I came so far for beauty

Literary pilgrimages or flights of fancy

Last week I did a little literary namedropping as I played around with spooky themes. Concord, Massachusetts, not so far from where I’m hanging out with a pair of nice dogs, has been home to a handful of the American literary greats. Poking around in their writings has got me reflecting on some other literary destinations I’ve come upon.

Orchard House, the home of Louisa May Alcott in Concord, Massachusetts

In an interview with National Geographic, filmmaker and Alcott biographer Harriet Reisen recalls that the Little Women author also wrote Shawl-Straps, a fictionalized account of her travels in Europe. In the foreword, Alcott confesses she was uninterested in writing about “the dimensions of any church, the population of any city, or description of famous places.” According to Reisen, Alcott “is telling people just to pick up your backpacks and don’t read every word of that guidebook. Be imaginative, try things.”

I can get behind that advice (even if I did once have a hand in writing some Newfoundland place descriptions for a Fodor’s guidebook). And it’s in that imaginative spirit that my travels have brought me to a few literary landmarks.