If I had to pick America’s most literary city, it would have to to be Boston, where countless authors, poets, scholars, and philosophers have been inspired over the centuries. An easy way to go about it is to follow Boston’s Literary Trail, a 20-mile route that traces the lives of literary greats. It begins at the Omni Parker House, where Charles Dickens first read A Christmas Carol, and goes on to the homes of Louisa May Alcott, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Henry David Thoreau. Other major stops include the acclaimed Boston Public Library; Mount Auburn Cemetery, where many of the literary greats are buried; and the Concord Museum (which has the desk on which Thoreau wrote Civil Disobedience and Walden). Or go with an organized tour group like Boston by Foot, which has literary- themed walking tours to explore the lives and works of a number of Victorian luminaries. www.bostonbyfoot.org
Don’t overlook the small city of Hartford, Connecticut, as a literary travel spot. This is where Mark Twain chose to live and raise his family for nearly 20 years. It’s also the site where he wrote some of his most notable works, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, King Arthur’s Court. As an added bonus, the Mark Twain House & Museum (www.marktwainhouse.org) also shares a space with the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center (www.harrietbeecherstowecenter. org), which celebrates the legacy of the abolitionist author who lived in Hartford for the last two decades of her life.
Saratoga Springs, New York, is home to Yaddo (http://yaddo.org),a 400-acre estate founded in 1900 that functions as an artists and writers sanctuary. Former residents include Truman Capote, Flannery O’Conner, and Sylvia Plath. Nearby, in South Glens Falls, Cooper’s Cave inspired some of the scenes from James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans.
In Paris, it’s the cemeteries that are truly inspiring for literary types. In Cimetiere de Montparnasse, visitors leave scraps of paper scribbled with Baudelaire’s verse on his grave, while flowers cover Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre’s joint tomb. Oscar Wilde’s massive white marble tomb in Pere-Lachaise Cemetery is smudged top to bottom with red lipstick prints left by fans. Other must-see tombs include those of Guillaume Apollinaire, Honore de Balzac, Tristan Tzara (founder of Dadaism), Paul Verlaine, Peret, and rock-and-roll poet Jim Morrison.
Of course, following in the footsteps of Paris’s great literary minds doesn’t have to be so macabre. Instead, think like a local and ... grab a cup of coffee! Cafe de Flore (www.cafedeflore.fr) and Les Deux Magots (www.lesdeuxmagots.fr) were the hangouts of some of France’s greatest surrealist thinkers and still maintain their traditional decor. Here Andre Breton, Arthur Rimbaud, Apollinaire, and the Dadaists (Tzara and friends) sat and drank coffee and absinthe every day for hours.
Shakespeare and Company is located in the trendy area of the Saint-Michel metro stop, with Notre Dame and the Seine as a backdrop, and the best time to go is on Monday evening to hear readings from international writers. Want to brush up on your conversational French? The bookshop is where the Big Ben Club holds French-English conversation workshops. http://shakespeareandcompany.com
Few cities in the world have as much literary cache as Dublin. My favorite way to experience that is to combine the two things Dublin is best known for: literature and beer. Actors lead a pub crawl in the spirit of Dublin literary giants James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, and Brendan Behan by quoting prose and verse and performing drama and song, while stopping in to four pubs throughout the city. www.dublinpubcrawl.com
Classical Pursuits is a Toronto-based company that designs literary trips around great works of literature and the destination(s) where the books were written or set. But be advised: There’s homework involved. You’re expected to read a book or two beforehand so that you can participate in discussions throughout the trip. You’ll get to meet local experts or those connected to the literary world that revolve around these cities. Tours might include US cities like Savannah and Key West, or international spots like Paris, India, and Vietnam. My favorite: a “Lost Generation” tour of Paris that
involves discussions on expat writers Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein. Believe me, if literature is your passion, you’re going to want to travel with these like-minded individuals. There have even been some marriages resulting from these trips! www.classicalpursuits.com
Esotouric Tours cover several of Los Angeles’s literary personalities, from the well known to the obscure. We’re talking hardboiled noir writer Raymond Chandler, The Postman Always Rings
Twice author James M. Cain, booze-addled poet Charles Bukowski, and Beatnik precursor John Fante. The tours are the exact opposite of most LA tours, taking you to unfashionable, off-the-beaten path neighborhoods (like Skid Row), with funny, brainy guides who are passionate about and well versed in their subject matter. www. esotouric.com
Lynott Tours offers guided experiences that explore the literature and landscapes of such British and Irish greats as Beatrix Potter, the Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and William Wordsworth. You’ll visit sites where great authors lived, died, worked, and worshipped; tour museums devoted to their works; see landscapes that inspired them; and sometimes attend annual festivals in their honor. Bonus tip: There’s even a Harry Potter tour of London, where you’ll visit platform 9% at King’s Cross Station and see streets and buildings that appeared in key scenes in the movies. www.lynotttours.com
Insider’s Tip
Try to visit Dublin around June 16, which is known as Bloomsday, in honor of Joyce’s most revered work, Ulysses. That’s when the center holds a series oflectures, tours, plays, and exhibits in honor of the literary giant. Don’t forget to take Leopold Bloom’s lead and get a gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of Burgundy at Davy Byrne’s in Duke Street. www.jamesjoyce.ie
Organized Tours
For a more structured approach, the Sierra CLub has a Literary walking tour of Dublin and beyond. Not only do you get to attend Bloomsday festivities in the capital city, but you aLso visit Sandycove, home of the James Joyce Museum and the 40-foot pool from Ulysses’ first chapter, and take a ferry to the Aran Islands where J. M. Synge wrote Playboy of the Western World. Explorations of Sligo, Iniskeen, and the ancient tombs at Newgrange round out the 12-day
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