If you are a literature groupie you might enjoy this list. It's my top 10 places - obviously highly subjective - where you can soak up the atmosphere of a particular writer or a certain milieu. Rather conventionally I'm giving you my list in reverse order and keen observers may note that there's actually 15 discrete locations but then math was never my strong suit.10. The Eagle and Child Pub, Oxford, England. The bar where JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis used to go to read out loud their works in progress and get criticism and advice from their peers. Large chunks of The Lord of the Rings and the Narnia books were composed here. They serve real ale and Philip Pullman and even Alan Moore have been known to pop in. Consequently it's a kind of a nerd paradise and it's where I met that lucky lass the future mother of my children.
9. Dostoyevsky's House, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Ok the whole thing's fake, the furniture isn't period and no one knows exactly what his apartment really looked like, but it is as close as we're going to get to the real McCoyski. When I was there they had a free walking tour map where you could follow Raskolnikov and other characters' routes through the city and that's a great thing to do as long as you don't kill an old lady at the end of it.
8. The Site of Pushkin's Duel in the Woods, The St Petersburg Suburbs, Russia
Since we're in Petersburg we might as well stay here. Pushkin wrote a poem about a young man who threw his life away on a pointless duel in the forest. Rather tragically he then, er, threw his life away on a pointless duel in the forest. There's a statue marking the spot which was hard to find but worth it: when I went to see it there was a beautiful blonde girl in a white dress leaving flowers for Pushkin and weeping for him as if she'd just heard the news. No, unfortunately, she wasn't the good kind of crazy.
7. The Colburn Hotel, Denver, Colorado
Kerouac, Ginsberg, Cassady and William Burroughs used to go to Ginsberg's room in the Colburn to take acid, mescaline and other pharmaceuticals and watch the sun set setting behind the Front Range Mountains. I've never enhanced my experience in such a way but the sun sets are nice.
6. Les Deux Magots, St. Germain, Paris
This cafe was the centre of the literary universe for periods in the twenties and again in the fifties. Who mooched cafe au laits and wrote here? Who didn't? Its patrons included: Scott Fitzgerald, Joyce, Dos Passos, Djuna Barnes, Sartre, Camus, de Beauvoir, Beckett and many others. I mean ok so it's an expensive tourist trap these days but you still have to go here once in your life if only to experience the rudest wait staff in the Western World.
5. The British Museum Round Reading Room, Bloomsbury, London
This is where Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital and where anybody who was anybody in British letters did their research and writing. Dickens, Trollope, Thackeray, Auden, Orwell, Waugh, Maugham, Amis etc. all used the RRR at some point. Now that the British library has moved to St Pancras anyone is allowed in to visit the RRR and if you go there early before the hordes of screaming children it can be quite pleasant.
4. The Piano Bar of the Ambos Mundos Hotel, Havana, Cuba
This atmospheric joint is where Hemingway wrote For Whom The Bell Tolls. Be warned the current pianist has an inexplicable fondness for Celine Dion.
3. The Bar of the Ritz Hotel, Paris
The Ritz Hotel was "liberated" by Ernest Hemingway and a few American infantrymen in August 1944. A massive drinking session ensued. Sergeant JD Salinger showed up and Hemingway bought him a few cocktails having been impressed by his early short stories. Oh if those old whisky bottles could talk...
2. Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts
Final resting place for Hawthorne, Emerson, Alcott and Thoreau and a short hike from Walden Pond State Park where you can visit a reconstruction of Thoreau's cabin. There are many great literary cemeteries in the world (Westminster Abbey and Highgate in London; Montmartre, Montparnasse and Pere Lachaise in Paris; the lovely Novodevichy Convent & Cemetery in Moscow) but this is a very special place. For me it's the epitomy of tranquil, quiet, autumnal loveliness and I wouldn't mind spending all eternity here myself (but not for a while yet).
1 (tied) Garcia Lorca's House, Granada, Spain
After the somewhat dull symmetries and broken fountains of the Alhambra why not walk down the hill to the home of Spain's greatest twentieth century poet. You won't be disappointed.
1 (tied) Dashiell Hammett's Apartment, Post Street, San Francisco
When I visited there was someone actually living here but he was kind enough to let me in anyway. Since this is also technically Sam Spade's apartment too it can be a big thrill for fans of The Maltese Falcon.
1 (tied) Robert Louis Stevenson's House, Apia, Samoa
I haven't actually been here but it's very high on my to do list. Mark Twain visited and was impressed and if I remember correctly Paul Theroux dropped by too. Anyway it looks charming and I'd like to go.
1 (tied) Trotksy's House & Frida Kahlo's House
Ok neither of them are really writers (though Trot had a nice turn of phrase) but these houses are definitely worth a visit. They're very close to one another in the pretty Coyacan section of Mexico City which was actually a port in the time of stout Cortez. (Mind boggling). Trotsky's house was and is like a fortress and he's buried in the front garden. Frida Kahlo's home is one of the most beautiful interior spaces I've ever been in. She turned the house into a full blown extension of her personality and her art blossoms in every corner.
1 (tied) Ernest Hemingway's House, Havana, Cuba
It's quite the scene. If you want to read about my odd adventure in the Finca Vigia then click this link to The Times.
Hope you liked my little trawl through the literary necropoli. Let's do this again sometime, I've got a great story about how I tried to beat Dylan Thomas's record in The White Horse Tavern...
55 comments:
Wow, impressive list. Even though it's a fake, I'd still love to see Dostoevsky's house. That guy was a genius.
Have you written in any of them, besides Hemmingway's place in Havana? I have no idea where I'd go. Guess it would depend on what I was writing maybe. Sweet list.
Your wife will be delighted to know that the place where you met her is number fifteen on your personal list. Very romantic of you.
She'll probably also enjoy being mentioned in the same sentence as 'nerd paradise'. Luckily, there's that gun photo a few posts back to round out her image.
For some reason, this puts me in mind of 'The Amazing Race', the only reality show I've ever enjoyed. I guess it's because becoming an entrant is about the only way I'd be likely to get around the world and see many of these places. But the hilarious thing about this show is that they will often send the contestants on an errand in some museum or other famous cultural heritage site, where they then race obliviously by things people pay fortunes to go and gaze at reverently. Finding Pushkin's dueling spot and then learning how to duel there would be just their kind of thing.
I have friends who've wanted to try and go on the show with them, but I decline. I am pretty sure that the world does not need fifteen episodes of watching me in a really, really bad mood.
Liam
I tried a bit in the Deux Magots but the atmosphere was not good. A lot of loud tourists, snooty locals and grim faced unpleasant staff.
Brian
Those little maps they give out are terrific. You can follow lots of characters in their journeys throughout St Pete. And of course I forgot to add that St P is one of the most beautiful cities on the Earth.
Marco
Believe me that place wouldnt be in her top 100. Some days its like a bad SF&F convention in there. You can imagine how excited I was when I found out her name was Leah. She still hasnt seen or read LOTR or Star Wars BTW.
Seana
No really you should go on. I always root for the misanthropes or the evil cheerleaders.
I've always thought they should stop and take it all in just for a moment. Its pretty unlikely that they'll ever get back to the Victoria Falls or whatever so why not just take a few seconds...
Well, personally, I can't wait for Arwynn's review of The Hobbit, so maybe your wife will get into the spirit of the thing then.
As to the Amazing Race, although I haven't seen it for the last couple of seasons, I am a complete sucker for that whole teamwork or lack thereof thing they do. Amazingly, some people actually do learn from the experience.
I don't think it would be all that much fun to watch me sulk my way through several continents, though. I would probably be the one contestant who ever ended up snapping at Phil. I do like watching the ones with people who play it a little differently. There was the one guy who basically outsmarted the game, talking people into taking penalties and stuff, knowing all he had to do was stay in the thing, and then there were the Korean-American guys who had this unbelievable ethic where they brought along the weakest players all the way to the end, and were actually surprised when some other team woke up and thought, hey, this is for a million dollars! and stabbed them in the back.
You kind of hope that when people get eliminated, they get the option of taking a few days of sightseeing before they're jetted back, but I bet they don't.
One of the winners was actually a Santa Cruz grad, and a friend of one of my co-workers. Saw him in the bookstore once, after his win, just browsing. He and his friend were two of the nicer ones. One of the early Survivor winners lives here too, and he's still kind of a big deal here. But I can't stand that show, so I wouldn't know. I don't like things where people get voted off. Voted for is something different.
That's a bit wishy-washy. Make your mind up about no. 1!
Your wife sounds even nicer now. (I have not read LOTR either.)
Adrian,
Did you try to tell Leah you were the new Han Solo? Because if you did, that would be awesome.
Seana
The one big part of the Amazing Race I wouldnt like at all is all the stuff in airports. I hate airports and having to go there and basically beg and haggle to get on certain flights fills me unspeakable dread. Incidentally have you ever watched the credits of the Amazing Race? It's a succession of improbable names who sound as if they are debauched aristrocrats who live in castles in Bavaria. Seriously check it out.
Miss Witch
Yes it is a cop out. But its my list and my blog. I suppose I should cut the Samoa one since I havent actually been there. It could be bloody horrible.
Brian
I'm not entirely sure thnat she knows who Han Solo is.
Its bizarre really that we ended up together, after boring her about LOTR and its resonance to the Eagle and Child and then remarking on her Star Wars name she had the old one finger up and was giving the "check please" sign. How I reeled that conversation back in I'll never know.
Adrian,
Good work, brother. The rest, as they say, is history, right?
Did you guys ever happen to see or read a short play by, I'm thinking it's Martin Bedford, in which two people meet and it goes wrong and then starts over and goes wrong again and so on until, well, I won't give away the ending. It all hangs by a thread, doesn't it? I'm surprised you reeled it back in too. But I bet Martin Bedford wouldn't be. If in fact that's the name of the playwright.
I will check out those AR credits next time around. I missed the whole last season due to the digital revolution here, in which I was one of those people who was always being warned by friendly public service announcements about how I would need a converter box and of course I just ignored them. I did get to see the episode where Phil's dad was with him at the finish line because they were in Phil's native land, though I can't remember if it was Australia or New Zealand. I sometimes wonder what Phil thinks about his career trajectory. I hope that at least he does a little sightseeing.
Ot, but I was looking at the new side panels on the home page.
You've really planned your future in adavance, don't you? A Trillion years of nothingness seem a bit boring, though as an accomplished scholar of Hindu cosmology I suppose you could say that they are roughly four months, counting in Brahma years.
It's funny that someone so clear about the mechanics of death is also so keen to indulge in literary necrophilia.
What really impressed me though is the Visitors Map thingie. You have far more visits from Italy (29) than from Ireland (11)! Ok I realize NI is considered United Kingdom, but still!
And the scary thing is that I can account only for seven, since the widget doesn't count multiple hits from the same IP address over 24 hours!
How is it even possible? Are you followed in religious silence by a mute host of Italian compatriots?
Seana
The credits are too funny. I urge you to check 'em.
I dont remember exactly what I said but it must have been good after that unpromising start. I should write some sort of book. You know, the kind that sells. And gets me on the Today Show.
Marco
Are you using more than 1 computer? Thats the only explanation I have, because no one else from Italy has ever commented here and Italians dont seem particularly shy in my experience. I know about the IP thing because in the first 48 hours there were only 2 hits from Australia - both me obviously, yet I must have logged on about twenty times to respond to comments etc.
Glad you liked my command of advanced String/Brane Theory BTW just one of my many talents.
Uh, where are you getting all these statistics from, Marco? I don't get it. I mean I don't see the thing on my screen that you're talking about.
Forgot to reply to the whole airports problem in the Amazing Race. What's odd about the show is that they never bring up any of the post 9/11 hassles that people typically have to undergo these days. You never see them waiting in lines of 300 people, for instance. You never see anyone missing a plane because their name is on some terrorist profile list as some poor unfortunates face every time they fly. And so on. I remember thinking after 9/11 that there would some sort of problem with having Americans race around the world in all their naivete. Nope--not a problem. I don't think I've ever even seen them taking off their shoes.
Having just come off the last post and it's talk of violence, I find myself wondering if stun guns are specifically prohibited on the show. Or drugging people's drinks. Because that could liven up the formula a bit, couldn't it?
Adrian, you could write the kind of book that sells. The only problem is that you wouldn't be able to live with yourself after. Well, unless you thought up a good pen name.
Seana
Down near the bottom on the right. You can see the map without having to click it but if you click you get it in more detail.
It definitely does not register some IP addresses, I know this because a pal in Wellington NZ apparently does not exist (unless he's been lying about dropping by). You cannot have any filters up or IP address disguises or be running a fake IP program (necessary if you want to watch HuLu or the BBC for example) but on balance I'd say it's a pretty fair representation of who's been here.
Thanks. That's pretty cool.If the Italian readers are real, and not, say, zombies, maybe they just don't feel up to Marco's level of English.
Come on, Italian readers! Stop lurking. Post in Italian and I'll bet you anything that Marco will help us out with it.
On second thoughts, if you belong to a political party that he dislikes, you can probably forget about it.
Adrian, as diverse as your fan base appears to be, it's a bit lacking in a couple of the southern hemisphere continents. See what you can do.
Also, since I've found my way all the way down there, what happens if the worms spit you out? Does this destroy the whole trajectory or just what exactly?
Seana
Not a single hit from Africa. Thats pretty lame. I might have to write something about Alexandria or Cairo, two places I know a little bit about.
Actually this is pretty dangerous. I thought the Culster map would be a little diversion and now I'm obssessing about it. How can I get the Ecuadorians involved?
No I think even cremation wont stop the heat death of the universe.
But I thought the beating of the wings of a single butterfly changed the whole course of history--or something like that. Although I suppose the heat death of the universe is not technically history.
Damned Ecuadorians. So withholding. It's like they think they're the center of the world or something.
I'm pretty sure the counter's wrong. Maybe it registers visits to multiple pages as multiple visists.
Anyway, here's a couple other dead faves of yours:
Ballard
Darger
And I'm with Brian in wishing your brother a very boring time.
Marco
Yeah I think I have to call it an approximation at best. The Australian total hasnt changed in 24 hours and I've been been logging on and off here to respond to comments. If anywhere should have a big giant circle on it it should be Melbourne not Tuscany.
Thanks for the Ballard. I'm going to watch that in bed.
And yes lets hope he has a boring time and he listens to that age old wisdom - never volunteer for anything.
Hits from Italy seems to have grown even in my absence. I'm relieved - I was beginning to fear it was the secret police following my internet trail.
But maybe the secret police have caught on to this blog through you, Marco, and have discovered that they enjoy it. It would explain why,though apparently readers of English, they are not able to speak.
Speaking of Concord MA cemetary -- there was a scandal in the late 1980's when a woman who'd died in Concord was buried with the headstone reading: "Who the Hell is Sheila Roy?"
She had it in her will to do this, but the gentry in the area objected to foul language gracing the headstones. What about the children?
I don't know how it was ever resolved, if it was 'resolved' but it stayed with me. I was visiting a teacher who lived in Concord, so we joked about this. And my first job in Boston was for the parks department where I went around to the decrepit old burial grounds and inventoried the head stones. It kind of stayed with me.
That's a fascinating little bit of trivia, Sheiler. I started to research it to see if I could find the outcome, but I've run out of time. However the name on the gravestone is Sheila Shea, if anyone wants to look further. Apparently, right around the corner from Louisa Mae and Thoreau, who is designated only as 'Henry', in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetary.
'Inventorying headstones' is not a job I would have ever considered to be in the realm of career opportunities. The things your high school guidance counselor doesn't tell you...
Sheiler
Thanks for that. I do love that place and actually I like Walden too. Both times I visited there were no other tourists and it really was quite tranquil.
Did you ever get to Lowell to see Kerouac's grave?
Seana
I have to say though I really approve of the humorous headstone concept.
Have you ever seen this page?
That's a fun site--I'll read more later. Of course the question comes to mind--have you been working on your own or are you going to make the mistake of leaving that up to your family?
Seanag,
Ah, Sheila Shea. OK! I think all my years of hard livin' in Quebec influenced my memory. Eveything gets turned into a Quebecois word or name. Now if I could only actually speak French...it would sort of make sense.
It was a great summer job. A great intro to Boston. We went to the Boston Public Library, which to me is a treasure of a place, to consult old maps of the burial grounds before heading off to the ones that tourists didn't go to, and were therefore strewn with trashed.
I a reluctant history buff. Or maybe I'm just lazy.
Adrian, I am Deeply Ashamed to admit that I have never been to Kerouac's grave in Lowell. I am a graduate of the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics from Naropa in Boulder. (I can only guess at what you think of the little school that could in Boulder, having listened to nearly every one of your books on my ipod that mentions Denver and Boulder...but perhaps you'll realize that I was one of 27 people who wasn't rich there).
I did however, quietly make my way over to see ee cummings' grave in the cemetary in the Boston neighborhood of JP - Jamaica Plain (Forest Hills). His headstone was utilitarian flat, small and plain. I was really surprised at that.
No, I didn't go see Eugene O'Neill's grave at the same place. Lazy.
Sheiler
Come on! I taught creative writing for two years at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics and very nice people they were too. You're right, not everyone was super rich although there were fewer scholarship kids than at UC Boulder. Still I had a good time there, people did their work and like I say they were nice to me.
I have a funny-ish story about a nude protest that I think I'll save for a blog posting.
Hmm. I wonder if that nude protest includes nude interpretive dancing. Well, I guess I'll find out.
Sheiler, I wouldn't call it lazy not to visit every writer's grave. Not everyone is a literary necrophiliac. Not even most people.
Personally, I do like graveyards. Not morbidly. I suppose most of us are going to be in the ground a lot longer than we are walking on it, after all. Despite all the spooky stories around them, they usually strike me as peaceful, rather beautiful places. I've had some good times in graveyards, actually. My dad has an urn in a wall in Pacific Grove. Next door is a golf course, across the highway is the Pacific Ocean, and the cemetary is frequented by deer. One of my fondest memories is going there with my sister and my at that time small nephew. While she tended to the flowers, my nephew and I would climb up on the giant boulders there and spy on the deer.
That Roy/Shea transposition is pretty interesting. Roy is not a name that we down below the border would have come up with, I believe.
What I know about Lowell is that it was a milltown and there was an innovative program for women mill workers there, once upon a time.
Hey Adrian... You taught at Naropa? When exactly did you do this?? I don't recall seeing your name on the list of writers (you taught in the summer session, perhaps?). I was there '93 - '95.
What are the chances ... North shore MA, Naropa in Boulder...you're in Australia now? Should I be thinking about shaving my sled dog's fur to get him+me ready for life down under? Ha!
Maybe I'll start writing action thriller novels.
There was only one nude protest that I was aware of - with two students whose names I now forget. No one else would disrobe. They were two writing students, one guy who had a voice like Jack Nicholson and was a well-defined character actor in the play of his own life. The other was a woman who was a lesbian but ended up with a man...who was the Jack Nicholson character's ex boyfriend.
Things like that happened all the time, nude protest or no.
Seanag,
I too like graveyards. My father used to be a monk (Benedictine) and would take us kids (he got married after leaving) to this old monk/priest cemetary on the four corners of abbey / convent / catholic high school / catholic university in our town.
There was a slough next door to the graveyard where we would end up after walking past the headstones of some guys he'd known and most he didn't. We'd always go in the summer after dinner, where I'd take some crusts of bread and teach the fish in the slough to eat the bread from my hands.
Later as an incorrigible youth I would go out drinking with high school friends to graveyards since the police never seemed to look for us there.
I do not enjoy horror films.
That's a nice reminiscence, Sheiler. It doesn't surprise me too much that the offspring of a lapsed monk would end up at the Naropa Institute somehow.
And why don't the police think to look in graveyards for drunk teens? It would seem obvious. But then I found that that was true of the lagoon I lived next to, which officially closed at sundown, and the park I lived right beside, which was also closed at night. The only people these injunctions ever seemed to keep out were the police.
I think Adrian is off on his jaunt to Northern Ireland just now, but I expect he'll probably clear up the mystery of when he was at Naropa at some point.
Sheiler
I like the fallen monk stuff. Of course lucky for you that he didnt stay the course.
I taught at Naropa in 2006 and 2007. It was a course on American crime fiction. I liked it and Naropa a lot but in 2008 I jumped over to Australia so the commute would have been to great to continue it.
I'd like to do their summer sessions one year though.
Oh hell, I had no idea about the Colburn. I've eaten breakfast at Charlie Brown's, the Colburn's restaurant a hundred times.
The lobby's air of gentle dereliction makes so much sense now.
Despite the way Denver has gentrified over the last twenty years, Kerouac and co. would still recognize their hotel.
Shulla
So have I.
Dylan's house in Laugharne was always a disappointment.
I drank a lot at Browns where Dylan used to drink and all of the old blokes in there were very dismissive of his abilities.
Thommie Watts, the landlord for years, described Caitlin drinking him under the table every time
Rob
I'd still like to visit.
I liked Brydon doing his various Welsh accents on The Trip. Everytime I do a Welsh accent it comes out Pakistani.
Shulla
I forgot to say that I once did a Kerouac tour of Denver run by the Denver Public Library. I dont know if they still do those but it was great.
Now, why didn’t I post on this before? I walked in Hammett’s footsteps last year, but I only gazed at the door and read the plaque at 891 Post St. It was late at night for me to be knocking on doors.
======================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
Peter
This would have been four or five years ago. I'm not sure if its still a private residence, but I imagine it is. The chap who let me in was very nice and not at all surprised by my request or seemingly put out.
Adrian,
Thanks I'll have to check it out. There must be something in the at CB's. Even without knowing the history, I used it as the setting for the initial pages of my first novel, and the characters happen to be having an anti-establishment philosophical discussion:).
I imagine you're right that Hammett's apartment is still a private residence. The only sign that the building is anything more than a neat, well-maintained apartment house is this plaque by the front door.
My post-Bouchercon visits to Hammett sites were the first experiences of literary necrophilia that I can remember. Hammett is an especially good focus for such necrophilia because his San Francisco stories can still serve as accurate topographic guides to the city.
======================================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://www.detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com
Shulla
Kerouac bought his first house in Denver and Ginsberg used to go out to Denver well into the 70's.
Peter
I wonder if its the same person who owns it now? He was certainly very nice to me when he had every reason to be put out.
speaking of Denver did you read the book by the 1st writing alum of Naropa: 'When I was Cool'? A hilarious run down of Allen Ginsberg and company in Denver and Boulder. Burroughs was reported to have yelled out in a vegetarian place in Boulder: "eating sprouts is like going down on a robot!"
Also Concord MA is rife with ticks.
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