Comments on: Best of the Blog 2009: Literary Pilgrimages— Prince Edward Island

By: Carrie Padgett

Carrie Padgett — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 21:09:53 +0000

OOH, forgot to mention the Botswana of Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. My husband was in South Africa a few years ago and got within eyeshot of Botswana. And the Edinburgh of Smith’s Sunday Philosphy Club would be a nice addition to Herriot’s Yorkshire…

By: Carrie Padgett

Carrie Padgett — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 01:39:30 +0000

A couple of months ago I visited the Jack London state park and his Wolf House as well as the cottage he lived in while Wolf House was being built. I definitely felt like I was peeking into the life of a literary giant.

It’s interesting that you posted this because just the other day I was thinking how I would love to visit James Herriot’s Yorkshire and the area where All Creatures Great and Small and all his other works were set.

And while I’m there, I may as well visit some Jane Austen sites!

I also loved Elizabeth Gilbert’s descriptions of Italy in Eat, Pray, Love.

Thanks for a thought provoking post!

By: KC Frantzen

KC Frantzen — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:38:05 +0000

My bucket list has lengthened significantly…

By: Patty

Patty — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:09:21 +0000

While I enjoyed my visit to Laura Ingalls Wilder’s home in Missouri, I’ve got to say my favorite literary pilgrimage took place a long time ago when I visited a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills… It was Africa distilled up through six thousand feet, like the strong refined essence of a continent.

It was Isak Dinesen/Karen Blixen’s farm and it was where her pictures painted with words became a part of me.

By: Lynn Dean

Lynn Dean — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:50:32 +0000

Oops! Forgot about Corrie TenBoom’s house above her father’s clock shop. It looks just as she described it in The Hiding Place.

By: Lynn Dean

Lynn Dean — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:48:04 +0000

What an interesting post! I hadn’t thought much about it before, but in response to your question I counted up some of the literary sites I’ve visited, and there were quite a few: Louisa May Alcott’s house, Shakespeare’s home, the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum at Rocky Ridge, Hemingway’s residence, and the Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning museum which is one of the best-kept secrets of Baylor University in Waco, TX.

As for places I’d like to visit, top of the list (with PEI close behind) would be Shrewsbury, England–home of Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael.

Thanks for sharing your wonderful pics!

By: Janet Ann Collins

Janet Ann Collins — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:14:18 +0000

Reading your post and the comments makes me want to travel to the library and read all those books again.

By: Jill Eileen Smith

Jill Eileen Smith — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:51:02 +0000

As a kid I always wanted to see where Laura Ingalls had lived, and as an adult a few years ago we took a trip outside of Branson and saw Rocky Ridge Farm.

I grew up traveling and even into adulthood, most trips included stops at the homes of famous people – everything from southern plantations to Hearst Castle to the Dodge Mansion to Stephen Foster’s birthplace. The fort at Mackinac Island isn’t a literary stopping ground, but I figure anything historical can spark imagination for story.

Our trip to Israel was my favorite. Now when I visit the lands of the Bible in my imagination, I have pictures to go with it.

By: Latayne C Scott

Latayne C Scott — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:13:39 +0000

Lisa and Crystal, I haven’t even thought of Gene Stratton-Porter for years. Keeper of the Bees was the first adult novel I read, and its theme (unwed pregnancy) was one I scratched my 10-year-old head over and decided it was too mysterious for me. But later I read Freckles and I was hooked.

I live in the middle of artistic and literary wonder in New Mexico, not too far from the D. H. Lawrence Ranch and Georgia O’Keefe’s Ghost Ranch. I once took a writing seminar at the Mabel Dodge Lujan House in Santa Fe from John Nichols and another class from Acoma Indian poet Simon Ortiz.

But since not everyone can go to a literary homestead, did you know you can bring an author’s ambiance — literally — to your own home? An organization called American Forests http://www.historictrees.org/store.html
has cuttings and seedlings from the trees that grew and in some cases are still growing near the homes of famous Americans. You can buy a cutting from the trees of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain and Edgar Allen Poe, for instance.

Latayne C Scott
http://www.latayne.com

By: Angie

Angie — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:14:51 +0000

My mother went to PEI a month ago with a group from Christian Tours – for a 14 day trip. On the way up there, they all watched the Anne of Green Gables videos (so much so that one elderly gentleman started yelling, “where’s the blood and guts” each time they started the show). She enjoyed it so much.

I went on a literary pilgrimage in my 20′s to St. Simons Island, Ga. to see the places that Eugenia Price wrote about in Beloved Invader, New Moon Rising and Lighthouse. Climbing to the top of that lighthouse was one of the highlights – even though I’m afraid of heights. She made it so real.

Great topic!