Literary Houses of Massachusetts: A Travel Guide

Massachusetts is well known for it Revolutionary history, but it also has a strong literary history, and this history can be experienced by the literary traveler today by visiting the historic house museums of some of America's greatest writers. Briefly reviewed here are the homes of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Herman Melville, Edith Wharton, Emily Dickinson, and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Longfellow House Named for the most popular poet of the 19^th century, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, this mansion, dating to 1759, has a very unique history. Originally the home of a Tory Loyalist, it was confiscated by George Washington's army and was personally used by him as a headquarters for nearly one year. By Longfellow's time, it had become a boarding house where he was a tenant while teaching at nearby Harvard College. In 1843, Longfellow married Frances Appleton of Boston; her father, Nathan Appleton proceeded to purchase the historic house and present it to the couple as their wedding gift. The Longfellows lived there for the rest of their lives. The house is located at 105 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Admission is $3.00.

Arrowhead This lovely home located in the Berkshires was once the home of Herman Melville. Melville was from New York, but moved to Massachusetts into this 1780 farmhouse in 1850. He chose it because it was near his ancestral family's land in Western Massachusetts and because he was awed by the beauty of the country. The view from his study of Mount Greylock is said to have been the inspiration for his white-whale in Moby Dick. Melville would write Moby Dick as well as numerous other works at the house. Due to economic hardship, Melville was forced to sell Arrowhead and move to New York City and take a job as a customs agent. The house is located at 780 Holmes Road, Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Admission is $12.

The Mount In 1902, novelist Edith Wharton purchased a 113 acre plot of land in Lenox, Massachusetts and proceeded to indulge herself in creating her true masterpiece, her home and gardens. Already a well-known novelist of such books as The Age of Innocence, Ethan Frome, and The House of Mirth, Wharton wanted to put her vision of home and garden as set forth in her 1897 book The Decoration of Houses to the ultimate test. And the result is The Mount. Called Wharton's "autobiographical house," it can be said to be Wharton's most important creative work; it is certainly her most personal work. The Mount is located at 2 Plunkett Street, Lenox, Massachusetts. Admission is $16. Guided tours of the house and gardens are $4 each.

Emily Dickinson Homestead Emily Dickinson was born here and lived her entire life here. An intensely private person who rarely left the confines of her bedroom, she would write 1800 poems over her lifetime, nearly all of which would be published posthumously. Her use of irregular rhymes, broken meter, and metaphors would prove to be one of the founding blocks of modern poetry. The Emily Dickinson Museum was created in 2003 when control of the Dickinson Homestead and the neighboring property called Evergreens (the home of Emily's brother) came under the control of Amherst College. The property is located at 280 Main Street, Amherst, Massachusetts. Admission is $8.

House of the Seven Gables Yes, there really is such house, and it was the model for Nathanial Hawthorne's novel House of the Seven Gables. Located in Salem, Massachusetts and built in 1668, it is considered the oldest extant mansion in New England. The Nathanial Hawthorne House, which is the house where Hawthorne himself was born has been relocated to the Seven Gables site. The two houses are covered in a single tour. The houses are located at 57 Turner Street, Salem, Massachusetts. Admission is $12.