Literary New England

One of the fun parts about designing a new literature curriculum centered on Boston and New England is that I get to travel to different corners of the region to test out excursion ideas! In the past month, I’ve visited The Breakers mansion in Newport—where Edith Wharton once admired the view of the Atlantic—and I’ve sat in Herman Melville’s pew in the Seamen’s Bethel in New Bedford. Yesterday, I climbed the twenty steps up the secret staircase in the House of Seven Gables in Salem, which inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel. As I walked around Salem, amidst memorials to 17th-century people accused of witchcraft by Puritans and 21st-century shops gearing up for Halloween, I concluded that Salem is a unique destination. I’d love to hear what literary New England destinations you might recommend!