Buy the European Homes of Creative Geniuses, Hope Some of It Rubs Off on You

The homes of Nobel-winning writer Hermann Hesse (Siddhartha) and iconic Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal) are both up for sale, meaning you could own a piece of creative history! For relatively bargain-basement prices.

If you figure that Dick Fuld is trying to sell his garish mansion for tens of millions of dollars and he's nothing but a sleazy American crook, then getting a house in southern Switzerland where Hesse wrote Steppenwolf for $4.4 million is a steal! Sure, it's only two units within the enormous house where Hesse lived in the 20s, but still. And a house on a remote Swedish island in the Baltic Sea, where Bergman lived (and filmed) for some forty years? A barely-anything-at-all $2.5 million. Sure you're on fucking Faro Island in the middle of the Baltic Sea, and you may have to contend with James Schamus, the CEO of Focus Features, who's trying to get some money together to buy the property so it can be made into a film center, but it's worth the fight. There's a pool, and an old farmhouse, and we bet it's just delightful in the dead of winter.

WSJ has the details.

Some pictures! First three are Hesse's Swiss manse, last three are ol' Ingmar's island retreat.