Literary Tourism

My wife and I went to Boston for a wedding this weekend. We took a side-trip through Wellesley to visit the house where Sylvia Plath grew up: 26 Elmwood Road, Wellesley Hills. The house is just as described in Chapter 10 of The Bell Jar, "a small, white clapboard house set in the middle of a small green lawn on the corner of two peaceful suburban streets" with "little maple trees planted at intervals around our property." You can see the detached garage and breezeway where alter-ego Esther Greenwood tries to write. The house is a private residence, so we weren't able to see the inside, but it was quite a thrill to stand at Sylvia Plath's front door.

Does anyone else have stories to share about visits to authors' homes or gravesites or real places featured in works of fiction (e.g., 221B Baker Street, London)?

When I was eight or nine, my parents took me to the town of DeSmet to see all the places associated with Laura Ingalls Wilder's later books. It was ages ago, so I don't remember much other than how much fun I had. We went on a tour of the Ingalls family home in town, visited their gravesites, and looked at a various other displays and things associated with the stories. I remember buying a sun bonnet like the ones often mentioned in the books.

Last September I dashed off to the Protestant graveyard in Rome when I heard (for the umpteenth time, but you never know which one will take) that it might close down soon.

It's known as "Protestant" in Anglo guides, but to Romans it's "acattolico", non-Catholic, assembling various infidels, from atheists (Antonio Gramsci for instance) to Jews (Bruno Pontecorvo), Orthodox Christians (a sprinkling of Russian nobles) and even Hindus.

Shelley and Keats are buried there.

Um, Westminster Abbey is a tad obvious, I suppose. It is possible to be overwhelmed.

every September a group of Bensonites (or Tillingites, as they're also known) gathers in Rye, England to lay some flowers on E.F. Benson's grave. He wrote that sine qua non comedy of manners series, Mapp & Lucia (as well as umpteen other books). I'll be joining them in 2008.

I live near that small Ontario town which was a hotbed of literary activity: Margaret Laurence's house is there, as well as the sisters' homes, Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Traill.

When in Edinburgh, I took a photo of Robert Louis Stevenson's door (bright red). A beautiful fair-haired child waved out the window at me and I thought it was magical.

While living in Germany my family went on a weekend trip to Italy, and I had an opportunity to visit the tomb of Dante. I was thrilled, as he is one of my favorite authors.

>2 xicanti: Wow. You experienced my dream vacation. When I was a pre-teen, I placed pushpins in a map on my wall while I read the Little House books so I could "follow" the Ingalls on their journeys. De Smet is still on my to-do list, but I'll have to win the lottery first. :)

A couple things...
I live in Wisconsin and one of our family vacations was to Pepin (and other places along the Mississippi River) where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived before moving west with her family.

Maybe not places in books or graves/homes of authors, but...
I have become a current author junky. If there is an author that I like and I can make road trip see them speak I try my best to do it. I live in La Crosse, WI which doesn't seem to receive many visits from my favorite authors, but a couple have stopped here including Laurie Halse Anderson and Lois Lowry. More often then not I travel to Madison, WI, Minneapolis & St. Paul Metro Area, and Milwaukee Metro Area to catch-up with authors like Jodi Picoult (I've seen her three times and each time I want to see her again), Meg Cabot, Pete Hautman and Mary Logue together, and J.R. Moehringer. I have traveled as far as Cincinnati, OH, a ten hour drive from my home to see Stephenie Meyer. I am looking forward to a short road trip to Edina, MN (Minneapolis/St. Paul Metro Area) to see the author of The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, who recently published his second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns which I haven't had the chance to read yet.

When I was in Chile, I visited all 3 of Pablo Neruda's former homes. They were all distinctive, detailed and amazing expressions of his originality. Outwardly, everything looked really expensive but most of the fixtures had been rescued from other homes slated for demolition. I especially remember the collection of seashells in his Valparaiso home.

There is a great pub crawl/tour in Greenwich Village that goes to former speakeasys, bars and cafes frequented by the likes of Eugene O'Neil, Dylan Thomas, Edna St. Vincent Millay. It's one of the most fun and interesting tours I've ever taken. http://www.bakerloo.org/pubcrawl/index.html

Many years ago when I was working for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, I was farmed out to Arrowhead, Herman Melville's home in Pittsfield, MA, to help clean and prepare the house to open for the season. How many living people can say they cleaned Melville's house?

Nathaniel Hawthorne's little red house and Edith Wharton's home are in nearby Lenox, MA (Western Massachusetts, a.k.a. The Berkshires).

When Dukedom and I made our relationship legal a few years back, we did it at Fruitlands in Harvard, MA home of Bronson Alcott's failed utopian community. For those unfamiliar, Bronson Alcott is the father of Louisa May, author of Little Women. Louisa was ten years old when her family lived there.

>1 DoctorRobert: for the Boston area I would recommend Literary Trail of Greater Boston which covers as far west as Concord, MA. For New England I would recommend an out of print book titled, A Guide to Writers' Homes in New England by Miriam Levine. I have a much-loved copy. Certain information would be out of date (i.e. hours of operation) but it's a great little place to shop for a day trip if you're in New England...like The House of the Seven Gables in Salem, MA; Sarah Orne Jewett's home in South Berwick, Maine...etc. And if you are in the Concord area, I'd recommend American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever - not a literary guide but it will enrich a visit to the area.

#4> Linkmeister, I do agree with you: Westminster Abbey is overwhelming.
In Highgate Cemetery I found the bust on Karl Marx's tomb quite impressive, and almost yelled at a bloke who, during the guided tour, made disparaging comments about Radclyffe Hall implying that, since she was homosexual, she was not a good writer. How stupid can you be??

I live in Leeds in West Yorkshire, which isn't too far from Hawarth, home of Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, and Anne Bronte. I've been on a couple of school trips and family outings, many years ago, and keep intending to go again.

ArmyAngel1986 --Where is Dante's tomb exactly? I'm going to Italy in a few weeks and would love to visit it!!

-the mistress

It's in Ravenna.

Back in March 2004 my wife and I stayed in Arlington, Vermont and during our stay we visited the gravesite of Robert Frost, located in nearby Bennington.

Honolulu has the grave of Alexander Joy Cartwright, codifier of baseball's rules (and the city's first fire chief). Fans always commemorate his birthday by going to the grave.

>since she was homosexual, she was not a good writer. How stupid can you be??

Someone on the LT boards implied that if someone was obese they couldn't be a good writer either, so pretty stupid obviously.

Oh, and I forgot to mention in 2005 on a daytrip we visited Sleepy Hollow, New York and the gravesite of Washington Irving in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

#11 avaland: a friend who lives in Mass. sent me the flier from Edith Wharton's home. Deffo on the "must see" list.

I've often thought of seeing England by going around laying a rose on the graves of those authors who have given me such pleasure from their works (Milton, Blake, Shakespeare, Donne, etc.).

Had a funny thing happen at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. I waited until the tourists clustered around Chopin's grave left and then, thinking I was quite alone, said out loud, "Thank you very much for the Nocturnes". A very French accented voice said, from somewhere behind the tomb, "You are welcome". I belly laughed - what a great moment.

#11 avaland - I was just mentioning to Bob that on our Readercon trip we should think about taking the kids to the Alcott and Emerson homes, and to Walden Pond. He tells me you now have to PAY for parking to visit Walden Pond! We had a great time years back walking around the pond and admiring the Thoreau cabin site and cairn. It was free then, as it was for Thoreau. Are the Alcott and Emerson homes open to the public?

#12 aluvalibri - Yes, I agree that the Marx tomb is impressive and worth seeing; we have a nice photo of Bob standing in front of it. We had to wait a while to take the picture, as there was also a party of Chinese tourists paying their respects. We wandered around Highgate for what seemed like hours. I also remember seeing the grave of George Eliot and her companion, George Lewes, which was right next to the resting place of her later husband (I think his name was Cross).

#13 DLSmithies - When we visited Haworth, it was a gray day - a perfect enhancement to the bleak cemetery setting. (I've heard speculation that living beside a cemetery probably contributed to the Brontes' ill health.) Even now, after 20 years, I recall our visit vividly. I remember how poignant it was to see a pair of very small shoes on exhibit that belonged to Charlotte. Haworth was absolutely one of the best literary sites we have visited. Another was the Thomas Carlyle house in London, which has retained so much of the feeling of that time that it seems as though Carlyle could walk into the room at any moment.

Thank you to all of you on this thread for getting me to pause and reminisce about many pleasant travels :)

#19 > TheTwoDs, you took quite a trip from NYC to come up to Sleepy Hollow! (I know as it is close to where I live).

#21 > MaggieO, yes, I had forgotten about George Eliot's grave (shame on me!!), which is not far from Karl Marx's. The other part of the cemetery though, the one where Radclyffe Hall is buried, is much more interesting, in my opinion.

Going to the Oracle of Delphi was probably the most literary/historical place place I have been. I love reading now in mythology when it is mentioned and I can remember what it is like to stand there.

#22 aluvalibri - I remember seeing Radclyffe Hall's grave, too - am I recalling correctly that there is a little mauseoleum for her? After seeing it, I had decided to read her work, but I haven't, I'm sorry to admit. At least I haven't, yet. I think we visited Highgate in 1984.

I think it's time to find my book about Highgate Cemetery! It's here someplace. (Hmm - where should I look first?)

And somehow we've never been to the Sleepy Hollow cemetery - maybe we can wander down there this summer and pay our respects to Irving, since we're also relatively close to the Catskills.

#23 - fikustree - I'd love to go to the Oracle of Delphi - what a great visit that must have been for you!

When my daughter was a tween, we made several trips along the Laura Ingalls Wilder trail. DeSmet was fun, especially if you can make it when they put on the pageant. We also were in Pepin, and in 1996 (pre-Branson-Boom), we visited the Ozarks, and toured her last home in Mansfield, MO. Laura and Almanzo built that house together bit by bit, and we loved it.

My husband, God love him, never read the Little House books, but he was tolerant of our addiction and planned the trips meticulously so that we could see what we wanted to see. If we had to put up with a bit of teasing ("yes, and right here is where Laura went to the bathroom!"), it was worth it. We miss the teasing.

#20 MaggieO, yes, they told us that story on one of my school trips! We were all clustered round our guide in the cemetery, and he was saying how the village's drinking water used to flow downhill through the graveyard, and one of my peers fainted, actually fainted in the church doorway from the horror of it! I think we were about 14. Yes, the little shoes and that tiny dress in the glass case, and the teeny tiny handwritten book they'd made as children, only as big as my thumb. Amazing.
You've inspired me to head back this summer!

Generally it's been the other way around; I just returned from a trip to Limerick, Ireland, and when I knew I was going there I read Angelas Ashes by Frank McCourt to acquaint me with the area so to speak:-)

#24 > MaggieO, if ever you come down to Sleepy Hollow let me know!!!
Yes, Radclyffe Hall is in the 'mausoleum' part of the cemetery. You should read her books, they are well worth the time!

About 25 years ago, I slogged up from Maiden Castle to the Thomas Hardy Monument carrying a heavy rucksack, only to discover when I got there that it was the other Thomas Hardy ("Kiss me..."). Never mind, it's well worth it for the view!

Two weeks ago I was on holiday in that part of the world again, and attended an amateur production of The Mikado in the theatre at Lyme Regis, next door to the museum John Fowles used to curate, and not far from the spot where Tennyson asked to see the exact spot where Louisa Musgrove fell...

#30 thorold - Isn't Maiden Castle awe-inspiring? I didn't know there was a monument nearby to the other Hardy. That's a good story. I have a dim recollection of a TE Lawrence (of Arabia) site near Hardy's cottage (apparently, they knew each other!)

It's so cool how centuries blend together at these historic places. (Is there actually an identifiable place where Louisa Musgrove fell?)

#21

My sister lives in Concord, MA, and the Alcott house is open to the public. I think it even appeared several years ago in a segment on "This Old House." (PBS). It is well worth the visit. I don't remember about the Emerson house, but probably is.

Bob Campbell

>(Is there actually an identifiable place where Louisa Musgrove fell?)

I suspect not, but no doubt it's one of those questions serious Austenites come to blows about. There are several sets of steps leading from the higher to the lower part of the Cobb - it all depends on how far they got before they decided to come down out of the wind. These days, like everything else in Britain, the steps are festooned with yellow safety notices ("Uneven steps", "Unfenced drop", etc.).

Lyme Regis is also the setting of Love among the Chickens, of course.

Maiden Castle is great. I was lucky enough to get a clear view of it from the air while flying home from Exeter last week - amazing! It would have been nice to circle around it a couple of times, but I don't think FlyBe offer that service...

Clouds Hill is near Bovington camp, some way to the west of Dorchester - about 10km away from the Hardy cottage. John Cowper Powys used to live in Dorchester at one time too. I didn't visit any of those this time, but I did see a garage at Colyford (now a motor museum) that claims T.E. Lawrence used to fill up his bike there.

Also stumbled over a monument to R.F. Delderfield at Sidmouth, but I don't think it counts as a literary pilgrimage unless you know it's there in advance...

#32 Thanks for the information on the Alcott house. I think it's definitely worth a side trip to Concord with our daughters:) And we could always go see "the rude bridge that arch'd the flood" (or something close to that, anyway) while we're there.

#33 and all of you who are making me pine for traveling in Britain: Maybe if Bob and I stop buying books, and get new passports to replace our expired ones, we'll get back there sometime. Sigh. (But of course, the book-buying moratorium would have to end when the plane touches down in London!)

#33 again - Why don't I have Love Among the Chickens ! ! ? ? I'll have to find a copy right away!
Thanks, thorold :)

(Now I have an image in my head of a chicken in a long hooded cloak standing at the end of the pier, French Lieutenant's Woman-style.)

#34 When the moratorium ends, you could pick up a copy of The Oxford literary guide to the British Isles by Dorothy Eagle, a whole book of literary place associations. It's readily available secondhand and cheap.

Just wanted to thank Doctor Robert for the concept here, as I now have a whole list of ideas/places/books (oh yes, Westminster is definitely on it) around which to build a book geek's dream vacation.

Prophet:

Sorry I've taken so long to respond, I was out of town over the weekend and didn't get online very much.

http://catholic-resources.org/Photos/Ravenna.htm

If you scroll down you can see some pictures of Dante's tomb, and where it's located. Definitely tour Ravenna while you're over there, the city's mosaics are absolutely incredible. There are plenty of pictures of the mosaics at that link too. Have fun in Italy, I'm so jealous!

I don't know where all you'll be going, but if you get a chance, go to Verona and see the thousand year old Verona Arena . Every year they hold an opera festival, and the operas are all performed in the Arena, usually in August/September. I could go on and on about Italy...*sigh*

Some favourite literary pilgrimages of mine:

Wordsworth's Dove Cottage, Lake District
Lord Byron's Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire
Dickens's London house in Doughty Street

and, though it's restored, of course (thanks largely to Sam Wannamaker), The Globe Theatre on the South Bank which makes me feel closer to Shakespeare than the properties do in Stratford-on-Avon

A few years ago I was at a wedding in Monterey, CA and took a side trip to Salinas to the John Steinbeck Center. I remember some of the displays being a little cheesy but overall I really enjoyed it! His childhood home is just up the street (looks like it's a restaurant now; I don't remember that). It had been a few years since I had read anything by him and I came home and immediately (re-)devoured East of Eden.

Odd that no-one's mentioned the new "Dickens World" amusement park in Chatham yet. Surely the ultimate in tasteful literary tourism? :-)

Dickens World is faithful to the London of the period in the same way that Disney's Cinderella Castle is faithful to gothic chateau architecture. Ish.

Visitors to the £62m, privately-funded attraction can sample the Great Expectations boat ride, themed around the escape of the convict Magwitch and featuring dyed-brown water. -- BBC News

"Ish?" Hmm. A Nevada Barr reader, perhaps? It's an occasional expletive used in her books.

#36 Thank you for the recommendation, affle - I'll add this to my list of books to look for:)

#41 "Dyed-brown water" ? I hope they didn't try to make it too realistic. Sounds pretty appalling, actually. I prefer to visit real places.

No.42: That's interesting -- I'd never come across ish as expletive, but Urban Dictionary seems to be split about 50/50 between that and ish as a modifier meaning "sort of". Could it be a US/UK thing, or am I just getting old?

I am no linguist, but I wonder if it's a combined form of a certain scatological term beginning with "sh". When one is in mixed company one might be inclined to avoid offense by using "ish." ;)

I read the way it's used in your description above as "ewg."

No, I'm pretty sure the author of the original article must have meant "sort of". I don't think even a modified expletive would find its way into a supposedly factual news site run by Auntie Beeb.

But it doesn't make a lot of sense either way. Normally you would use ish in this way to undermine what you just said in a humorous way: e.g. "Dickens World is faithful to the London of the period. Ish." would mean"Dickens World is faithful-ish...", i.e. "Dickens World is NOT faithful..." But when he sticks in the comparison to Disney, he has something that is already disparaging, as far as I can see he doesn't need to do anything further to it.

So maybe the word has taken on a mixture of the two meanings somehow..?

re Ish: adding it after the unflattering comparison to Disneyworld, the Ish said to me that Dickens' World was even less successful at its attempt to mimic the period of Dicken's London than Disneyworld was at mimicking "gothic chateau architecture". (Did the gothic period build chateaux, anyone?) Floating the Ish out separately added emphasis, instead of putting a hyphen and an ish on faithful.

I'm with Maggie about the dyed brown water. Yuck.

>Maggie O, here's the link to Orchard House - the Alcott home and...

the Emerson house and...

Hawthorne's Home and finally (which I think the kids might find equally interesting...), The House of the Seven Gables in Salem.

>20 tiffin: The last time I was at The Mount they had just begun to refurbish it and there wasn't much to look at. I have heard reports that it's beautiful now. If the website is any indication, one is in for a treat!

I am a little surprised this topic has 'gone dormant'. It seems to me that this would be a Topic of perennial interest - and utility. If anyone is aware of this same discussion being carried on elsewhere please let me know. I have, in the meantime, linked this discussion to the Section in the 'Personal Library Guide' titled 'Activities in the world-wide library space'. There is a discussion there about the general concept of literary tourism and some suggestions for LibraryThing member involvement in hosting tours and writing tour notes for their local area. The 'Personal Library Guide' is a member-constructed wiki page within LibraryThing and contributions and edits are welcome.

I don't really get the urge to visit specific houses etc but I am a big fan of reading books in the places where they are set. It's certainly added to my enjoyment of the books to read Captain Corelli's Mandolin in Kefalonia; The Athenian Murders in an apartment with views of the Acropolis and Mount Lykavitos (with visits to each); The French Lieutenant's Woman in Lyme Regis; 84 Charing Cross Road, The Diary of a Nobody, Mrs Dalloway and several others in London and quite a few others I can't bring immediately to mind. Certainly, whenever I go away from home I do my best to tack down and take at least one book that is set in the place I am visiting.

>50 Booksloth: ...I do my best to tack down and take at least one book that is set in the place I am visiting.

I can see the point of tacking down a book that you want to leave somewhere for others to enjoy, but ... :-)

Reading a book in the "right place" does make a difference. Or even reading it just before or after you visit a place: there's an extra feeling of connecting with Saramago when you've seen Lisbon and Mafra (even if only for a few days), and conversely I found myself looking at East Anglia in a different way after reading The rings of Saturn. And Puck of Pook's Hill is a book whose fairies and didactic patriotism I would normally go out of the way to avoid, but I really enjoyed reading it in a deckchair in the garden of a Sussex country house after visiting Kipling's house.

Ooooh! I would love to visit Kipling's house. I helped to catalog his library here and I find him even more fascinating now.

My husband's great-aunt visited Indiana in 1932, and came away from James Whitcomb Riley's home and birthplace with a pronouncing dictionary with Riley's signature on the fly leaf and a presentation note from a relation who lived there after Riley died in 1916.

When I contacted the home for confirmation and details, they hinted very broadly that the book would be welcomed back.

Great-aunt Alice may have made a pilgrimage to Hoosier authors homes on that trip, as her library was rich with them.

It is a very good thing to revive this discussion. The only problem is that I might run-off even more outrageously than I usually do. So I will yield (not in outrage, but with the customary regard for his experiences) to thorold, only mentioning two or three things which might be a bit off the beaten path for most of you. In one of his innumerable books August Derleth says that the town cemetery in "Sauk Prairie" -- it's actually in Sauk City (Wisconsin), down the road from Prairire du Sac -- has the Catholics on one side, and the Lutherans on the other. Being a free-thinker, he wanted to be buried in-between, to bridge the sectarian gap which he'd often failed to do in life. We went to check on this in 2004, and there he was, planted as planned. Our dear dog Doxy, with a marvelous impartiality to interpersonal and doctrinal conflicts, peed on AD's monument. I had run into Derleth some years earlier, and I know he would have approved of Doxy's non-verbal statement.
As a boy I used to love to sneak-off to the beaches of Chicago's North Shore. At that time there were still some old piers which had been used in pioneer days, for the busy schooners which brought all sorts of things, especially building-lumber (but also Christmas trees) across from lower Michigan. Later on I became something of a scholar of the American poet-composer Henry Clay Work and realized that the scene as had seen it sixty years ago, was virtually unchanged from the scene of his famous song "Lost of the 'Lady Elgin'". Now that the yuppies have fenced-off all the beaches, this vista is mostly unavailable except to the mental traveler.
Finally, for now, I have spent many years down the the road from the Prince Edward Island homestead of Sir Andrew MacPhail, once famed throughout the British Empire, but now sadly neglected, even in his native Canada -- which wasn't even Canada when he was born!. Anyway, he checked-out several years before I checked-in, but even in the early 2000s, there were locals who spoke of him as if he had just left the room. I knew one person who'd been taught to drive a car by him, and though she was a terrible driver, I had to cut her a little slack, since Sir Andrew had to have been in his seventies when he made that effort, and of-course, he had only one eye (which had been no impediment to his multiple career as soldier, phgysician, and scholar). The MacPhail homestead is readily accessible, well-managed -- meaning not excessively managed -- and one of the most interesting place I know in the Canadian Maritimes.
Let's keep it up. If conversation lags, I can tell you many a story from "sweet home Chicago".

O gosh. This discussion is so tempting . . . so that I cannot help but recall sneaking into the Maine estate of one of my early deities Wilhelm Reich. At that time the dust was still swirling from his prosecution and imprisonment, so sneaking-in was the only was to do it. I will never forget the click of the shotgun and the voice of the old care-taker who came upon me from behind. One of only two times in civilian life I've had a gun pulled on me in earnest. Praise God, he let me talk him out of anything ugly and he ended-up giving me quite a tour of the place, and said some very interesting things about poor WR ("Dawk-tah" Reich, as he put it in his classic Maine accent).

We seem to have moved on a bit from Laura Ingalls Wilder!

In re #55. Well, Mark, some of the farther-out Reichians might claim that the famous little house was in fact an orgone accumulator before the fact. Considering that the central design factor is the alternation of organic and inorganic matter, let's consider how the shack might have functioned if it were ever re-roofed (in the classic fashion of many North Country homes -- and my barns -- with sheet-metal.... This discussion HAS moved-on. Maybe I should get back on the track with some Chicago stories. By-the-bye, I really enjoyed your well-intentioned Hardy pilgrimage. Too bad you couldn't find ol' Diggory Venn.

The first trip I took to Buenos Aires is probably my most literary-romantic one, as the main reason for it was to experience the place where Borges ran into a friend who died shortly (and unexpectedly) after the encounter, described in his short prose piece (prose poem?), "Delia Elena San Marco". As no street was specified, and the quarter itself, Once, is huge, I left it for my last day, when I took a cab and told him to drive all over--especially where the traffic was dense, because of that line about the traffic being--unknowingly to the friends--the woeful Acheron, separating the living from the dead.

I also made a special point of visiting places and corners associated with Gombrowicz, Macedonio Fernández and Roberto Arlt. I read Arlt's El amor brujo in the neighbourhood where much of the action is set.

But it's not something I'm generally keen on, there has to be a feeling of personal connection, a NEED to experience or explain something that entered into the text. Like the traffic in Once that in retrospect turned into a river in the underworld, an image that haunted me for twenty-four years, the knowledge that we are losing all the time, but we don't know whom, and when, and where.

I forced my entire family to go to the Green Gables Heritage Place on PEI. The house belonged to a relative of Lucy Maud Montgomery and was the inspiration for Green Gables in the Anne books. Has one of the tackiest gift shops I've ever been in, but the actual site itself is very nice. LMM's own childhood home is nearby, but I didn't try to go there. Could only make husband and sons cope with so much.

In re 58. tardis, you are too kind about the Green Gables phenomemon. The house itself IS agreeable enough, but the total package is dispiriting in the extreme. I have watched it go downhill for almost a quarter-century. Still and all, there still are places on PEI -- though precious few -- where some of the "feel" of LM Montgomery's world survives in small, unexpected ways. Suffice it to say, I'm not going to blab them out, even in this elegant company.
Conversely, the truth ofJohn Gallant's hard but honest memoir Bannock, beans, and black tea is all too evident on modern PEI. PEI has always had aspects of what might be called, without smugness, the Third World, and that was even more prominent in LM Montgomery's day than the idyllic righteousness she chose to present. That's no rap on her. She wrote for personal consolation, and to lift the spirits of readers. Who can fault her for not choosing to be a North American Thomas Hardy?
O yeah. While I'm on the line. Lola carissima, when will you favour us with YOUR story? All the tasty bits on LT leave some of us yearning for the whole sandwich, or tsimess, or whatever you have to offer in larger forms.

It had occurred to me that unless the other member(s) of your family shared your enthusiasm for the author, a visit to some place associated with him or her could be constrained by your regard for their feelings. I'd suggested in the Guide that you might leave them for a day doing something less bookish (such as shopping or following some local sporting event) while you pursue your own peculiar dream. But at 'out of town' sites this does introduce a problem of transport, I admit.

Nevertheless, it sometimes seems that to properly 'commune' with the spirit of a place you need a bit of space - and time - to yourself. It's one thing to see the places associated with your favourite authors, but to get behind the sometimes well - or badly - done tourist presentation opens up the possibility of something special. And that slipping behind the scenes, evading the watchful eyes of the guardians of the sacred site, is easiest done without a large (and reluctant) family in tow.

Sometimes it seems that a case of averted gaze reveals more. To take in the main scene but then to speculate how the author might have travelled to school, or the store, or just where they might have gone out walking on a fine day, and then to follow their route on foot. The ability to do some prior research using the internet based satellite maps is a great boon, and I also recommend checking local sun and moon rise and setting times, and the expected local weather conditions.

I take LolaWalser's point that the experience is enhanced if you take with you a 'need to experience or explain something that entered into the text.' And so the challenge then, unless there's been something nagging at you for years, is to re-read the authors work (and their biographies) and see if you can find a question that needs an answer that can only be found by 'being there'.

There's a sense that to have a 'purpose' transforms mere journeying (and gawking) into a quest, a personal challenge and adventure. I'd note though that some people recognizing the same need to energize their travels try to visit these places on a certain anniversary date (or even time of day), or make it a mission to bring back some souvenir. But hopefully not the fabric of the building or the content of the library (although one has to admire - as well as deplore - the nimble fingered chutzpah of 2wonderY's great-aunt Alice). One might souvenir perhaps a seed or a scion (or even a pressed leaf) of a tree that might have given shelter to your favourite author - bearing in mind regulations about moving such material across borders back to wherever you came from. Or it might just be the ticket of admission, a perfect book mark to take back home.

And such traffic might be in the reverse direction. Your mission might be to bring to that site some memento, perhaps the ashes of a someone whose last wish you are fulfilling, or even some material connected with the author which you wish to donate to the custodians of the site. Or it might simply be some flowers for their grave, or a toast drunk in their memory as the sun is going down.

Sorry for going on at such length, and for not offering any stories of my own. My interest in this phenomenon was initially academic, a survey of activities that energize our library experiences which I was incorporating in the Guide. But as I read these stories I am inspired to make some plans, even if the need to care for someone means that I have to restrict myself to my local authors and their significant places. Best regards, John Mack (Nandadevi).

>60 nandadevi:
Mere tourism can be a bit vulgar, but there's nothing unhealthy about it. Visiting a site to gather information to help you gain understanding of the texts is perfectly respectable too (unless you are dogmatic about "il n'y a pas de hors-texte"). But when you start treating novelists and poets as though they were objects of religious devotion, making ritualistic pilgrimages to their holy sites, fetishising their relics, attempting to penetrate into the sanctum sanctorum, or stealing the used tampons from their dustbins, it starts to get more than a little creepy.

In 61, but Mark, look at the calendar: 'tis the season to be creepy. Ooooooooooooooooo . . .

>61 thorold:. I take your point about respectable vs vulgar vs 'more-than-creepy'. I think you're right. But isn't the extra value we accord a signed copy of a book no more than another example of 'fetishising their relics', like the bones of some Saint? Which is to say, we seem to do a lot of this sort of thing already.

At the extreme we have the plot of one or two novels, and cinema adaptions. But isn't there room for a little bit of passion in the pursuit of literary experience and history? Novelists and poets try to move us. Are we wrong then to be moved?

it had occurred to me that unless the other member(s) of your family shared your enthusiasm for the author, a visit to some place associated with him or her could be constrained by your regard for their feelings.

Hence: avoid family ;-)

In re #64. Words to live-by, Matt.

>61 thorold: But when you start treating novelists and poets as though they were objects of religious devotion, making ritualistic pilgrimages to their holy sites, fetishising their relics, attempting to penetrate into the sanctum sanctorum, or stealing the used tampons from their dustbins, it starts to get more than a little creepy.

Last week my mother and I took a vacation to visit the presidential residences of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. It was "literary tourism" in the sense that the trip was inspired by Andrea Wulf's book Founding Gardeners, and by the fact that mom and I have been trading thoughts about various biographies about Jefferson, Washington, Madison, etc, for the past couple years. It had been forty years since I'd been to Monticello. Also, we are both gardeners, and interested in historic conservation and in heirloom plants. We also both love to walk in the woods and have a fondness for forests.

So we went to explore Jefferson's experimental vegetable garden and his orchards, tooled around Monroe's smaller but more practical estate, and spent a full day hiking in the old growth forest on Madison's grounds. We bought copies of their journals and plant books, packets of seeds and small bulbs, stole seeds from the irises on the grounds, and made lists of plants and trees we liked and would like to try to grow.

I suppose it could be called fetishizing, this inclination to poke one's head into every little corner, huddle together to discuss whether the rose we were looking at was a Penelope or Ducher China, furtively break off seed pods to tuck away even though it was clear no one cared. And I suppose there is something a little creepy about refusing to leave Madison's study or Jefferson's own suite with the rest of the tour until we'd noted every book on the shelves, looked hard at every strange gadget and built up in our minds a picture of their interests and habits.

But mostly the trip was for seeking inspiration, and finding a sense of identification with people who faced the same questions and issues two hundred years ago that we still do today. So, yes, a pilgrimage of sorts.

(Goddard--MY story--ain't finished! The middle section's giving me real trouble, and heck if I know anymore what the whole thing's about... ;))

I'm short on deliberate pilgrimages (unless some graveyard-visiting qualifies) but as I lived in several old cities, reading matter and the environment often coincided in some way, although in few maddening instances I picked up literature that resonated only AFTER I've left some place. I had spent a couple dull months in Alexandria as a kid, years before Cavafy became a favourite. I had lived in Damascus long before Paul's conversion had a chance of being remotely interesting, or any of that fantastic history. Svevo and Claudio Magris made me see boring old Trieste in a new light. Proust's yearning for Venice conferred an aura on the sinking city it wouldn't have had for me otherwise, but less as a feature of the city, more as a spectral presence of Proust--Marcel the narrator in any case--there where I was. I was remembering Marcel imagining.

Etc.

>66 southernbooklady:
SouthernBookLady,

I'm right with you and your mother. It sounds like a delightful outing. And I thought Founding Gardeners brilliantly filled in personalities and passions.

> 66 SouthernBookLady,

What a great idea, literary tourism with past presidents. I have only visited Jefferson's site, but look forward to doing a similar trip next spring with Va. founding fathers / presidents. We will probably add Mt. Vernon to your list. I have been looking at some of the founding fathers libraries on LT and it will be great to actually look at some of there books on site. I'll bet you and your Mom had a wonderful time. Again, thanks for the sharing your trip with us on LT.

>69 JaneAustenNut: and it will be great to actually look at some of there books on site.

Monroe's and Jefferson's libraries are in place, although of course the libraries of both have long since been disseminated and are only reconstructed enough to get a feel for the room(s). Madison's house had a downstairs study/library he used later in life, and an upstairs one that he was using when he was working on the Federalist Papers and the plan for the 1787 meeting of the Continental Congress.

The upstairs one is still to be restored--it's looking for funding and still in the drawing board stage. But the guide did say that when he was preparing for the meeting, he read something like 400 books over the course of a winter. Which is impressive enough, but these were law books!

Mount Vernon will be a trip unto itself.