Joni Rendon's Blog, page 2

5 Ways for Bibliophiles to Honor Women’s History Month

[image error]

Explore a favorite author’s house. Celebrate Flannery O’Connor’s birthday on March 25 at her family’s farm, Andalusia, in Milledgeville, Georgia (cake and free tours are on the agenda), or take a living history tour with a costumed guide at Louisa May Alcott’s home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts (tours are given every fourth Saturday of the month and reservations are recommended). Click here for a state-by-state directory of author house museums.

Attend an author event at a local bookstore or library. Among this month’s lineup at the Free Library of Philadelphia are discussions with artist Maira Kalman, the creator of an illustrated version of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein (March 9); activist and historian Rebecca Solnit, whose new book is Recollections of My Nonexistence, a memoir of her life as a young artist set against the backdrop of San Francisco’s 1980s punk rock scene (March 12); and journalist Katie Roiphe, author of The Power Notebooks (March 19).

Visit a feminist bookstore in person or online. A favorite is New York City’s Bluestockings, a volunteer-powered bookstore, cafe, and activist center. The store hosts regular book clubs, support groups, and social events, along with many other events ranging from author readings to self-defense workshops. Charis Books & More in Decatur, Georgia, has compiled a list of feminist bookstores in the U.S. and Canada.

Take the Trailblazing Women Writers Tour. This month the American Writers Museum in Chicago is offering a special 60-minute tour spotlighting the lives and works of women writers who broke barriers and paved the way for future generations. Tours are given twice daily at 1:30 and 4:00 p.m. Or take a virtual version of the tour on the American Writers Museum App, available on Android and Apple devices. Among the fascinating facts: Mystery scribe Frances Parkinson Keyes was discouraged from writing by both her mother and her husband. Undeterred, she created an attic hideaway for her manuscripts, and at age 34 she published the first of her dozens of novels.

Delve into books about inspiring or intriguing female figures. Two literary-themed suggestions are Virginia Woolf: And the Woman Who Shaped Her World by Gillian Gill, a look into Woolf’s world through the lens of the women who were closest to her, and Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction by Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson, which features writers like Mary Shelley who defied convention to craft some of literature’s strangest tales.

Top 5 U.S. Cities for Literary Travelers

Does your idea of the perfect getaway combine the excitement of a city with literary pastimes? Head to one of these five coast-to-coast locales where there is plenty for book lovers to discover.

Washington, DC

[image error]

The Library of Congress. Photo © Novel Destinations.

Begin exploring the U.S. capital city’s literary side at the Library of Congress, founded in 1800 and the world’s largest library. The library’s palatial Thomas Jefferson Building is a visual feast with murals, mosaics, and sculpture galore and a Great Hall rising 75 feet from marble floor to stained glass ceiling. (It’s well worth taking the free, docent-led tour to hear about the library’s creation and collection.) Make time to visit the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, the author-orator’s last residence, an estate less than a hundred miles from where he was born into slavery. Lay eyes on a rare First Folio at the Folger Shakespeare Library and catch a production in the Elizabethan-style Folger Theatre. At indie bookstore Politics and Prose, sit in on a book group discussion (no need to reserve a spot; just read the featured selection and show up) or attend one of the regularly held author events. Sustenance for mind and body can be found at Kramerbooks and the adjoining Afterwords Café, open until at least 1 a.m. daily.

San Francisco, California

[image error]

Photo © Novel Destinations.

The San Francisco literary scene is a vibrant mix of classic and contemporary. Start by stocking up on page-turners at some of the area’s more than 35 bookstores, from Beat-era icon City Lights and the warren-like Green Apple Books to shops covering specific topics like culinary, comics, and science fiction. Since the literary tradition includes nearly as much imbibing as writing, enjoy a tipple at Vesuvio, a cozy saloon where Jack Kerouac drank and discoursed (once so late into the evening he missed a meeting with Henry Miller in Big Sur). For a swankier outing, glitzy Novela has illuminated, color-coordinated bookshelves and a literary-themed cocktail menu that includes a homemade spiked punch (in honor of Hemingway) on tap. If you like your detective fiction hard-boiled, stand in the spot where Sam Spade’s sidekick, Miles Archer, met his maker on the Dashiell Hammett Walking Tour, or check out the Beat Museum for insight into Kerouac and his contemporaries. For true literary immersion, attend Litquake, an annual nine-day extravaganza that includes hundreds of author readings and a Lit Crawl through the Mission District.

Chicago, Illinois

[image error]

Photo © The American Writers Museum.

Chicago has a must-visit site for book lovers: the first and only museum in the U.S. dedicated to the written word. The American Writers Museum explores the country’s literacy legacy through dynamic, interactive exhibits. One is a “surprise bookshelf” that reveals facts about legendary works through features like audio, video, and hidden windows. At the Newberry, a c. 1887 library featured in Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife, see an exhibit, attend a workshop or author reading, or simply admire the architecture. To delve into the story behind another bestseller, The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson, climb aboard a bus tour given by Weird Chicago. Have more time? Venture to the Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Museum in a Chicago suburb, or shop till you drop at the city’s plethora of bookstores. And you might want to time your visit with the Chicago Tribune Printers Row Lit Fest. Held annually in June, it’s the largest free outdoor literary event in the Midwest.

Key West, Florida

[image error]

The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum. Photo © Novel Destinations.

A brief stopover in this tropical city in 1928 turned into a years-long stay for Ernest Hemingway. Quirky, cultural Key West has lured other writers, too, like poets Robert Frost and Elizabeth Bishop and playwright Tennessee Williams, who is credited with inspiring the nightly sunset celebration in Mallory Square by toasting it with a gin and tonic. Today literary travelers can tour the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum (six-toed cats are in residence), take a look at the tiny yet intriguing Tennessee Williams Museum, join the Old Town Literary Walking Tour, and browse or buy at Books and Books at The Studios, co-owned by novelist Judy Blume. It’s almost always cocktail hour in Key West, so stop by Sloppy Joe’s for a Papa Doble, Hemingway’s favorite. And if you’re up for some Hemingway-style adventure, head by boat or seaplane to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, where rough seas once stranded the writer and a band of fishing buddies for seventeen days.

New York City

[image error]

The Main Rose Reading Room at the New York Public Library, 42nd Street & Fifth Avenue. Photo © Novel Destinations.

Glamorous and gritty, dynamic and diverse, New York City has long attracted writers of all types, many of whom immortalized the city in print. Seek out locales mentioned in a favorite novel, perhaps The Catcher in the Rye or Edith Wharton’s Gilded Age fiction. A top-notch outing is the Greenwich Village Literary Pub Crawl, a booze- and gossip-fueled foray through the legendary neighborhood where Edgar Allan Poe (his cottage is in the Bronx), Jack Kerouac, Henry Miller, and other writers lived, wrote, drank, and brawled. Further uptown, E.L. Doctorow worked in the chandelier- and mural-bedecked reading room at the New York Public Library’s main branch. For pivotal scenes in Ragtime, Doctorow chose as a setting the nearby Morgan Library and Museum. Financier J.P. Morgan’s private library is a sight to behold. Three levels of bookshelves are surrounded by gilding, tapestries, paintings, and stained glass. Last but not least, stop at one of the city’s terrific bookstores, like The Strand, a treasure trove that’s home to 18 miles of new, used, and rare books.

Hemingway’s July Days

 

[image error]

Ernest Hemingway was born in July on the cusp of the 20th century, and the summer month would prove to be a pivotal time for the writer throughout his life. Here are some key July moments in the Hemingway timeline:

July 21, 1899 – Hemingway made his debut in Oak Park, Illinois, a middle-class Chicago suburb where he spent the first 18 years of his life. He

spent his early childhood years in a grand turreted, Queen Anne-style home, now the Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Museum.

July 1918 – While driving an ambulance for the Red Cross on the Italian front lines during World War I, 18-year-old Hemingway was seriously

wounded by mortar fire. His shrapnel wounds were tended to by a nurse, Agnes von Kurowsky, with whom he fell in love. Their relationship inspired his novel about a doomed wartime romance, A Farewell to Arms.

July 1923 – The insatiable traveler attended his first bullfight during Pamplona’s legendary running of the bulls, returning nearly every year for the rest of the decade to witness the death-defying spectacle. His Spanish sojourns inspired his 1925 novel The Sun Also Rises, which takes place during the annual Fiesta of San Fermin and follows a dissolute band of expats who spend their days drinking brandy and absinthe at Café Iruna. (A statue of Hemingway at the bar at Café Iruña is in the photo above.)

July 1937 – At the White House, Hemingway attended a viewing of the film The Spanish Earth with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, a close friend of Martha Gellhorn, his current wife. He had become outspoken against anti-fascism after covering the Spanish Civil War for a North American newspaper and co-wrote and narrated the documentary shown to the president. The event was a fundraiser for ambulances for the Loyalist forces fighting Franco.

July 1940 – The famous scribe wrapped up For Whom the Bell Tolls, which was published three months later and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He worked on the tale in various locations, including Idaho, where he occupied room number 206 at the Sun Valley Lodge. He dubbed the room “Glamour House” and posed there next to his typewriter for the book’s dust jacket photo. Today his picture hangs above the fireplace.

July 1944 – While working as a magazine correspondent during World War II, Hemingway trekked across the northern French countryside with a U.S. Army infantry regiment heading for Paris. He was with the first forces to enter the capital in early August after it was freed from Nazi occupation. Trailed by a ragtag crew he had assembled, Hemingway made way for the Ritz, where after “liberating” the  famed hotel he celebrated in the bar with dry martinis and champagne.

July 1960 – Hemingway left Cuba for the last time after having spent nearly two decades residing on the island, where his refuge was a 13-acre estate overlooking Havana. At La Finca Vigía (Spanish for “lookout farm”), among the works he wrote was The Old Man and the Sea, his Pulitzer Prize-winning tale of man versus marlin.

July 2, 1961 – Suffering from debilitating illness and bouts of depression, Hemingway died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home just west of Ketchum, Idaho. His two-story chalet overlooking Big Wood River is owned by a local library and, unfortunately, is closed to public. A Guide to Ernest Hemingway’s Sun Valley Legacy lists sites in the area associated with the writer, including the Hemingway Memorial. The granite monument is topped with a bronze sculpture of Hemingway and includes a quote from a 1939 eulogy he wrote for a friend: “Best of all he loved the fall, the leaves yellow on the cottonwoods, leaves floating on the trout streams and above the hills, the high blue windless skies; now he will be part of them forever.”

[Photo © Café Iruña]

Summer Author House Happenings

[image error]

Looking up the back stairs toward the terrace at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s estate in the Berkshire Mountains. Photo©NovelDestinations

Summer is an exciting time in the literary travel world. Some author houses are only open seasonally during the warm weather, while at others, gardens are in bloom and special events abound. Here are some of the storied happenings taking place in the coming months.

Parlez-vous français?

Enjoy a morning chat with other French speakers at Edith Wharton’s estate, The Mount, in Lenox, Massachusetts. The conversation sessions, which honor her love for France, where she lived for many years, take place on the terrace overlooking the gardens. Attendance is $15, and spots must be reserved at least 24 hours in advance. Thursdays at 9 a.m. from July 4 through August 29.

Tales and Tails

Live readings and guest lectures take place on Sunday afternoons in the Enchanted Garden at the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia. Tales on the schedule include “The Masque of the Red Death” (July 14), “The Black Cat” (July 21), and “The Tell-Tale Heart” (August 4). Keep an eye out for resident felines Edgar and Pluto, the latter named after a four-legged character in “The Black Cat.” Included with museum admission; no registration necessary. Sunday Reading events begin at 12:30 p.m. and are live-streamed on the museum’s Facebook page.

Spine-tingling Tours with Twain

Spooky events aren’t just for Halloween. The Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut, regularly offers the Graveyard Shift Ghost Tour. During this nighttime visit, hear spine-tingling tales about Victorian traditions surrounding seances and spiritualism and learn about the author’s interest in the supernatural. Various dates. Tickets are $25 and sell out fast, so be sure to book early.

River Cruising with Twain

Cruise the Mighty Mississippi like Mark Twain, who once made his living as a riverboat pilot (a profession he claimed to love “far better than any I have followed since”). The Mark Twain Riverboat offers one-hour sightseeing cruises and two-hour dinner excursions, along with weekend music cruises. Outings leave from Hannibal, Missouri, the site of Twain’s childhood home (open for visiting) and the model for the fictional St. Petersburg in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Theater Al Fresco

The drama “The Miracle Worker” is staged on the grounds of Ivy Green, Helen Keller’s birthplace in Tuscumbia, Alabama, on Friday and Saturday evenings through July 13. The play unfolds Keller’s remarkable life, from her early struggles with blindness and deafness, to the transformation that took place under the tutelage of the “miracle worker,” teacher Anne Sullivan. Performances take place at 8 p.m. and cost $15. Ticket holders can arrive at 6:30 p.m. for a free tour of the house and grounds.

Show Tunes in Winery Ruins

Open-air winery ruins make a scenic backdrop for “Broadway Under the Stars,” a series of concerts at Jack London State Historic Park in California’s Sonoma Valley. Literature meets nature at the 1,400-acre park—once the adventure writer’s ranch land—where visitors can picnic, hike, bike, and horseback ride, as well as view London’s homes and grave site. Various performances take place through September 8.

8 Places to Celebrate American Poets

[image error]

Where better to read Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” than in the setting that inspired the author to put pen to paper. Or stand in the cozy study in the house (pictured above) where Henry Wadsworth Longfellow conjured “Paul Revere’s Ride” and “The Song of Hiawatha.” Whether it’s to learn about a slice of American history, gain insight into the artistic process, or simply to appreciate the power and beauty of great verse, here are eight places to celebrate American poets (along with a few bonus literary locales).

Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst, Massachusetts

During her lifetime, Emily Dickinson penned some 1,800 poems spanning a wide range of subjects, from spirituality and nature to art and medicine, among them “Because I could not stop for death” and “Success is counted sweetest.” Only a few of her poems were published during her lifetime, while others she shared with family and friends. Much of Dickinson’s verse was penned in secret, recorded in small, handmade booklets discovered after her death. Along with guided tours of two Dickinson family homes, visitors can stroll the grounds where the green-thumbed poet once gardened in her signature white dress (a replica of which is on display in her bedroom). Open March through December.

Robert Frost Farm, Derry, New Hampshire

“To a large extent, the terrain of my poetry is the Derry land­scape,” Robert Frost told a friend. “There was something about the experience at Derry which stayed in my mind, and was tapped for poetry in the years that came after.” Visitors can tour the white clapboard farmhouse, a gift to the newly wed Frost from his grandfather at the turn of the 19th century, where he penned verse late at night in the kitchen cozied up to a wood stove. While hiking a nature trail on the property, keep an out for two particularly notable sites: the stone-wall boundaries evoked in Frost’s poem “Mending Wall” and the stream he immortalized in “Hyla Brook.” Open May through October.

Following Frost: The poet is also commemorated at Frost Place in Franconia, New Hampshire, a farm with views of the White Mountains, where he settled after returning from a stint living in Europe. In Shaftsbury, Vermont, is the Robert Frost Stone House Museum, a hilltop cottage where resided for nearly a decade, and in nearby Ripton is the , a one-mile wooded hiking loop annotated with excerpts from his poetry.

Langston Hughes House, New York City

Nicknamed “the poet laureate of Harlem,” Langston Hughes lived his last two decades in the northern Manhattan neighborhood that inspired his writing. He resided in a brownstone at 20 E. 127th Street, now a city landmark, where he wrote the jazz-influenced Montage of a Dream Deferred and other works. The building is also home to the I, Too, Arts Collective, a nonprofit organization committed to nurturing voices from underrepresented communities in the creative arts. On display are Hughes’ typewriter and a piano that belonged to his family. Open Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday afternoons.

Longfellow House, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Plenty of famous figures have crossed the threshold at this yellow-hued house in Cambridge (pictured in the photo above). Before it was home to 19th-century American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, it was General George Washington’s headquarters during the Siege of Boston in 1775–76. Charles Dickens once came to call here on Longfellow, along with scores of other writers, artists, and politicians. The house and its contents remain largely unchanged since the poet’s day. The house is open for tours late May through October; grounds are open year-round.

Looking for Longfellow: Stop by the poet’s family abode, the Wadsworth-Longfellow House, in the seaport town of Portland, Maine. Dating from 1786, the neoclassical-style dwell­ing where Longfellow grew up is the oldest standing structure on the Portland peninsula.

The Poe Museum, Richmond, Virginia

This atmospheric museum has one of the largest collections of Edgar Allan Poe memorabilia, with exhibits housed in four historic buildings surrounding an enclosed garden courtyard. Although he spent much of his life roaming the Eastern seaboard, living in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, Poe thought of himself as a Virginian, having grown up in Richmond with an adoptive family. In the Enchanted Garden, inspired by Poe’s poem “To One in Paradise,” is a shrine to the poet built with bricks and materials from the office of the Southern Literary Messenger, where he worked as an editor. Roaming the garden are two resident black cats, Edgar and Pluto, the latter named after the feline in Poe’s story “The Black Cat.” Open year-round.

More Poe Places: There are three other literary landmarks devoted to Poe, including the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum in Baltimore and the Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site in Philadelphia, where he is believed to have begun writing “The Raven.” He gave the first reading of the dramatic verse in New York City while residing in the Bronx in what is now known as the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage.

Carl Sandburg’s Connemara Farm, Flat Rock, North Carolina

Carl Sandburg moved from the shores of Lake Michigan to a secluded, sprawling farm in North Carolina seeking solitude, space for his large family (not to mention a 15,000-volume book collection), and greener pastures and longer grazing seasons for his wife’s goat-breeding operation—which is still going strong today. Along with house tours, there is a series of hiking trails on the grounds. Visitors can also stop by  the Connemara Farms Goat Dairy to see how it’s run and to interact with the resident animals. Open year-round.

On Sandburg’s Trail: Sandburg hailed from Galesburg, Illinois, born in 1878 to Swedish immigrant parents in a three-room cottage, now the Carl Sandburg State Historic Site.

Anne Spencer House and Garden Museum, Lynchburg, Virginia

A Harlem Renaissance-era poet, civil rights activist, and native Virginian, Anne Spencer lived in this Queen Anne-style house, built by her husband, for more than seven decades beginning in 1903. The purchase of a neighboring lot greatly expanded the size of the garden, where Spencer wrote in a specially constructed, one-room retreat. She was only the second African American poet to have her work included in the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry. Among the notables Spencer entertained at her Lynchburg home were fellow wordsmiths Langston Hughes and W.E.B. DuBois. The garden is open year-round; house tours are given April through October with two weeks advance notice.

Walt Whitman House, Camden, New Jersey

Whitman’s belated international celebrity as the author of Leaves of Grass allowed the 64-year-old poet to purchase “a little old shanty” in the southern New Jersey town where his brother lived. His final years were spent in this Greek Revival-style row house, where he further refined Leaves of Grass (resulting in the definitive “deathbed edi­tion”). Today, the six-room dwelling contains the death notice that was taped to his door after his passing in 1888, along with many of his letters, personal effects, and furnishings. Open Wednesday through Sunday; phone in advance to confirm hours.

Whitman’s Beginnings: At the Walt Whitman Birthplace State Historic Site and Interpretive Center, a cedar-shingled farmhouse built by Whitman’s father, a Quaker carpenter, observant visitors will spot the flowers featured in “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” which still frame the house’s entrance each spring.

NYC is for (Book) Lovers

[image error]

“The city that never sleeps is the backdrop for some of literature’s best love stories,” writes librarian Gwen Glazer in the post Finding Love in NYC, Literally on the New York Public Library’s blog. The NYPL’s book experts weighed in with their favorite romantic scenes that take place in the city, across all five boroughs.

Some highlights are the Brooklyn Bridge in Saint Mazie by Jami Attenberg, where the main character, an independent young woman, has a passionate moment with her lover—scandalous for the 1920s; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is used as a backdrop in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence; and vibrant Union Square in Pete Hamill’s Forever. The NYPL’s own gorgeous Rose Main Reading Room makes the list, too, for a scene Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

An accompanying red-heart-dotted map marks the locales for bibliophiles who want to explore on Valentine’s Day…or any other time of the year.

[image error]

6 Island Destinations for Literary Travelers

[image error]

The Florida Keys: Key West

It’s hard to resist a place that has a nightly sunset celebration in its main square, a tradition playwright Tennessee Williams (cocktail in hand) is credited with inspiring. (The sun sets on the island in the photo above.) The southernmost city in the continental United States, Key West has beckoned no shortage of creative types, from poet Robert Frost to its most famous resident, Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway made what was intended to be a brief stopover on the island in the late 1920s and instead ended up living there for a decade, drawn to the rough-and-tumble charm and laid-back lifestyle. The Spanish Colonial-style house he purchased, now the Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum, is a double delight for cat-loving bibliophiles. Legend has it that a ship’s captain gave the writer a polydactyl, or six-toed, cat, and the 50 or so felines that roam the property today—even sleeping in Hemingway’s bedroom—are its descendants. At the Tennessee Williams Museum, the playwright’s typewriter is on display along with colorful paintings created by the amateur artist.

The South Seas: Samoa

Celebrity writer Robert Louis Stevenson spent the last several years of his life on Samoa, where he is still considered the island’s most famous expat. After sailing around the South Pacific for a time, Stevenson and his wife, Fanny, built a mansion—complete with library, a ballroom, and the only fireplace on the island—in the hills near the village of Apia. Now the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum, the literary landmark has been restored to how it looked at the time of the writer’s death and is show by guided tour. When Stevenson passed away in 1894 from a cerebral hemorrhage, Samoan natives he had befriended—and who gave him the name Tusitala, “Teller of Tales”—carried his body to a hilltop grave overlooking the sea.

The English Channel: Guernsey

Victor Hugo’s four-story house on the island of Guernsey—where he lived for 14 years during self-imposed exile from France for political reasons—has been described as being like a poem and akin to stepping into his imagination. Hugo’s decorating tastes tended toward the dramatic—red damask, tapestries, dark wood furnishings, gilded mirrors—and each room in Hauteville House is individually decorated and includes items he acquired in local antique shops. Crowning Hugo’s domain is a glass conservatory he used as his bedroom and office, with sweeping views of the sea.

The island in the English Channel is also the setting for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. The novel, which is told through letters, unfolds the story of a group of Guernsey residents who form a book club as an alibi while the island is occupied by Nazis during World War II.

Check out VisitGuernsey.com for the Potato Peel Pie Experience and Walk in the Footsteps of Les Miserables Author Victor Hugo.

South East England: Isle of Wight

Lord Alfred Tennyson settled on this peaceful resort isle in 1853 and remained there happily for the last 40 years of his life. Stables and other buildings on the scenic estate where the poet resided have been converted into self-catering holiday cottages. Bibliophiles can tour Tennyson’s “house half hid in the gleaming wood,” where he composed his famed poems “Maud” and “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” and hike the Tennyson Trail, a 15-mile route running through forests and along cliff tops that commemorates his daily ritual of taking long morning walks. In addition to Tennyson, the Isle of Wight has long attracted other literati in search of peace and inspiration, including Lewis Carroll, who called on Tennyson; Charles Dickens, who toiled over David Copperfield there in the summer of 1849; and John Keats, who cut short his initial visit after becoming overwhelmed by solitude.

Mediterranean Spain: Majorca

“We are planted between heaven and earth,” French writer George Sand wrote of the 14th century hilltop monastery in Valldemossa where she and her lover, the composer Frédéric Chopin, settled in 1838. “The clouds cross our garden at their own will and pleasure, and the eagles clamor over our heads.” Although the couple’s stay was shorter than intended due to inclement weather that worsened Chopin’s tuberculosis and the even harsher treatment of locals who disapproved of the famous pair living in sin, the monks’ cells they occupied at the Majorcan monastery have been made into a museum . On display are mementos from their stay, including some of Sand’s manuscripts, Chopin’s notes, and the composer’s piano, which was arduously transported up the mountain by donkey just two weeks prior to their sudden departure. Sand wrote about the ill-fated trip in her memoir Winter in Majorca.

Eastern Canada: Prince Edward Island

Fans of the spirited, red-headed orphan Anne of Green Gables, who has charmed readers since she first appeared in print in 1908, can follow in her footsteps. Anne’s scenic home, Green Gables, was inspired by a real-life farm belonging to relatives of author L. M. Montgomery’s grandfather. Located in Cavendish (the town that served as the stand-in for the novel’s Avonlea), the property is now the Green Gables Heritage Place and part of Prince Edward Island National Park. Tour the farmhouse, where rooms have been fashioned to reflect how they’re described in the novel, join a Sunday picnic with old-fashioned games and ice cream-making, or stroll through the swath of forest Anne dubbed the Haunted Wood. Also on the island is the Anne of Green Gables Museum.

The Library of Congress: Fun and Fascinating Facts

[image error]

Some 838 miles of shelves in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., house the Library of Congress’ bounty of books and other materials. Visitors should head for the Thomas Jefferson Building, where a visual extravaganza awaits.

 The Library was initially located in a boarding house after its founding on April 24, 1800, and was later moved to the U.S. Capitol. Its first permanent building—bearing former president Jefferson’s moniker—opened in 1897, making it the oldest federal cultural institution in the country.

Why does Jefferson have the honors? After British troops burned the Capitol building and destroyed the library’s core collection of 3,000 volumes, Congress approved the purchase of Jefferson’s personal library—6,487 books bought for $23,950. The volumes that Jefferson originally contributed are on display (southwest pavilion, second floor).

A bibliophile could move in and be right at home in the dazzling, octagon-shaped Reading Room (photo top row, center). It’s spacious (several stories high); gorgeously decorated with golden-color marble columns, statues of writers, artists, and thinkers like Michelangelo and Shakespeare, and a Renaissance-style dome; and has plenty of reading material. The Reading Room can be viewed from an upper level platform called the Overlook. Standing behind a clear plastic partition takes away some of the grandeur, but it’s still an impressive sight.

Let there be light. The library’s light bulb budget is $100,000 a year.

Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, is one of the images adorning the Thomas Jefferson Building’s main chamber. The Great Hall soars 75 feet, rising from a marble floor to a stained glass ceiling. Take some time to soak up the splendor of the Great Hall. Look up, down, and sideways, or you’ll miss its nuances. Woven into the eye-catching display of mosaics, statues, paintings, and decorative details—some of it drawing on the Italian Renaissance style—are themes of literature, music, philosophy, education, and architecture, along with references to the zodiac and mythology and tributes to other countries.

The Guttenberg Bible, on display in the Great Hall, is one of a three-volume set. To reduce wear and tear on the fragile documents, it’s changed out periodically—under armed guard.

Size matters. The collection contains nearly 167 million items, making it the largest library in the world. Of those, 39 million are books (including Novel Destinations) and other printed materials. The rest are films, photos, prints, maps, manuscripts, and sheet music. About half of the books and serials are in languages other than English.

Pick and choose. Every day the library receives 15,000 new items, approximately 12,000 of which are added to the collection.

It’s well worth the time to take a free 60-minute, docent-led tour. It gives a fascinating, more in-depth perspective than strolling through the building on your own (I’ve done both). Learn about the library’s creation and collection, as well as its impressive architectural details. Tours are given several times daily Monday through Saturday, and there’s no need to reserve a spot. Even if 50 or 60 people show up, guides break tour-goers into smaller groups.

Only members of Congress and their staff can check out books. The rest of us can view the digital collection online.

–Shannon McKenna Schmidt

5 Literary Milestones in 2018 and Where to Celebrate Them

My Antonía by Willa Cather – 100th Anniversary
[image error]

Photo: visitredcloud.com

“I wanted to walk straight on through the red grass and over the edge of the world, which could not be very far away.” –My Antonía

Like Jim Burden, the narrator in My Antonía, a young Willa Cather moved from Virginia to the Nebraska prairie. Cather later lived in Pittsburgh and New York City (where she penned the novel) and traveled around the U.S. and Europe, but it’s with the Great Plains that she is most readily identified. In Red Cloud, Nebraska, the Willa Cather Foundation conducts tours of the author’s childhood home and other sites associated with her real and fictional worlds. In honor of the centennial of My Antonía’s publication, special events are taking place in Red Cloud and across the state through the fall and are listed at MyAntonia100.org.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott – 150th Anniversary

[image error]A visit to Orchard House, the Alcott family home in Concord, Massachusetts, is like stepping into the pages of Little Women. Louisa May Alcott drew heavily on her family members and their home for the characters and the setting, and the storied abode remains largely as it did during their day.

Orchard House is open year-round and regularly offers interpretive tours, workshops for kids, holiday festivities, and more. Love for the March sisters and their story is universal, though, and readers around the world can celebrate at a wide array of exhibits and other happenings. Check out the list of events at LittleWomen150.org.

Emily Brontë’s 200th Birthday (July 30, 1818)

[image error]“Wuthering Heights was hewn in a wild workshop,” Charlotte Brontë said of her sister Emily’s famed (and only) novel. The wild workshop was the dramatically scenic moorland around the village of Haworth in West Yorkshire, England. A several-mile walk on the moors leads past a waterfall the Brontës often visited and then on to Top Withens, the stone ruins of a remote farm credited as being the geographical setting of Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff’s domain.

Visitors can also explore the Brontë Parsonage Museum, the beautifully restored Georgian parsonage where the wordsmiths lived and wrote. The museum is in the midst of a five-year bicentennial celebration, Brontë 200, which commemorates the 200th anniversaries of the births of siblings Charlotte, Emily, Branwell, and Anne Brontë. The new exhibit “Making Thunder Roar: Emily Brontë” showcases a selection of Emily’s possessions, writing, and artwork, along with contributions from well-known contemporary admirers of the novelist.

John Steinbeck – 50th Anniversary of His Death (December 20, 1968)

[image error]One of the most impressive literary shrines anywhere is the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, California, a purpose-built museum dedicated to John Steinbeck’s life and works. Thematic galleries with interactive exhibits, mini-theaters showing film adaptions of his novels, and unique features like an oversize, light-up crossword puzzle for testing one’s Steinbeck smarts make it both informative and entertaining.

The brick-and-glass building anchors one end of Main Street in the city’s Oldtown section, which is depicted in East of Eden. Use the Center’s interactive map to take a self-guided tour of Steinbeck-related sites in Oldtown, ending at the writer’s childhood home. Down the street from the National Steinbeck Center (which marks its 20th anniversary this year) is the Steinbeck House, a Queen Anne-style Victorian abode that has operated as a luncheon restaurant since 1974.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley – 200th anniversary

[image error]At a villa in Switzerland during an unusually stormy summer, Lord Byron suggested to his housebound guests – Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelley among them – that they each conjure up a horror tale to help pass the time. The winner of the friendly competition was Mary, who penned Frankenstein after dreaming the idea for the story.

The Keats-Shelley Association of America is spearheading an international celebration of Frankenstein‘s anniversary. Events are taking place throughout the year, culminating in “Frankenweek” from October 24-31. Worldwide events – such as book discussions, stage productions, film screenings, and full and partial readings of the novel (reciting the entire text takes about 9 hours) – are listed on Frankenreads.org. Also check in with bookstores, museums, libraries, and universities in your area to find out what Frankenstein-related fun they might be planning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You’re Invited: Author Houses Deck the Halls for the Holiday Season

Historic author houses are among the best places to get a fix of nostalgic holiday cheer. Here are some literary sites where you can enjoy the seasonal festivities:

The Enchanted Garden at the Poe Museum in Richmond, Virginia, comes alive with thousands of lights during “Poe’s Christmas Illumination” on December 1 from 5-9 p.m. Along with free admission, enjoy mulled wine and take a holiday-themed tour with the museum’s curator.

A visit to Louisa May Alcott’s home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts, is like stepping into the pages of Little Women. It’s only fitting then that this year’s December theme is “A Little Women Christmas” since the novel opens during the holiday season. Meet Louisa and other costumed figures and participate in Victorian-era activities and caroling. The program takes place on weekends in December, and advance reservations are strongly recommended.

The Pearl S. Buck House in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, hosts the annual “Festival of Trees,” with 29 artists, organizations, and community groups decorating the author’s home. Not only is the holiday finery lush and imaginative, some of it conveys a message, too, carrying on Buck’s legacy as a social activist. Through December 30.

Step back in time at the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut, which is adorned in the style of a late-19th-century Christmas. The author’s abode is one of several sites participating in the “Friends of the Mark Twain House & Museum’s Holiday House Tour” on December 3.

In Monterey, California, 22 historic homes are open to visitors during “Christmas in the Adobes,” including rare access to the Lara-Soto Adobe once owned by John Steinbeck. At the Robert Louis Stevenson House—now a museum devoted to the Scottish scribe, who lived for a time in the seaside city—shortbread will be served and bagpipes will be playing. December 8 and 9.

The Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts, is celebrating the poet’s birthday on December 9 from 1-4 p.m. with homemade coconut made from Dickinson’s own recipe. Admission is free during the event, and a special guided tour, “Christmas with the Dickinsons,” is on offer.

The Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is hosting a Holiday Open House on December 15 and Holiday House Tours on December 16. Along with touring the poet’s lovely home (previously General George Washington’s headquarters during the Revolutionary War), take a stroll through the illuminated gardens and listen to Christmas carols.

In a nod to his debut novel Look Homeward, Angel, the Thomas Wolfe Memorial in Asheville, North Carolina, is putting on “An Angel Christmas” on December 16. Festivities include an exhibition of angel wreaths on the doors and angel figurines displayed throughout the historic 29-room home, where Wolfe’s mother once ran a boardinghouse.

In Salem, Massachusetts, the House of the Seven Gables (Nathaniel Hawthorne’s inspiration for his gothic novel), is presenting “Four Centuries of Christmas Tours.” Walks the halls of the seaside mansion that has stood since 1668, as guides share the history of Christmas in New England. Through December 31.

 

[Photos © Pearl S. Buck International, Poe Museum, and Orchard House.]