Frances Mayes Popular Books

Frances Mayes Biography & Facts

Frances Mayes (born March 23, 1940) is an American writer. Her 1996 memoir Under the Tuscan Sun was on the New York Times Best Seller list for over two years and was the basis for the film Under the Tuscan Sun. Biography Frances Mayes was born on March 23, 1940, in Fitzgerald, Georgia to Garbert Mayes, a cotton mill manager, and Frankye Mayes. Mayes was the youngest of three sisters. Garbert Mayes died of cancer at age 47, when Frances was 14.Mayes initially attended Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Lynchburg, Virginia starting in 1958. She later transferred to the University of Florida, where she completed her BA. While at school at the University of Florida, Mayes met her first husband, William Frank King. The couple married when Mayes was 22 and relocated to California. They had one daughter, Ashley King.Mayes returned to school and earned her MA from San Francisco State University in 1975. After graduating, Mayes became Professor of Creative Writing at her alma mater San Francisco State University, as well as director of The Poetry Center and Chair of the Department of Creative Writing.Mayes and her husband William divorced in the 1980s. After her divorce, Mayes began dating Edward Kleinschmidt, a fellow poet and professor employed at nearby Santa Clara University.In 1989, Mayes bought a historic villa named Bramasole located in Cortona, Italy. She and her partner Edward began an extensive renovation of the abandoned property, which Mayes documented in her 1996 memoire Under the Tuscan Sun. The book became a surprise hit and remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over two years. The success of Under the Tuscan Sun allowed Mayes to become a full-time writer.Frances and Edward were married in 1998, and Edward took the last name Mayes.In 2007, the Mayes family moved their American residence from San Francisco to North Carolina, along with Frances's daughter Ashley. Frances and Edward Mayes currently divide their time between their homes in North Carolina and Cortona, Italy. Writing Poetry, Novels, & Essays Mayes has published several works of poetry: Climbing Aconcagua (1977), Sunday in Another Country (1977), After Such Pleasures (1979), The Arts of Fire (1982), Hours (1984), and Ex Voto (1995). She wrote The Discovery of Poetry, a text for readers and writers. Mayes's first novel, Swan, was published in 2002. Her novel Women in Sunlight was published in 2019. A Place in the World: Finding the Meaning of Home was published in 2022 and was long-listed for the PEN essay category. Under the Tuscan Sun & Related Works In 1996, Mayes published the book Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy, which was on the New York Times Best Seller list for over two years. The book is a memoir of Mayes buying, renovating, and living in an abandoned villa in rural Cortona in Tuscany, a region of Italy. A film loosely based on the book, Under the Tuscan Sun. was released in 2003, adapted by director Audrey Wells. In 1999, Bella Tuscany: The Sweet Life in Italy was published, and in 2000, In Tuscany. The book Bringing Tuscany Home was published in 2004, a collaborative effort of Mayes and her husband Edward Kleinschmidt Mayes with photographer Steven Rothfeld. Another memoir, Every Day in Tuscany, was released in March 2010. Also a food-and-travel writer, Mayes is the author of The Tuscan Sun Cookbook and A Year in the World: Journeys of A Passionate Traveller (2006), narratives of her and her husband's travels in Greece, Turkey, Spain, Morocco and other countries. In 2019 she published See You in the Piazza, an ode to favorite locations, and in 2020 Always Italy, a journey to all twenty regions of Italy. That book won the Gold Medal from the SATWF Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition and the Gold for Best Travel Book by the North American Travel Journalists Association. In 2023, the cookbook Pasta Veloce was published. Her books have been published in over fifty languages and many have been international best sellers. Books Source: Sunday in Another Country The Arts of Fire After Such Pleasures Hours Ex Voto The Book of Summer The Discovery of Poetry: A Field Guide to Reading and Writing Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy Bella Tuscany A Year in the World: Journeys of A Passionate Traveller Every Day in Tuscany In Tuscany (with Edward Mayes and photographs by Bob Krist) Bringing Tuscany Home: Sensuous Style from the Heart of Italy (with Edward Mayes and photographs by Steven Rothfeld) The Tuscan Sun Cookbook: Recipes from My Italian Kitchen (with Edward Mayes and photographs by Steven Rothfeld) Under Magnolia: A Southern Memoir Swan Shrines: Images of Italian Worship (photographs by Steven Rothfeld) Women in Sunlight See You in the Piazza Always Italy A Place in the World: Finding the Meaning of Home Pasta Veloce (Susan Wyler co-author and photographs by Steven Rothfeld)References External links Frances Mayes website Frances Mayes at IMDb. Discover the Frances Mayes popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Frances Mayes books.

Best Seller Frances Mayes Books of 2024

  • Under a Venice Moon synopsis, comments

    Under a Venice Moon

    Margaret Cameron

    Life isn't a sort of practice run, something you can afford to play around with. They don't offer second and third chances to get it right. Use it better. Live it fuller.A week in ...

  • Under Magnolia synopsis, comments

    Under Magnolia

    Frances Mayes

    A lyrical and evocative memoir from Frances Mayes, the Bard of Tuscany, about coming of age in the Deep South and the region’s powerful influence on her life.The author of three be...

  • A Season with Verona synopsis, comments

    A Season with Verona

    Tim Parks

    Is Italy a united country, or a loose affiliation of warring states? Is Italian football (which we Americans know as “soccer”) a sport, or an illdisguised protraction of ancient en...

  • Under the Tuscan Sun synopsis, comments

    Under the Tuscan Sun

    Frances Mayes

    #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The beloved memoir of selfdiscovery set against the spectacular Tuscan countryside that inspired the major motion picture sta...

  • Every Day in Tuscany synopsis, comments

    Every Day in Tuscany

    Frances Mayes

    #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND A TIMELESS CLASSIC FROM THE AUTHOR OF UNDER MAGNOLIA Frances Mayeswidely published poet, gourmet cook, and travel writeropens the door to a wo...

  • Women in Sunlight synopsis, comments

    Women in Sunlight

    Frances Mayes

    The story of four American strangers who bond in Italy and change their lives over the course of an exceptional year, from the bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun....

  • The House by the Sea synopsis, comments

    The House by the Sea

    Santa Montefiore

    Previously published as The Mermaid Garden, the internationally bestselling author of The French Gardener presents a complex and irresistibly compelling novel that confirms the rem...

  • Bella Tuscany synopsis, comments

    Bella Tuscany

    Frances Mayes

    Frances Mayes, whose enchanting #1 New York Times bestseller Under the Tuscan Sun made the world fall in love with Tuscany, invites readers back for a delightful new season of frie...

  • A Place in the World synopsis, comments

    A Place in the World

    Frances Mayes

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER  A lyrical and evocative collection of personal stories from the author of Under the Tuscan Sun, in which the queen of wanderlust reflects on the com...

  • Soul Rider synopsis, comments

    Soul Rider

    Carolyn Fox

    This is the story of a woman who went on an incredible journey. Carolyn Fox was a single mother and lawyer haunted with grief and secrets, and facing her fiftieth birthday. So she ...

  • A Year in the World synopsis, comments

    A Year in the World

    Frances Mayes

    A CLASSIC FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF UNDER MAGNOLIAThe author who unforgettably captured the experience of starting a new life in Tuscany in bestselling travel m...

  • The Tuscan Sun Cookbook synopsis, comments

    The Tuscan Sun Cookbook

    Frances Mayes, Edward Mayes & Steven Rothfeld

    “Tuscan food tastes like itself. Ingredients are left to shine. . . . So, if on your visit, I hand you an apron, your work will be easy. We’ll start with primo ingredients, a littl...

  • See You in the Piazza synopsis, comments

    See You in the Piazza

    Frances Mayes

    The bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun discovers the hidden pleasures of Italy in a sumptuous travel narrative that crisscrosses the country, with inventive new r...

  • Super Tuscan synopsis, comments

    Super Tuscan

    Gabriele Corcos & Debi Mazar

    From the celebrity/chef husbandwife team and authors of the bestselling Extra Virgin comes a brandnew cookbook with over 100 delicious recipes that incorporate Tuscan flair with cl...

  • Thirty Thousand Bottles of Wine and a Pig Called Helga synopsis, comments

    Thirty Thousand Bottles of Wine and a Pig Called Helga

    Todd Alexander

    Once I was the poster boy for corporate success, but now I’m crashing through the bush in a storm in search of a missing pig. How the hell did we end up here?  Todd and Jeff h...

  • Venetian Dreaming synopsis, comments

    Venetian Dreaming

    Paula Weideger

    Who hasn't longed to escape to the enchanting canals and mysterious alleywaysof Venice? Globetrotting writer Paula Weideger not only dreamed the dream, she took the leap. In Veneti...

  • In Tuscany synopsis, comments

    In Tuscany

    Frances Mayes, Bob Krist & Edward Mayes

    A lavishly illustrated ode to the joys of Tuscany’s people, food, landscapes, and art, from the bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun and See You in the Piazza “A love le...

  • Swan synopsis, comments

    Swan

    Frances Mayes

    A haunting southern tale of longburied family secrets by the New York Times bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun and Under MagnoliaIn her celebrated memoirs of life...

  • The Awakening of Miss Prim synopsis, comments

    The Awakening of Miss Prim

    Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera

    In this #1 international bestseller, a young woman leaves everything behind to work as a librarian in a remote French village, where she finds her outlook on life and love challeng...