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Located in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, the Sinclair Lewis Boyhood Home is where the Nobel Prize-winning author spent his early years. The home, which also for a time served as the office of Dr. Lewis’ medical practice, has been restored with antiques appropriate to the period. Many rooms contain items that were known to belong to the Lewis family themselves.
Before heading to the Iowa Summer Writing Festival, held throughout June and July, get acquainted with the reading series, bars, landmarks, and people—including our guide Jan Weissmiller, co-owner of indie bookseller Prairie Lights Books—of designated City of Literature Iowa City.
Located in Saginaw, Michigan, the Theodore Roethke Home Museum is the childhood home of the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Theodore Roethke (1908–1963). The Friends of Theodore Roethke Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation with the mission to promote, preserve, and protect the literary legacy of Theodore Roethke. The museum currently offers tours of the house, along with poetry readings, talks, workshops, and school programs.
The Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Museum preserves the birthplace home of the author Pearl S. Buck and interprets her life from its origins in the Appalachian town of Hillsboro, West Virginia, to her rise to international recognition as a Nobel Prize–winning author. Buck herself established the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace as a monument to her late mother, Carrie. The grounds of the museum include thirteen acres of scenic Appalachian farmland, a period carpentry shop, and a barn with over one hundred historic farm and woodworking tools.
This sixty-eight-acre estate in Perkasie, Pennsylvania, was home to Pearl S. Buck from 1935 to her death in 1973. Visitors are invited to tour the Pearl S. Buck House and its grounds through the first-person memories collected from community members who lived and worked with Pearl S. Buck and her husband, Richard Walsh, and their family. There is also a gift shop on the grounds that contains Asian-inspired gifts, selections of Buck's books, and more.
Located in Asbury Park, New Jersey, the Stephen Crane House is where the author of The Red Badge of Courage spent some of his most formative years. Since 1995, the house has been the venue for hundreds of literary, musical, visual, and other cultural programs dedicated to the memory of Crane and his family.
Located in Montgomery, Alabama, the Fitzgerald Museum is a nonprofit organization dedicated to celebrating the life and works of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. The Fitzgerald House was the residence of F. Scott, Zelda, and their daughter, Scottie, from 1931 to 1932. The Fitzgerald House was saved from demolition in 1986, making it the only remaining residence of the famous couple in Montgomery. Today, the museum hosts performances, galas, silent auctions, and other literary events.
In 1974, the Eugene O’Neill Foundation saved Tao House in Danville, California, from a wrecker’s ball then raised funds to secure the site where O’Neill wrote his most famous plays. Today, the foundation maintains the largest O’Neill research library west of the Beinecke at Yale, and produces artistic and educational programming, including seminars, conferences, workshops, cultural events, student programming, exhibits, scholarly conferences, Playwright’s Theatre, and major theatrical performances.
Founded in 1927 by Adrian Gambet and Gordon Cairnie, the original Grolier book shop stocked mainly private press books, some poetry, and a sampling of avant-garde literature. Today, Grolier is the oldest continuous poetry book shop in the United States, and stocks over 15,000 current volumes of trade, small press, and university publications as well as books related to prosody, poetry markets, and spoken word CDs. The store hosts regular readings, author events, book signings, and more.
Photo by Lily Hauser.
Located in Wellesley, Massachusetts, Wellesley Books is a locally-owned, independent bookstore that carries children’s books, a selection of cards and gifts, new fiction and nonfiction books, and “gently read” titles. The store hosts readings, author events, and book club meetings.
