Jump to navigation Skip to content
Located in John Steinbeck’s hometown of Salinas, California, the National Steinbeck Center consists of the John Steinbeck Exhibition Hall and the Rabobank Agriculture Museum. Programs offered by the center include lectures, film and panel discussions about Steinbeck, author talks, art openings, and community-based events.
This house was home to William Sidney Porter, better known as the short story writer O. Henry, in 1885. Today the O. Henry House is a museum open to the public.
Located in Austin, Texas, the O. Henry Museum houses artifacts and archival material related to William Sidney Porter, better known as short story writer O. Henry. Programs include JC Elkins O. Henry Literary Discussion Group, a monthly reading and discussion group focused on the short stories of O. Henry.
The serene vista of the Westfield River Valley served as lifelong inspiration for William Cullen Bryant, who was editor and publisher of the New York Evening Post for many years, and whose meditative verse influenced the nineteenth-century land conservation movement that included Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles Eliot, founder of The Trustees.
Author Washington Irving designed his Sunnyside home himself, starting in 1835. The grounds reflect Irving’s romantic view of art, nature, and history. Visitors can tour the Sunnyside house and gardens with a guide in mid-nineteenth-century dress.
Ernest Hemingway was born and spent his first six years in this Queen Anne Victorian house in Oak Park, Illinois. Today, the house is owned and administered by the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park which facilitates tours and other event programming. The foundation also maintains the Hemingway Archives, housed inside the Oak Park Public Library a few blocks away from the birthplace museum.
Edgar Allan Poe lived in Philadelphia for around six years, and he spent his last year in the city living in this red brick building with his wife, Virginia, and his mother-in-law, Maria Clemm. Of Poe’s several homes in Philadelphia, only this one survives. Today, it is administered by the National Park Service. Visitors can tour the three-story home, which includes exhibits on Poe’s family and literary life and a theater showing a short film on the author.
Built in 1770 for patriot minister William Emerson, The Old Manse, a National Historic Landmark, became the center of Concord’s political, literary, and social revolutions over the course of the next century. In the mid-nineteenth-century, leading Transcendentalists such as Bronson Alcott, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller discussed the issues of the day here, with the Hawthorne and Ripley families.
Located in Henning, Tennessee, the Alex Haley House Museum is where the Pulitzer Prize-winning author lived from 1921 to 1929. Today the Alex Haley House Museum has been restored to model the home as it was when Haley was born. Some of the 1919 furniture which decorates the home belonged to the Haley family. The restored building is open to the public as a museum featuring Haley’s work, childhood memorabilia and references to the people who inspired his characters in Roots.
Located in Indianapolis, the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library is a public-benefit, nonprofit organization championing the literary, artistic, and cultural contributions of the late soldier, writer, artist, and Indianapolis native Kurt Vonnegut. The library serves as a cultural and educational resource facility, museum, art gallery, and reading room. It also supports language and visual arts education through programs and outreach activities with other local arts organizations.
