PENELOPE ROWLANDS - JOURNALISM

Some of the many articles and essays I've contributed to various periodicals

and websites over the length of my career:

A book review of I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise: The Life of Bunny Mellon
by Mac Griswold

The American Scholar
December, 2022

A deep look into the famously staring Hans Holbein portraits of Thomas Cromwell and Sir Thomas More at New York's Frick Collection

The American Scholar

April, 2022

In the midst of the pandemic, an outdated file led me into a precious, near-forgotten world

The American Scholar

December, 2020

A visit to shoe designer Christian Louboutin's zany exhibition in Paris

AirMail Weekly

Feb. 22, 2020

I headed to Chile to research a biography, but found myself in the midst of an uprising instead

The American Scholar

December, 2019

The story of Aaron Burr's exile in Europe -- and the extraordinary diary he kept in this period

The American Scholar

Summer issue, 2019

Designer Alessandra Branca's

new atelier by the Seine

ElleDecor

April, 2019

"The Ambitious Dr. Hosack" -- A book review for The Wall Street Journal. June 1, 2018 (415 KB)

The story of quiche

-- and my amazing mother

Eat, Darling, Eat

October, 2017

On the artists Kiki and Seton Smith, for WSJ. magazine (November 29, 2012) (613 KB)

How living in Paris transforms you... "Paris Was Mine," The Telegraph (U.K.), January 31, 2011 (2.4 MB)

On the outsized influence

of an inherited chair

San Francisco Chronicle Magazine

July 17, 2010

My wayward youth, as documented in Vogue. August, 2007 (548 KB)

On the HUGE impact of a tiny ad

Columbia Journalism Review

January / February, 2007

A visit to the Maine house of

Sister Parish, American designer

Architectural Digest

June, 2006

Novelist, Essayist, Parisian:

A profile of Diane Johnson

San Francisco Chronicle Magazine

June 15, 2003

A profile of the inimitable

designer Tony Duquette

Architectural Digest

January, 2000

Tony-Duqette-profile.pdf (5.74 MB)