Pooja Kanda was the country retreat of best-selling American authors Charles (Charlie) Hulse and Gordon Merrick.
Perched on a lush hilltop, Villa Pooja Kanda is a tranquil five-bedroom hideaway near Koggala, ten minutes inland from Sri Lanka’s golden southern beaches.
In 2003 a local School Headmaster sold Pooja Kanda to Charlie, and at the time the property consisted of a small single story building, which is now a bedroom.
American-born Charlie moved to Sri Lanka with his partner author Gordon Merrick in 1974, after living on the Greek island of Hydra for 20 years. Their mainly lived in a house on Parrawa Street in Galle Fort, and Pooja Kanda was their weekend retreat, and was known for its lavish dinners and parties, which they hosted.
From 2003 until 2006, Charlie extended the villa to its current layout, and added his own unique design theme, and in 2006, Charlie sold Pooja Kanda to the owner who rented the property back to Charlie until 2008.
Early Life
Charlie was born on 26th March, 1929 in Arkansas. He graduated from high school at the age of 15 in San Francisco, then enrolled to study at the Doris Aaron Academy of Dance on Haight Street, not far from his childhood home. He had become captivated by the photographs of beautiful dancers that were displayed by the Doris Aaron Academy in their street-front windows on his way to school, and successfully petitioned his mother for permission to enroll with the academy. Upon graduation Charlie accepted his first job as a dancer, at the glamorous Copacobana nightclub on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco.
Charlie spent the three years between 1950 and 1953, during the Korean War, serving as a junior officer in the United States Air Force. In 1953 he travelled to New York City, where he was cast in the role of the interpreter in The King and as a replacement for the up-coming National Tour. Now free from active service, Charlie went on tour for 15 months with the company, with Yul Brynner playing the king.
After Charlie left production he moved to Paris with a contract to work as a cabaret dancer at the Lido on the Champs-Elysees. It was here that he met Gordon Merrick for the first time.
In 1956, Charlie returned to the United States, where he lived in Marin County and taught creative dance at a school for intellectually impaired children. He then spent several months in Sausalito, a picturesque seaside town not far from San Francisco. In 1960 Charlie made the decision to quit the States to join Merrick in Paris, where they shared an apartment in the 7th arrondissement. While on vacation visiting the Greek island of Hydra that year, Charlie bought a house on the island which was to become his home for the next twenty years. At the time, Merrick was working on his fifth novel, and Charlie and Merrick spent the years between 1960 and 1980 travelling mainly between Paris, Hydra and Galle.
A House on Hydra
While on Hydra, Charlie and Merrick were hosts to socialites, intellectuals and artists from all over the world. During his theatre career, and here, Charlie came to know people, such as Charles Laughton, Jules Dassin, Melina Mercouri, Jacqueline Onassis, Leonard Cohen and others.
Charlie restored and furnished the house on Hydra, which was admired was photographed extensively for various international magazines. In 1974 the couple bought land in Sri Lanka. Six years later they quit Greece permanently and moved to Galle. Charlie and Merrick bought a house at 25 Rampart Street within the precinct of Galle’s 17th century fortress. Here, Charlie worked on interior design, and began to write. By this time, Merrick had already published several books and was a celebrity. Charlie helped Merrick to prepare manuscripts for publication and the two travelled together frequently during this period.
First Novel: In Tall Cotton
Charlie’s first novel, In Tall Cotton, was published by Lyle Stewart in 1987. The novel is about survival during the dreadful depression of the ‘30’s, and tells the story of a young boy coming to terms with his sexuality and the death of his beloved brother. Carlton ‘Totsy’ Woods and his family crisscross the United States by car, staying with relatives, picking cotton, exchanging stories and having new and, for the protagonist, sometimes confusing experiences.
The novel is the first in a remarkable series of semi-autobiographical works by Charlie. When the cotton is tall it is time to harvest: a period of prosperity is nigh. In keeping with its title, the novel is fundamentally a story of hope rendered with great humour and flourish; a warm and humane work with remarkable insights for today’s reader into life in the West and Mid-west during the years of the Great Depression. Publishers Weekly called In Tall Cotton a “masterpiece,” and Leonard Cohen described the book as “an American boyhood, beautifully told.”
Charlie’s oeuvre comprises:
In Tall Cotton
Just Deny It
Don’t Ever Assume Nothin’
A Gap in the Chorus Line
A House on Hydra
