While most museums aim to attract visitors by filling their rooms with the authentic possessions and works of their literary owners, staff at Dove Cottage & the Wordsworth Museum – the former home of William and Dorothy Wordsworth in the UK’s Lake District – are hoping to pull in the crowds by displaying it entirely empty.
The museum
literary tourism
Unless you’ve been there, you might not know that Alcatraz, aka The Rock, has its very own bookstore, run by the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Inside you can find a selection of Alcatraz histories and memoirs. When I visited earlier this week, not only did I get the chance to pick up a copy of Alcatraz #1259
After Seattle, road-tripping bibliophiles will undoubtedly make their way to Portland, Oregon, to visit Powell’s, one of the ten best indie shops in the world, according to readers polled by the Guardian. I agree — it’s sprawling but well signposted,
Well, readers, I’m on vacation this week, which means, among other things, visiting bookstores I’ve never visited before. My fellow travelers generally allow me one per city. In Seattle, it was the landmark Elliott Bay Book Company, of course, where I purchased a copy of Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. Then we took a ferry out to Bainbridge
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
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
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
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."
Brought to you by Craig Manor Hotel, which recently released another
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
