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Tourism Cares, the philanthropic arm of the tourism industry, has developed a new initiative, “Save our Sites”, which enables the public to vote for a site they would like to see supported. Edith Wharton’s estate The Mount was chosen for the shortlist and would very much like to encourage all of their supporters to vote for them; the winning site will receive a grant. The Mount has applied for funds to help with some of the most immediate structural repairs which are a continuing and critical part of the restoration of the property. All you have to do is visit their website
http://www.tourismcares.org/save-our-sites/polling-options
and cast your vote by clicking on the list on the right of the page. Every vote counts, so please take the time to help them out by voting and asking your like-minded friends to do the same!
The New York Times has reported that at The Homestead (left), part of the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts, a section of the ceiling in the parlor collapsed on Sunday. The museum is currently closed and plans to re-open this Saturday, October 31st. If you’re heading there, check the Plan Your Visit page on their website first to confirm.
Emily Dickinson was born at The Homestead on December 10, 1830. She spent all but 15 of her 55 years at the house, where she penned poetry in secret and saved it in hand-bound volumes that were discovered by her sister after her death. Only seven of her 1,800 poems were published during her lifetime.
Dickinson often tended the gardens at The Homestead (attired in her signature white dress, a replica of which is on display), and much of her poetry features floral references. On the museum’s website, a virtual tour of the grounds offers insight into how Dickinson was inspired by the landscape surrounding The Homestead. “Flowers were a favorite metaphor for Emily Dickinson,” viewers are informed. “She used them to represent beauty, love, mystery and the whole cycle of life.”
[Photo courtesy of the Emily Dickinson Museum]
In today’s Hartford Courant, columnist Tom Condon looks ahead to 2010 and a trio of anniversaries related to writer and “world citizen” Mark Twain: the 125th anniversary of the publication of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in February, the 100th anniversary of his death in April, and the 175th anniversary of his birth in November.
Condon notes that the raconteur wasn’t fond of commemorative occasions and once said, ”What ought to be done to the man who invented the celebrating of anniversaries? Mere killing would be too light.” But since Twain isn’t here to object, Condon says, Hartford—the city where the scribe spent 16 years and penned some of his most famous works—”should do this up big.” Events will take place throughout the year, many of them in April for the centennial of Twain’s death, including special exhibits at the Mark Twain House and Museum (above) in Hartford.
Stayed tuned for more information about Mark Twain 2010. We’ll be posting details on events and festivites at Twain sites across the country.
The white-washed seaside coach house in Cornwall, England, which was home to novelist Daphne du Maurier in the 1940s has recently been put on the market for the handsome sum of £1.65 million. Du Maurier, most famous for her haunting novel Rebecca, used the house and its dramatic seaside location as the fictional setting of her novel Frenchman’s Creek.
Nestled in its own sandy cove, the house boasts sea-views from almost every room, as well as an enchanting garden, croquet lawn, former tennis court, and greenhouse. “It is easy to see why Daphne Du Maurier was inspired while staying here,” estate agent Robin Trethowan told the Telegraph.
Though born in London, the author spent much of her life in her beloved Cornwall in and around the seaside village of Fowey. Each year in May, the town hosts a ten-day festival to celebrate du Maurier’s legacy.
Earlier this month, a statue of Helen Keller was unveiled in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Many of Keller’s descendants attended the celebration, as did lawmakers from both sides of the aisle. The statue “will always remind us that people must be respected for what they can do rather than judged for what they cannot,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The bronze statue represents the state of Alabama (each state is allowed two in the Capitol). It depicts seven-year-old Keller standing at the water pump where “miracle worker” Annie Sullivan changed the child’s life. As Sullivan poured water over one of Keller’s hands, on the other she repeatedly tapped out an alphabetic code that spelled the corresponding five-letter word. By day’s end, Keller had learned 30 words and soon mastered writing and reading in Braille. In 1904, she graduated from Radcliffe College, one year after the publication of her autobiography, The Story of My Life. Keller devoted her life to improving conditions for the blind and the deaf-blind, lecturing in more than 25 countries.
The water pump still stands on the grounds of Ivy Green, the home of Keller’s grandparents in Tuscumbia, Alabama.
Also there is the two-room cottage (right) that was transformed into a bridal suite for Keller’s parents and where she was born on June 27, 1880. The plantation’s main dwelling—built in 1820 and the second house in Tuscumbia—contains family furnishings, china, silver, and other items such as a sugar chest, where the rare commodity was kept under lock and key. Personal mementos that belonged to Keller are on display, including her library of Braille books and original Braille typewriter. Situated between the main house and the cottage is the well-pump where Keller, who was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most important people of the 20th century, first learned to communicate under Sullivan’s inspired tutelage.
Each year on weekends from early June through late July, playwright William Gibson’s dramatization of the young Helen Keller’s life, The Miracle Worker, is staged at Ivy Green. The Helen Keller Festival takes place annually in June with music, art exhibits, historical activities and more at various venues in Tuscumbia.
Keller passed away in 1968, her death front page news in The New York Times. Her ashes rest beside those of Annie Sullivan in another Washington, D.C. landmark: the majestic National Cathedral, where a commemorative plaque is engraved in Braille.
Statue Photo: © Flickr/Governor Bob Riley’s Office/Robin Cooper
Cottage Photo: © Helen Keller Birthplace/Ivy Green
At 53, Rue de Varenne in Paris, a plaque on the outside of the building commemorates a famous figure who once lived there—Edith Wharton, “the first writer of the United States to settle in France out of love of the country and its literature.” The literary locale is one place visited by Elaine Sciolino, Paris correspondent for The New York Times and the author of an article about the novelist that appeared today in the newspaper’s travel section, “Edith Wharton Always Had Paris.”
The fascinating article touches on places Wharton visited in Paris, among them the Hôtel de Crillon. It also illuminates personal details like her extensive charitable works during World War I and her clandestine affair
with journalist Morton Fullerton. “Wharton’s relationship with Fullerton worked particularly well when they acted like ordinary tourists,” writes Sciolino. “In just one day, they met at the Louvre, visited the nearby St.-Germain-l’Auxerrois Church, went to the ancient Roman Arènes de Lutèce near the Jardin des Plantes, then walked around the Luxembourg Gardens” (at right).
And with the City of Light used as a backdrop in such works as Madame de Treymes, The Reef, The Custom of the Country, and The Age of Innocence, Sciolino reminds readers, “Wharton’s Paris endures in her fiction.”
[Photos: © Steven Rendon]
One of our favorite author houses, and certainly one of the most poignant, is Amsterdam’s Anne Frank House, which recently announced its launch of a groundbreaking Anne Frank Channel on You Tube.
The channel contains the only known video footage of Anne — a shot of her leaning out of an upstairs window during a neighbor’s wedding in July 1941– as well as excerpts from interviews with her father, Otto Frank, and family friend Miep Gies, who helped hide the family and risked her life to care for them.
Anne, together with her father, mother, sister and four other Jews, hid from the Nazis in the secret annex of a canalside warehouse for nearly two years. The group was eventually betrayed by an anonymous phone call to the German Secret Police in August 1944. Anne died a year later in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, but her diary, published with the aid of Otto Frank shortly after the end of the war, became one of the bestselling books of all time.
The House of the Seven Gables, Salem, Massachusetts
The abode that inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s gothic novel The House of the Seven Gables hosts a spine-tingling event during the month of October, “The Spirits of the Gables,” with the characters from the story haunting the hallways of the atmospheric seaside mansion. The Nathaniel Hawthorne House, located steps away in the House of the Seven Gables complex, holds a re-enactment of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 — highlighting the part played by the writer’s great-great grandfather, whose zealousness during the proceedings earned him the moniker “The Hanging Judge.” Click here for more information on the events.
The Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, Connecticut
Guests have had unexplained encounters at the Mark Twain House, crossing paths with a woman in white, smelling cigar smoke, hearing children’s voices, and seeing flickering lights. Explore the Gothic mansion at night during the “Graveyard Shift Tours,” which include stories about the writer and his family’s haunted history, details about Victorian spiritualism, and a telling of Twain’s favorite ghost story in the basement. Click here for information on dates and reservations.
The Mount, Lenox, Massachusetts
Creaking floors, whispered words, taps on the shoulders, and sightings of spectral shapes are some of the eerie experiences reported by visitors at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s estate (left) in the Berkshire Mountains. The daring can take part in special guided evening tours, “Friday Night Fright,” and explore the most haunted parts of the house and grounds. It’s recommended that participants dress warmly and wear sensible shoes. We’re hoping the latter isn’t because you might have to run from a ghost. Click here for information on making reservations for Friday Night Fright tours, which take place weekly through the end of October.
Sunnyside, Tarrytown, New York
Those with young literary travelers can head to Washington Irving’s estate for its Legend Weekends, taking place October 17th & 18th and October 24th & 25th. On the itinerary are magic shows, puppet shows, games, sing-a-longs, Irish ghost story telling, and other kid-friendly Halloween activities.
The nearby town of Sleepy Hollow claims to be “Halloween Central” (although Salem might rival them for that distinction). Go for a Haunted Hayride along the dark path traveled by Ichabod Crane in Washington Irving’s spooky story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Or take part in Legend Nights at Phillipsburg Manor, which is transformed into a haunted landscape illuminated by lanterns and bonfires and teeming with goblins, ghosts, and witches from Hudson Valley folklore.
Know of any other literary sites hosting special events this month? Please share it in the comments section.
[Photo ©David Dashiell, Courtesy of The Mount]
Baltimore has made a year-long celebration of Edgar Allan Poe’s 200th birthday with its Nevermore 2009 extravaganza. The festivities continue with some appropriately spooky events befitting the master of the macabre. Click here for a listing of Poe-inspired happenings taking place from October 7 – 11, and beyond.
Attend an all-night candlelight vigil at the Poe Monument (left) at the Westminster Burying Ground or witness Poe’s funeral (he died a mysterious death in Baltimore). There are also walking tours and other special events, including an exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art, “Edgar Allan Poe: A Baltimore Icon,” on view until January 17, 2010. It’s divided into three sections—Love and Loss, Fear and Terror, and Madness and Obsession—and features prints, drawings, and illustrated books inspired by Poe, among them works by Gaugin and Manet. If you can’t make it for the Nevermore 2009 festivities you can always pay a visit to the Poe House and Museum, which is open April through November.
See what’s happening at these Poe sites:
Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site, Philadelphia
Poe Cottage, New York City
Poe Museum, Richmond
University of Virginia, Charlottesville
For those who want more literary haunts, later in the week we’ll have information on eerie events taking place this month at the House of the Seven Gables in Salem, Massachusetts, and other sites.
First, there was Dickens World, a Dickensian theme park which opened in Kent, England, in 2006, and features attractions like “Victorian School” and “The Great Expectations Boat Ride.” Now on its heels comes The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, the hotly anticipated 20-acre addition to Universal Studios “Islands of Adventure” property in Orlando, opening next spring.
Details of the park have recently been unveiled, and attractions are set to include a high-tech experience inside Hogwarts castle called “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey”; a family-friendly coaster that simulates a Hippogriff (the half-horse, half-eagle beast from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) and the Dragon Challenge: a twin high-speed coaster featuring elements from the Triwizard Tournament. “We wanted fans to be able to truly live the experience of these movies,” Mark Woodbury, president of Universal Creative, told the New York Times.
Step aside Mickey Mouse: are literary theme parks the wave of the future?
