Stacy E. Holden
Historian, traveler, writer
Hi, I’m Stacy
I am a Northeasterner—born in New York and raised in Connecticut–and have always been curious about the world. I
have spent twenty-five years traveling to Africa, Europe and Asia.
My writing focuses on everyday issues about the Middle East and North Africa. I aim to make this multifaceted and often misunderstood region of the world comprehensible to friends, family, students and colleagues.
I am presently working on a travel memoir that reflects on my myriad experiences living in Morocco, while tracing Edith Wharton’s journey to this same country 100 years ago
Read the latest posts
Lost Wharton Photos Discovered in La Courneuve
When I saw two photos of Edith Wharton visiting the Bahia Palace of Marrakesh, adrenaline rushed through me. I am a historian, so I constantly seek out new documents that illuminate the past. In these black and white photos, Wharton was with her best friend and traveling companion Walter van Rensselaer Berry as well as eleven other men and women. They had all traveled to the southern Sahelian city in October 1917, after visiting a colonial fair in Rabat. In a dark tailored suit with a veiled hat, Wharton cocked her head in a distinctive manner.
An Unanticipated Ending
I had wanted—in fact, deliberately outlined—a triumphant ending to my book tracing Edith Wharton’s trip to Morocco in 1917. As a grad student in the 1990s and early-2000s, I had lived in Morocco and France and traveled to Egypt, Tunisia, Mali and Mauritania. This...
The Banalities and Promiscuities of Modern Travel
This week, I am living out a century-old prediction of Edith Wharton. In 1917, my Gilded Age doppelganger asserted that she was on “...a quick trip at a moment unique in the history of the country; the brief moment of transition between its virtually complete...