I have pulled off my bookshelves two books about literary sites in America. The first is titled Traveling Literary America: A Complete Guide to Literary Landmarks by B.J. Welborn. The second is A Skeptic's Guide to Writers' Houses by Anne Trubek.
The first is more of a traditional guide arranged by states within geographic areas. Each entry has brief biographical information about the author - birthplace, burial place, education, marriages. There is a list of important works and interesting tidbits about the author or the site or what else to see nearby. As you can imagine it is a pretty hefty tome and may be of some use for my trip.
The second is more of one woman's impressions of writers' houses that she has visited and also takes a look at why people make pilgrimages to such places.
Why do we make such journeys? As I am a writer I want to see where other writers lived. Where did they write, what was the view out the window, how messy or neat were they, what about the place inspired them? If I were a Civil War buff I would be bouncing around battlefields, I guess. It just depends on one's interests.
Anyway, both books offer some information for the Great Southern Literary Tour and perhaps inspiration for further journeys.
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