Writers' homes (sometimes writer's, author's or literary houses) are locations where writers lived. Frequently, these homes are preserved as historic house museums and literary tourism destinations, called writer's home museums, especially when the homes are those of famous literary figures. Frequently these buildings are preserved to communicate to visitors more about the author than their work and its historical context. [1] These exhibits are a form of biographical criticism. Visitors of the sites who are participating in literary tourism, are often fans of the authors, and these fans find deep emotional and physical connections to the authors through their visits. [1]
Sites include a range of activities common to cultural heritage sites, such as living history, museum exhibits, guided tours and poetry readings. [1] New York Times commentator Anne Trubek counted 73 such houses in the United States. [2]
The tradition of preserving houses or sites important to famous authors has a long history: in the 14th century Petrarch's birthplace was preserved, despite Petrarch barely spending time there as a child. [2] In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century France, photojournalism which represented authors homes created an increased public interest in writers' private lives, making their homes destinations. [3]
The public popular imagination around these literary homes is a central theme of the satirical novel An Arsonist's Guide to Writers' Homes in New England . [4]
Nether Stowey is a large village in Somerset, South West England. It sits in the foothills of the Quantock Hills, just below Over Stowey. The parish of Nether Stowey covers approximately 4 km2, with a population of 1,482.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1818.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1816.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1795.
A cottage, during England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide some form of service to the manorial lord. However, in time cottage just became the general term for a small house. In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cosy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location and not necessarily in England. The cottage orné, often quite large and grand residences built by the nobility, dates back to a movement of "rustic" stylised cottages of the late 18th and early 19th century during the Romantic movement.
Hugh I'Anson Fausset, was an English writer, a literary critic and biographer, and a poet and religious writer. His mother was Ethel I'Anson, of Darlington, Durham, descended from Joshua I'Anson who established the Darlington I'Anson line in 1749.
The Lake Poets were a group of English poets who all lived in the Lake District of England, United Kingdom, in the first half of the nineteenth century. As a group, they followed no single "school" of thought or literary practice then known. They were named, only to be uniformly disparaged, by the Edinburgh Review. They are considered part of the Romantic Movement.
Carlyle's House, in Cheyne Row, Chelsea, central London, was the home of the Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle and his wife Jane from 1834 until his death. The home of these writers was purchased by public subscription and placed in the care of the Carlyle's House Memorial Trust in 1895. They opened the house to the public and maintained it until 1936, when control of the property was assumed by the National Trust, inspired by co-founder Octavia Hill's earlier pledge of support for the house. It became a Grade II listed building in 1954 and is open to the public as a historic house museum.
The Wordsworth Trust is an independent charity in the United Kingdom. It celebrates the life of the poet William Wordsworth, and looks after Dove Cottage in the Lake District village of Grasmere where Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Wordsworth lived between 1799 and 1808. It also looks after the majority of the surrounding properties in the conservation area of Town End, and a collection of manuscripts, books and fine art relating to Wordsworth and other writers and artists of the Romantic period. In 2020 it introduced the brand name Wordsworth Grasmere.
Literary tourism is a type of cultural tourism that deals with places and events from literary texts as well as the lives of their authors. This could include visiting particular place associated with a novel or a novelist, such as a writer's home, or grave site, following routes taken by a fictional characters, visiting places mentioned in poems, as well as visiting museums dedicated to specific writers, works, regional literatures, and literary genres.
Sanary-sur-Mer, popularly known as Sanary, is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, Southeastern France. Sanary-sur-Mer is located in coastal Provence on the Mediterranean Sea, 13 km (8.1 mi) west of Toulon and 49 km (30 mi) southeast of Marseille. It can be reached from Paris by TGV in less than four hours. In high season there are direct flights to nearby Toulon–Hyères Airport from London, Oslo, Brussels and Rotterdam.
Dove Cottage is a house on the edge of Grasmere in the Lake District of England. It is best known as the home of the poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy Wordsworth from December 1799 to May 1808, where they spent over eight years of "plain living, but high thinking". During this period, William wrote much of the poetry for which he is remembered today, including his "Ode: Intimations of Immortality", "Ode to Duty", "My Heart Leaps Up" and "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", together with parts of his autobiographical epic, The Prelude.
Coleridge Cottage is a cottage situated in Nether Stowey, Bridgwater, Somerset, England. It is a grade II* listed building. The 17th century cottage was originally two buildings which were later combined and expanded.
The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) is an independent registered educational charity based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, that came into existence in 1847 following the purchase of William Shakespeare's birthplace for preservation as a national memorial. It can also lay claim to be the oldest conservation society in Britain. Receiving no government funding or public subsidies, it is totally dependent upon the public for support, and relies on donations and the income generated from visitors.
Shakespeare's Birthplace is a restored 16th-century half-timbered house situated on Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, where it is believed that William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and spent his childhood years. It is now a small museum open to the public and a popular visitor attraction, owned and managed by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
The sonnet was a popular form of poetry during the Romantic period: William Wordsworth wrote 523, John Keats 67, Samuel Taylor Coleridge 48, and Percy Bysshe Shelley 18. But in the opinion of Lord Byron sonnets were “the most puling, petrifying, stupidly platonic compositions”, at least as a vehicle for love poetry, and he wrote no more than five.
The Sidney Lanier Cottage is a historic cottage on High Street in Macon, Georgia, that was the birthplace of poet, musician, and soldier Sidney Lanier. Sidney Lanier Cottage was purchased by the Middle Georgia Historical Society in 1973, and opened to the public in 1975. Until 2021, the Sidney Lanier Cottage served as a museum, event space, and home of the Lanier Center for Literary Arts. The Historic Macon Foundation sold the cottage and it has since been restored as a single family residence.
The Ernest and Mary Hemingway House, in Ketchum, Idaho, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. The National Register does not disclose its location but rather lists it as "Address restricted." The property is the last undeveloped property of its size within the city limits of Ketchum.
Elegiac Sonnets, titled Elegiac Sonnets, and Other Essays by Charlotte Sussman of Bignor Park, in Sussex in its first edition, is a collection of poetry written by Charlotte Smith, first published in 1784. It was widely popular and frequently reprinted, with Smith adding more poems over time. Elegiac Sonnets is credited with re-popularizing the sonnet form in the eighteenth century. It is notable for its poetic representations of personal emotion, which made it an important early text in the Romantic literary movement.
Anne Trubek is an author and founder and director of Belt Magazine. She has written The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting, and A Skeptic’s Guide to Writers’ Houses.