Literary Massachusetts – The Ultimate Road Trip for Any Bookworm

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Growing up in Massachusetts, there are two historical legacies that loomed wickedly large in my adolescent psyche: witches and writers.

My love for Salem and the aforementioned witches will be mentioned briefly in this piece, but below is an entire post dedicated to the charming seaside town – including a few spooks for good fun…

But, back to the writers. While Mass is known for is correctly known for its fiery political history, (including a ‘one if by land’ lantern hanging and theatrical tea-dumping), there’s also a long literary history that includes some of the most famous American writers.

As a little girl who loved books, these faces and places felt less like towering literary figures and more like neighbors and friends. Herman Melville’s Arrowhead (where he wrote Moby-Dick) was less than two miles from childhood home. I wrote my 3rd grade ‘What I Did This Summer’ essay on visiting the home of poet Emily Dickinson. When I think of Louisa May Alcott, I first think of the black slats of her Orchard House in Concord rather than the fictional house she created in Little Women.

All of which is to say that I was obviously a hit at parties as a kid and continue to be. (Just kidding…)

All of which is actually to say that this post does not come with a reading list. This is not homework. Reading Edith Wharton is not a test you must pass in order to enjoy the gilded gold of her stately mansion. (Trust me, I know this one from experience) You don’t need to memorize Thoreau in order to walk the trails at Walden Pond. Their words are not the only way to get to know these famous literary faces. In fact, they may not even be best way.

So, let’s get started. I have some friends I can’t wait for you to meet!

Literary Massachusetts – Western Massachusetts

People will tell you that there isn’t anything worth seeing west of Springfield. (And by ‘people’ I mean folks from anywhere in the state besides Western Massachusetts…) However, for the purposes of this post, I am going to divide the state into two sections with Springfield as the dividing line. Not because I agree with those Western Mass haters, but because Springfield is roughly the middle of the state.

Herman Melville’s Arrowhead – Pittsfield, MA

If Herman Melville and I had lived at the same time, we would’ve been neighbors. Down the street, take a left, and follow the road until you come across the yellow house. Between sheer proximity, my own love of books, and field trips, I’ve been to his home Arrowhead more times than I can count.

Yet, even with all of these visits, there’s one spot that never gets old. Melville’s study. Like the rest of the house, it is filled with both period pieces and some family originals, however, the magic of the room is surprisingly not standing and admiring his iconic desk. (Even though the desk is cool…)

Rather, it is the window above the desk, with a perfect view of the Berkshire Mountains. Specifically, a grouping of mountains directly across the field that look quite like the silhouette of a whale, if you have the imagination to see it. (Which Melville did.) You don’t need to have read Moby-Dick or know Melville’s adventurous personal backstory, in order to appreciate that, for one moment, you and Meville are staring down the fantastical figure and inspiration of the one-day famous whale.

Edith Wharton’s The Mount – Lenox, MA

Getting married at The Mount has always been my half-joking and half-hoping-I-win-the-lottery fantasy. With long windowed hallways and golden gilded touches, I always leave feeling like I’ve just left a truer (and slightly more feminist) version of The Great Gatsby.

The charm of Wharton’s home is both simultaneously about her and not. Her life is one of a challenging marriage, but professional success. Personal opulence, but also the philanthropy that can come with such access. In some ways her life rings hollow with the female limitations of the time. Yet, her talent (and fortune) ensured that she lived and loved far more than many other of her contemporaries.

I’m not drawn to The Mount because I feel like Edith is a long lost friend. Photos of her placed around the home make me feel as if she’s deciding whether I’ve (yet again) overstayed my welcome. At the same time, visiting is the most appropriate way to honor a woman who is forever frozen in limbo, who was both a prisoner of her time and also ahead of it.

Emily Dickinson’s The Homestead – Amherst, MA

My lifelong love of Emily Dickinson has always been a polarizing opinion. Either it bonds me immediately to a fellow Dickinson lover or I get a suspicious look along with an accusatory “Why?’ from an obvious nonbeliever. To those nonbelievers I can only say one thing: One of Emily’s most famous poems is about finding a fellow ‘nobody’ with whom she forms a secret friendship and my younger self felt like she was speaking directly to me. We’ve been secret clubhouse buddies ever since.

If you are considering visiting her, I implore you to have a clean slate. Forget everything you think you know about her. Forget the accusations of insanity. Or Agoraphobia. Or anything other than the fact that she created her own world, partially inside her Amherst home and partially through her writing.

Visiting The Homestead (and her brother’s adjacent property The Evergreens), is the best way to get to know Emily, especially since her poetry is scattered throughout the house and the tour. Put her words in context with her surroundings and I truly think you will get a different view of the Belle of Amherst.

The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum and Sculpture Garden – Springfield, MA

I am no expert on traveling with kids, but I wholeheartedly endorse this as a stop worth taking with children.

Part of Springfield Museums (which includes four other museums on art, history, and science), the Amazing World…Museum is part interactive and part typical museum. The first floor and the basement were definitely developed to enchant children (and child-like hearts) with vibrant colors and life size Seuss characters scattered throughout the exhibit on Theodore Geisel’s (aka Dr. Seuss) time in Springfield. Upstairs is a recreation of his studio, plus artifacts and papers. (Undoubtedly you can tell which floor is more informational and which is more fun…)

Outside of the museum is also the Seuss sculpture garden, which is a collection of some of your favorite characters in metallic form.

Western Massachusetts – Bucket List

Even with as many miles as I’ve logged in Massachusetts, there are still plenty of spots that I haven’t visited yet. I will update the post as I cross them off!

W.E.B. Du Bois National Historic Site – Great Barrington, MA

Born in Great Barrington, MA, there’s unfortunately no buildings left to visit that are connected to this great writer and activist. However, there is a trail with explanatory panels that leads you to his ancestral home. Guided tours are also offered very sporadically throughout the year.

William Cullen Bryant Homestead – Cummington, MA

Whenever I hear people talk about the Bryant homestead, the thing they rave about are the trails. As this is in the ‘bucket list’ section, I can’t verify their advice, however, the house and grounds are under protection of the The Trustees of the Reservations, who steward many beautiful and historic sites I have visited across the state.

Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art – Amherst, MA

Based on the name of the museum alone, this is obviously another kid friendly stop for your trip across Massachusetts. With an extensive list of events and workshops, I would recommend planning around one of those.

Yiddish Book Center – Amherst, MA

As someone who can’t resist the magic and wonder of old (and once endangered) books, the Yiddish Book Center is obviously at the top of my bucket list. I also think that this may be the one exception to my insistence that none of these sites require any precursory reading.

Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky is part memoir and part history of the early days of the Book Center, when it was just piles in Lansky’s apartment. A story about a young man rescuing Yiddish books sounds like it could easily be boring, but the act of saving the books becomes a larger investigation of history, culture, mortality, and preservation. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Sojourner Truth’s Massachusetts – Florence, MA

Similar to the Du Bois site mentioned above, Sojourner Truth’s Massachusetts is a walking tour that does not appear to actually enter any buildings or structures. However, this doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing. Offered periodically and with an online component that can be viewed at any time, this is obviously a labor of love that I want to honor by visiting one day.

Literary Massachusetts – Eastern Massachusetts

Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House – Concord, MA

With the release of the new Little Women movie, I’ve been reminded how ubiquitous this novel is for a certain sect of young girls. (Aka those of us who relate heavily to Jo March…) I hope that same interest leads to increased traffic in Concord to the Orchard House.

Having been here multiple times, I can’t help but think Alcott gets the rotten end of the deal by being constantly conflated with her literary masterpiece. Yes, stubborn and talented Jo is an accurate representation of some of the same limitations that Alcott felt on her own life, but her story is both more tragic and also more hopeful than her famous heroine.

Bronson Alcott and the true poverty of the Alcott family gets something of a glamorized facelift in the world of Marmee and the March sisters. There is no question that it was not all happy theatrics and occasional hunger. However, Jo’s ending (which is usually seen as at least disappointing, if not all out devastating, to young readers) is not the true fate our author. Alcott lived a full life without the need to bow to society’s expectations of marriage.

Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond – Concord, MA

At the risk of sounding a little crazy, I just have to say that Walden Pond pulses with an energy that goes beyond the natural life that lives there and the human life that visits. While it is undoubtedly nothing more than a projection of a glamorized version of Thoreau, I can’t help but enjoy it.

Your first stop should be the visitors center and the replica cabin, both of which are located right off of the parking lot. However, the true experience of Walden Pond is walking the trail by the water that leads to the original cabin site. You’ll lose a lot of the crowd and get a better sense of what drew Thoreau out into the woods. Both times I’ve traversed the trail feeling like I’m on a secret mission to visit a friend.

Ralph Waldo Emerson House – Concord, MA

In terms of both the Concord scene and the larger transcendentalist movement, Emerson is one of the premier forefathers. The house has plenty of original artifacts and is a fairly accurate representation of how it looked when he lived. Even if he isn’t as (seemingly) sexy as Thoreau or well-known as Alcott, this is probably the best place to start in Concord as he helped to start and sustain the literary movements in the surrounding area.

The Transcendentalists at The Old Manse – Concord, MA

To be totally transparent, we only walked through the visitors center at The Old Manse. We had limited time in Concord, and a tour of Orchard House was deemed the better use of our money and time. (My heart broke a little writing that, but its the truth.) Both Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne lived here, so the literary connection is strong. But, in a place as literary as Concord, sometimes choices have to be made.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Birthplace and the House of the Seven Gables – Salem, MA

Of all of the sites on this list, this is the most scenic. Located right on the water in the seaside port of Salem, you cannot beat the view from outside the Turner-Ingersoll Mansion, which Nathaniel would make the setting of his famous novel. However, The House of the Seven Gables tour also requires no literary background – your tour guide will tell you everything you need to know. Which a secret staircase, weird closets, and a strange design, you’ll leave wondering how Hawthorne was the only person to write a story about this place.

Also included in your ticket is entry to the Hawthorne birthplace, which was originally located elsewhere in town, but has since been moved to the grounds of the mansion. With a combination of literary history plus cultural intrigue and just a touch of witchcraft (Hawthorne’s ancestor was a witch trial judge), this is the perfect place to kick off a trip to Salem.

Eastern Massachusetts – Bucket List

Even with as many miles as I’ve logged in Massachusetts, there are still plenty of spots that I haven’t visited yet. I will update the post as I cross them off!

Jack Kerouac in Lowell – Lowell, MA

If you have a Kerouac lover in your group, then make sure to plan around the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Festival every October. If you’re not that diehard of a beatnik, but still want to pay your respects, head over to the Edison Cemetery and visit his grave. (Here’s a list of other Kerouac sites from the Lowell National Historic Site.)

Henry David Thoreau Birthplace – Concord, MA

If you didn’t get enough Thoreau at Walden Pond, feel free to head across Concord and also visit his birthplace. I imagine it has a similar feeling of reckless abandon and passionate ideas as the Pond.

The Wayside – Concord, MA

Yes, another literary site in Concord. With how many famous writers either lived in town or passed through, it is amazing that there aren’t more spots to list. My advice? Choose your top two or three. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Louisa May Alcott are the two most famous people to write at this site.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Historic Site – Cambridge, MA

If the fact that this house was American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s beloved retreat isn’t enough to pique your interest, then you should also know that it served as George Washington’s headquarters during the Siege of Boston. Two historical narratives for the free price of one, as this is a fee free National Park site.

Bonus: New York

I know that this post is technically about Massachusetts, but this special home is so close to the state line that, if you blink, you might not even know that you crossed over.

Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Steepletop

I guarantee that Edna St. Vincent Millay is the most interesting poet that you’ve never heard of. (Well, maybe you have – it depends on how much you paid attention in English class…) Fiery and passionate, she lived a dramatic life full of both success and failures and her beloved Steepletop is the perfect place to learn all about them.

Although Millay died in 1950, much of the house has been left as it was with an incredible amount of her belongings sitting as if she had just left yesterday. However, the highlight of the tour is the beautiful, yet compact 3,000 volume library at the top of the stairs.

Note: Steepletop has recently been closed to the public due to a large-scale restoration project. Check their website before visiting.

Literary Massachusetts – Conclusion

So, that’s it. Grab a map (and maybe a book) and head off to discover everything Massachusetts has to offer for your literary themed enjoyment!