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As the poet Emily Dickinson
once wrote, “TVe is no frigate like a book to take us
lands away.” W hile beloved authors act as tour guides for
our imaginations, there’s something to be said for travel
beyo r xl the page. Visiting a favorite writers haunts can
emch the reading experience for young and old alike, so
put a bookmark in that classic, load die family into the
car and check out these literary locations.
Walden Pond State Reservation
Concord, Mass.
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Life in the woods inspired Henry 7 David Thoreau's
classic Walden, and the author’s creed of “Simplify, sim
plify” remains in evidence in die natural setting of the
reservation. Run by the Massachusetts Park Service, this
National Historic Landmark is considered the birthplace
of the conservation movement.
Out of respect for Thoreau's uncomplicated lifestyle,
celebrations are minimal—his July 12 birthday is com
memorated with speakers who portray the author during
the day’s tours. The simple life, which Thoreau enjoyed at
Walden Pond from 1845 to 1847, also is celebrated in the
area's most popular activities: fishing, swimming, hiking
and cross-country skiing. A replica of Thoreau's meager
one-room dwelling helps fans understand the writer’s life
style during his time of "living deliberately,” and a statue
of the man himself sees more visitors (the reservation is
open to only 1,000 visitors each day) than Thoreau did
while living in quiet solitude.
The Hemingway House
Key West, Fla.
When the “Lost Generation” writers left Paris,
Ernest Hemingway chose Key West as his home. He
embraced its laid-back lifestyle, spending his davs deep-
5 Literary b> M LEBEAU XON
Destinations
Enrich your reading experience
sea fishing, tossing back a drink or two at Sloppy Joe’s,
and gathering material for some of his most famous
novels. Visitors still can belly up to Papa's favorite bar
or visit his home on Whitehead Street, where Tlx Sun
Aim Rises and other classics were penned. Knowledge
able guides take tourists through the writer’s home and
studio, both filled with personal touches, including
mounted trophies and skins from Hemingway’s Afri
can safaris. Just watch out for the cats. Sixty’ of them,
descendants of Papa’s own six-toed felines, roam freely
throughout the estate.
The Mark Twain
Boyhood Home & Museum
Hannibal, Mo.
Twain’s memories of growing up in Hannibal inspired
some of the most beloved American novels, and visi
tors can get a glimpse of his experiences while visiting
an eight-building complex, including Twain’s boyhood
home from 1844 to 1853 and the home of Tom Blan
kenship. on wfoom Twain based the character Huck
leberry Finn. The museum boasts a new interpretive
center where visitors tour exhibits about the Hannibal
of Twain’s childhood. Special events and exhibits change
annually, but a Mark Twain birthday celebration is
held each Nov. 30. Hannibal, also known as “America’s
Hometown,” sponsors a variety of Twain-related events,
including National Tom Sawyer Days, which features
frog-jumping, minnow-catching and watermelon seed
spitting contests each Fourth of July weekend. Just bring
along a paintbrush; you never know when a fence will
need whitewashing.
The real “Yoknapatawpha County”
Oxford, Miss.
While his counterparts traveled abroad, William
Faulkner chose to write at home—in his case, his adopted
hometown of Oxford, Miss., which serves
as inspiration for his fictional Yokna
patawpha County and the setting
for many of his novels. Also the " 'W 1 - '
home of “Ole Miss ’—the Uni- .
versity of Mississippi—Oxford
exudes the Southern charm and
unique characters that became
an important part of the Nobel
Prize winner's style.
Faulkner once called the
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the focus, the hub,” and
visitors co the Lafayette
County Courthouse,
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center of activity in Oxford, can find the stature of the
Confederate soldier that stood sentry in The Sound and
the Fury . The Thompson-Chandler House, model for
the Compson place in the same novel, is nearby, not
far from Maud Falkner’s House, built for the author’s
mother by his father. Murry, and all that’s left of the
family estate. Scholars and avid readers meet annually
for the Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conferences, a
weeklong study of the writer’s work held at Ole Miss
each summer.
Dr. Seuss National
Memorial Sculpture Garden
Springfield, Mass.
Theodore Seuss Geisel once penned, “From
there to here, from here to there, funny things
are everywhere,” and visitors to the sculpture
garden at the Springfield Museums complex
in the writer’s birthplace know just what he
means. Geisel’s stepdaughter, sculptor Lark Grey
Dimond-Cates, created the bronze statues repre
«. senting many of Seuss’ most memorable charac-
K ters, including one of the good doctor himself
Ik at his drawing board with the Cat in the Hat
at his side. Children also will enjoy seeing a
14-foot likeness of the egg-hatching Horton
the Elephant and the holiday-hating Grinch
and his dog, Max.
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