love belonging someplace.”

Additionally, if you're a fan of Walls' writing (thank to her work as a gossip columnist or The Glass Castle), you'll be happy to know she's written novels both before and since the 2005 release of The Glass Castle. Her two novels, Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel and The Silver Star, were published in 2009 and 2013, respectively. Additionally, she wrote a book in 2000 about her life as a gossip columnist titled Dish: How Gossip Became the News and News Became Gossip.

Finally, while it seems that Walls is quite content to live quietly on her farm (and possibly write still), she does occasionally attend events. In fact, later this year, she will be the guest of honor at two separate Q&A's, where she'll imaginably get to speak about her life and work.

After a childhood spent impoverished and rootless and then moving on to a successful career as a gossip columnist and memoirist, it sounds like Walls has not only found her home, but she's found contentment, too.