Literary tourism is big business. While new book festivals continue to spring up, recent research from the VisitEngland tourist board indicated that more than half of British holidaymakers would visit a literary attraction on vacation. Another increasingly popular way of combining books with holidays is to visit one of the dozens of small villages and towns around the world devoted to bookselling.
Guest Post by Catherine Batac Walder
Should you find yourself in or near Hartford, Connecticut, make time for the Mark Twain House & Museum. I visited last week and was awed by its beauty. Twain (or Clemens) and his wife, Livy, relocated to Hartford in 1871 and engaged architect Edward Tuckerman Potter to design the 25-room abode. They moved in three years later. Even if you--or members of your travel party--have only read one Twain novel, back in high school, the house alone will delight. One sign I noticed called it 'America's Downton Abbey.' Not quite, but you get the point.
Nantucket, MA—Now in its seventh year, the Nantucket Book Festival has established itself as a major summer destination for booklovers with impressive and eclectic line-ups of award-winning authors. The three-day Festival, June 15-17, will offer author readings, panel discussions and social events in an informal atmosphere that encourages conversations between writers and readers. Most of the Festival events are free and held within walking distance of the ferries.
If Arthur Ransome's classic series, Swallows and Amazons, is a favorite, you'll be chuffed to learn of a new tourism initiative that allows visitors to "cast off into your very own Swallows & Amazons adventure."
For those wanting to channel Colin Firth's portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, here's your chance to do it and raise much-needed funds for Chawton House, the manor house inherited by Austen's brother. In what amounts to a wet T-shirt contest, (male) participants can don a frilly white shirt, get soaked, and ... smolder. Don't forget to upload the image to social media and tag it #TheDarcyLook.
What better day than June 14--the birthday of author Harriet Beecher Stowe--to share this exciting literary tourism news: The Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, Connecticut, launched a new interactive tour of the writer's house this past weekend. According to a press release, "Throughout the National Historic Landmark home, velvet ropes and stanchions have been removed." You can literally immerse yourself in Stowe's salon.
Our summer print edition is currently en route to subscribers. This year we decided to try a travel theme, apropos to the vacation season.
Roald Dahl died twenty-six years ago today. In this, his centennial year, books have been published, films released, and beer brewed in his (well-deserved) honor. Today, our correspondent in England brings us to Dahl's Great Missenden, the village he called home and where he is buried.
This past weekend, the Plantin-Moretus Museum, a UNESCO World Heritage site, reopened in Antwerp, Belgium.
