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Charlotte Moss (Photo by Brittany Ambridge)
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Photographs of inspiring, creative women grace the walls of Charlotte Moss’ New York sitting room. (Photo by Pieter Estersohn)
When the pandemic shut down the world as we knew it — exacerbating the worst of society’s ills as millions lost their jobs, their homes and their ability to feed their families — the renowned interior designer and philanthropist Charlotte Moss was compelled to do something to help.
“The news was breaking my heart when I watched every night,” says the Richmond native and Virginia Commonwealth University alum. “And when I found out … that people were being turned away from soup kitchens and food pantries after being in line for hours so they could feed their family, I said, ‘I’ve got to do something.’ ”
Image courtesy Rizzoli
That something, as Moss says, is “Home: A Celebration,” an effort inspired by “The Book of the Homeless,” a volume created by author Edith Wharton in 1916 to help refugees and children in Europe during World War I. Wharton, the author of “The Decoration of Houses” and numerous novels of old New York — including “Ethan Frome,” “The House of Mirth” and “The Age of Innocence” (winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for fiction) — called upon prominent artists, writers, poets, musicians and politicians to contribute essays, poetry and illustrations to assist her with the effort. Theodore Roosevelt, Sarah Bernhardt, Jean Cocteau, Joseph Conrad, Igor Stravinsky, Claude Monet, Auguste Rodin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Charles Dana Gibson were among the contributors.
“Edith Wharton’s book has been sitting on my bookshelf for years, and I’ve always thought that it was a great concept for a fundraiser,” Moss says. “Because Edith went to people and asked them to do the things that they do. They write, they draw, they paint, and she didn’t ask them for money. And so they just gave of themselves. And I just thought that was such a great concept."
For “Home,” Moss asked 125 prominent creative people, from artists and poets to musicians and historians, to share what home means to them, with each contributor presenting their thoughts through the prism of their passions. Celebrity cook/TV host Rachael Ray and chef Alice Waters offer recipes; photographer Annie Leibovitz presents an old photo taken through the windshield of her father’s car; socialite and style icon Iris Apfel shares childhood memories with designer Hutton Wilkinson; and fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi shares drawings of his pets. Other contributors include Bette Midler, Julian Fellowes, Bianca Jagger, Joyce Carol Oates, Hunt Slonem and interior designers Kelly Wearstler, Martyn Lawrence Bullard and Nina Campbell, to name just a few.
“There were more like 17 million people who were food insecure at the height of the pandemic, but there are roughly 13 million still challenged,” Moss says. “So there’s still work to do. When I quote those statistics, people just can’t believe that those are the numbers in the richest country in the world.” According to USAFacts, 11% of American households were food insecure in 2020.
All profits from “Home: A Celebration” will be donated to No Kid Hungry, a national campaign to end childhood hunger organized by Share Our Strength, a nonprofit dedicated to ending hunger and poverty. The book is available through charlottemoss.com.
