Sunday, January 16, 2011

A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses | Trubek, Anne

A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses | Trubek, Anne:
There are many ways to show our devotion to an author besides reading his or her works. Graves make for popular pilgrimage sites, but far more popular are writers' house museums. What is it we hope to accomplish by trekking to the home of a dead author? We may go in search of the point of inspiration, eager to stand on the very spot where our favorite literary characters first came to life—and find ourselves instead in the house where the author himself was conceived, or where she drew her last breath. Perhaps it is a place through which our writer passed only briefly, or maybe it really was a longtime home—now thoroughly remade as a decorator's show-house.
When I get back to Hartford there are two things I like to do, especially if I'm showing out-of-towners around: Mozzicato's bakery for Italian cookies and espresso, and tour the Mark Twain House. I just can't help but feel if you want to know someone a little better, it helps to spend a few minutes in their library.

The Twain House library.
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