David Sedaris, the acclaimed essayist and author, has established a distinctive residence in Manhattan’s Upper East Side after returning from two decades in Europe. In 2019, Sedaris and his husband, Hugh Hamrick, purchased a 2,500-square-foot apartment just a few blocks from Central Park, seeking a quieter environment suited to both Sedaris’s writing routine and their art collection, which includes two Picasso paintings.

Sedaris, 69, initially considered an apartment in Greenwich Village following a recommendation from his sister, actor and comedian Amy Sedaris, who lives there. However, having experienced the noise and commotion of Lower Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood in the 1990s, Sedaris ultimately favored the Upper East Side for its relative tranquility and absence of heavy tourist traffic, with exceptions like visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the couple expanded their living space by purchasing the penthouse above their original apartment. The penthouse features multiple terraces offering expansive views of the city skyline. Sedaris described the nighttime outlook as reminiscent of a talk show backdrop.

Sedaris has carefully curated his living and working environments to support his creative process. His primary office was designed to evoke the atmosphere of a Park Avenue therapist’s space, complete with a white rug inscribed with the word “Trouble,” where he imagines “patients” lying during sessions. He writes daily for five to six hours, drawing inspiration from personal experiences, friends, family, and observations of daily life. A study of Franz Kline’s 1950 painting “Chief” hangs in his office, exemplifying the author’s preference for small works by master artists.

The couple’s penthouse also houses a Kawai baby grand piano, a replacement for an older upright model. Hamrick, an amateur pianist, prefers to practice away from Sedaris to avoid scrutiny. The home displays several prominent artworks, including pieces by Picasso, Philip Guston, Georg Baselitz, Paul Klee, and Günther Förg, reflecting the development of Sedaris’s art collection, which intensified in the early 2000s. The purchase of their first Picasso, “Verre et Paquet de Cigarettes,” in London in 2015 played a pivotal role in their real estate acquisitions; the couple decided to buy their Upper East Side apartment to offset the unexpectedly high taxes associated with the painting’s import.

Their residences collectively include six bedrooms—although only two are used as such—and eight bathrooms. Sedaris’s humor is evident in his observations about the challenges of maintaining multiple bathrooms and managing belongings spread across homes in several cities, including Paris, London, the English countryside, and two beach houses in North Carolina.

In addition to his residences, Sedaris maintains a second office where he handles fan correspondence, responding to most letters except those expressing anger. Among his collection displayed there are 19th-century French medical illustrations depicting eye diseases, gifted to Hamrick on his birthday. Personal touches throughout their homes include artful sculptures, such as a Tony Matelli metal piece gifted by Amy Sedaris, and a 17th-century bust of Jesus by Thomas Schwanthaler, displayed in the penthouse foyer.

Sedaris and Hamrick, who met in 1990 and formalized their marriage a decade ago for financial reasons, navigate their shared life between multiple properties and ongoing creative pursuits. Sedaris continues to tour internationally, reading from his extensive body of satirical essays and recently published works, including his latest essay collection, "The Land and Its People," released last month.