Summer is a great time to get out of the city--and to learn about famous authors in the process! New York is uniquely situated in the Northeast as one of the areas in the US most known for literature, and even a short trip away from Brooklyn will provide interesting literary destinations. Whether you’re traveling by car, train, or subway, there’s something for everyone!
About a four-hour drive from Brooklyn, Concord, MA was home to several famous writers, and you can still visit the homes of Louisa May Alcott (Orchard House, the setting and inspiration for Little Women), Henry David Thoreau (Thoreau Farm), Ralph Waldo Emerson (the Ralph Waldo Emerson house, a National Historic Landmark), and Nathaniel Hawthorne (House of the Seven Gables). For an even more immersive Transcendentalist experience, you may want to add Walden Pond to your itinerary—especially if you visit in the summer, when the water is open to swimmers. This was the subject of Thoreau’s treatise Walden, detailing his two years living in the woods, and the cabin where he took up residence has been replicated for visitors on the pond’s north shore.
If you’re looking to stay closer to Brooklyn, there are multiple events happening this summer in honor of Walt Whitman’s bicentennial, and another interesting trek would be out to his birthplace in Huntington Station, Long Island, accessible by car or by train (Long Island Railroad on the Hicksville line plus a bus or car to South Huntington at Walt Whitman Mall). The facilities are open 11-4 Monday through Friday and 11-5 on weekends during the summer. The Whitman birthplace also features a poet-in-residence each year—past poets have included Mark Doty and Naomi Shihab Nye—and will host the Walt Whitman International Conference this August 9-11. Check out their website at waltwhitman.org for more information on these and other events.
Finally, if literary history in NYC is more your taste, you may want to pay a visit to the bar at the Algonquin Hotel (59 W. 44th St.). For approximately twenty years, this was the site of a daily lunch meeting of renowned writers, journalists, and artists in NYC, among them Harpo Marx, Dorothy Parker, and Alexander Woolcott. Known for their lively conversation, acerbic wit, and clout in the theater and journalism worlds, the group dissolved by 1943. Nowadays you can enjoy a drink (and visit the hotel’s resident cat, Matilda) in the same location; you will be able to say that you drank in the same place as Dorothy Parker.
Have you taken any vacations to literary destinations? Let us know in the comments!
This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.
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