Women's Rights: Amelia Bloomer - Seneca Falls, NY

Women's Rights

Amelia Bloomer

Seneca Falls, NY

N 42° 54.537 W 076° 48.096

Short Description: 

A statue of American advocate for women's rights, Amelia Bloomer, is located in the Ludivico Sculpture Trail in Seneca Falls, NY.

Long Description:

Amelia Jenks was born May 27, 1818 in Homer, NY. She married Dexter Bloomer when she was 22 years old. Her husband encouraged her to write for the local newspaper, the Seneca County Courier. One year after attending the Seneca Falls Convention women's rights convention in 1848, she became to first woman to own and edit the first newspaper for women, The Lily. Her publication promoted less restrictive clothing standards for women. The result was a style of women's dress that to this day are called bloomers.

In May 1851, by chance on the streets of Seneca Falls, Amelia Bloomer had the opportunity to introduced Susan B. Anthony to Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The resulting friendship forever changed to course of women's rights in America which resulted in passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution on August 26, 1920.

In 1852, Amelia Bloomer moved to Council Bluffs, IA. There she was a leader in the suffrage movement, in Nebraska and Iowa. She and served as president of the Iowa Woman Suffrage Association from 1871 to 1873. She died in Iowa on December 30, 1894.

A life size bronze statue of Amelia Bloomer stand on a bronze plinth set on a 4' square concrete base. Amelia Bloomer is wearing a round broad brimmed hat with a strap around her chin, a long jacket, scarf, blouse with ruffled cuffs, and a knee length dress. She is standing with both hands by her sides.

The the base contains a plaque which identifies the subject, artist, and date. It is inscribed:

AMELIA BLOOMER

BY CHERRY RAHN

2001

Women's Rights: Susan B. Anthony, Amelia Bloomer, and Elizabeth Caty Stanton - Seneca Falls, NY

Women's Rights 

When Anthony Met Stanton

Seneca Falls, NY

N 42° 54.530 W 076° 47.678

Short Description: 

A sculpture depicting the historic meeting when Amelia Bloomer introduced Susan B. Anthony to Elizabeth Caty Stanton on the streets of Seneca Falls, NY is located at East Bayard Street, near junction of Spring Street.

Long Description:

The bronze sculpture of three founders of the Women's Rights Movement was created Professor A. E. ‘Ted’ Aub and dedicated in Seneca Falls on July 18, 1998. Amelia Bloomer is in the center, Susan B. Anthony is on left of the sculpture and Elizabeth Caty Stanton is on the right side. All are dressed period garb. Stanton is holding a book in her left hand.

The Susan B. Anthony Center for Women’s Leadership at the University of Rochester has published the journals of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. This quote is taken from Elizabeth Cady Stanton's journal:

"How well I remember the day! George Thompson and William Lloyd Garrison having announced an anti-slavery meeting in Seneca Falls, Miss Anthony came to attend it. These gentlemen were my guests. Walking home after the adjournment, we met Mrs. Bloomer and Miss Anthony, on the corner of the street, waiting to greet us. There she stood, with her good earnest face and genial smile, dressed in gray delaine, hat and all the same color, relieved with pale blue ribbons, the perfection of neatness and sobriety. I liked her thoroughly, and why I did not at once invite her home with me to dinner I do not know . . ."

A bronze plaque near the sculpture is inscribed:

WHEN ANTHONY MET STANTON

In May 1851, there was a chance encounter on the streets of Seneca Falls, which forever altered the struggle of women's rights. Amelia Jenks Bloomer introduced Susan B. Anthony to Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The friendship that was forged between Stanton and Anthony gave direction and momentum to the seventy-two year struggle for womens' suffrage which culminated on August 26, 1920 in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution. Neither woman lived to see this happen. 

Given to the Village of Seneca Falls by 

Governor George E. Pataki

on behalf of

the Governor's Commission Honoring the Achievements of Women

E. Ted Aub. Sculptor

July 18, 1998

Women's Rights: First Women's Rights Convention - Seneca Falls, NY

Women's Rights

First Women's Rights Convention in the World

Seneca Falls, NY

Exterior Plaque

GPS: N 42° 54.664 W 076° 47.975

Short Description:

The first Women's Rights Convention in the world took place in the Wesleyan Chapel at just east of 136 Fall Street in Seneca Falls, NY.

Wesleyan Chapel

Wesleyan Chapel 

Long Description:

Interior Plaque

On the east wall of the Wesleyan Chapel and again on the interior wall there is a nicely done bronze plaque identifying this as the site of the first Women's Rights Convention in the world. The plaques have a bas-relief sculpture of a women's rights advocate in period dress and the following inscription:

On this spot stood the Wesleyan Chapel

where the First Woman's Rights Convention

in the World's history was held 

July 19 and 20 1848

---

Elizabeth Caty Stanton 

move the resolution

which was seconded by Fredrick Douglass

"That it is the duty of the Women 

of this country to secure to themselves

their sacred right

to the franchise

---

Some of the signers of the declaration of Rights

Lucretia Mott - Jacob P Chamberlain - Martha Wright - Elisha Foote

Amy Post - Charles J Hoskins - Mary Ann McClintok - Richard Hunt

Lovina Latham - Jonathan Metcalf - Mary H Hallowell - Henry Seymour

Literary Site: Franz Kafka House, Prague, Czech Republic

Franz Kafka House

Prague, Czech Republic

GPS: N50°5.523 E14°24.247

Short Description:

Franz Kafka Home and Museum is located on 22 Golden Lane (Zlata Ulicka) in Prague, Czech Republic.

Long Description:

Golden Lane located at the Prague Castle. The street is lined with small colorful houses. House No. 22 was used by Franz Kafka,as a quiet area for writing.

Franz Kafka was born on July 3, 1883 in Prague, Austro-Hungarian Empire, now the Czech Republic. He grew up fluent in both Czech and German but considered German his mother tongue. He wrote many novels and short stories in German, including: "Die Verwandlung" ("The Metamorphosis"), Der Prozess (The Trial), and Das Schloss (The Castle). His writings contain the themes of alienation, physical and psychological brutality, parent–child conflict, characters on a terrifying quest, labyrinths of bureaucracy, and mystical transformations.

Literary Site: O. Henry House - San Antonio, TX

O. Henry House 

San Antonio, TX

GPS: N 29° 25.461; W 098° 29.843

Short Description:

The O. Henry House is located at the corner of Laredo and Dolorosa Streets in San Antonio, TX.

Long Description:

From the plaque outside the house:

O. Henry was born at Polecat Creek, North Carolina and moved to

Cotulla, texas in 1882 for health reasons. he then came to San

Antonio and rented this house for $6.00 a month. Fascinated by San

Antonio's multi-cultural community, O. henry chronicled the

languages and culture of the native populations, spending many happy

and productive hours in "cantinas" (saloons) wjich onec stood on this

site. O. Henry published a humorous, tabloid newspaper, called The

Rolling Stone, which he filmed with poems, stories and charactures of

people and races, and for which he was admonished by early German

settlers, causing the newspaper to have grave financial problems. San

Antonio was the setting of several of O. Henry's stories including A

Fog in Santone, The Higher Abduction and Hygela of Solito.

Moving to Austin in 1898, O. Henry worked as a teller in a bank to
argument his income, at which time he was convicted of
embezzlement. He served three years in prison where he wrote
prodigiously and memorized every word in the dictionary.

O. Henry was gifted in his ability to capture the essence of a city by
understanding the hearts of people in all walks if life. His wit, skill
with words, unusual plot twists and surprise endings brought him 
international fame. He died in New York in 1910.


In 1998, Wallace and mary Freidrich Rogers regained ownership of 
her grandfather's old Buckhorn Saloon Museum (which included the 
historic O. henry House) from the lone Star Brewing Company. The 
Rogers then donated this house as a charitable contribution to the Lee
and Zachry Carter Memorial Fund of the San Antonio Area
Foundation.

Chief probation Officer L. Caesar Garcia of the Bexar County Adult
Probation Department is helping his probationers by using O. henry's
life example as a teaching aid. Probationers get credit for doing their
Community Services by acting as docents in the O. henry House.
Following O. Henry's example of using his own jail time to sharpen
his writing skills, the docents utilize their probation period in a
constructive way, perhaps discovering their own latent talents.

O. Henry House

Typical of the homes of early German settlers, this two-room dwelling was built by John Kush about 1855. It originally stood on south Presa Street. It was occupied in 1895-96 by William Sidney Porter, who gained national renown as the short story writer O. Henry. Here he issued a weekly humorous newspaper, "The Rolling Stone". In 1960 the structure was moved to this location by the Kush Family and the Lone Star Brewing Company.

Literary Site: William Cullen Bryant Homestead, Cummington, MA

William Cullen Bryant Homestead

Cummington, MA

GPS: N42° 28.236; W072° 56.101

Quick Description: 

The William Cullen Bryant Homestead is located at 207 Bryant Road off Route 112 in Cummington, MA.

Long Description:

The William Cullen Bryant Homestead is the boyhood home of one of America's earliest and foremost 19th century poets. William Cullen Bryant was born on November 3, 1794. He published his first major poem at age 13. He published Thanatopsis, his most famous poem, when he was living here at age 17. Much of his poetry was inspired by his rural home in Cummington, MA. The Rivulet, a small stream that ran through the property, was the subject of a 1823 poem of the same name.

In 1825 he married Frances Fairchild, gave up his law practice, and to moved to New York City to begin a career as an editor of literary publications and then to become editor-in-chief and publisher of the New York Evening Post, a position he held until he died in 1878.

The family sold the Homestead in 1835. However, in 1865, Bryant repurchased the property. From 1865 until 1878 he would leave New York City during the hot summer months to make the Cummington homestead his summer home. Bryant became a noted celebrity, even after his death. In 1894, the centennial of his birth, many people flocked to the Homestead to celebrate his life and accomplishments. Bryant Park adjacent to the main branch of the New York Public Library is named in his honor.

The grounds of the Bryant Homestead are open, for free, daily from sunrise to sunset. Allow at least one hour for the self-guided landscape tour. When the Homestead is open, guided tours are available. Tours of the interior vary. Visitors should call for more information.

Poems by William Cullen Bryant:

The Ages
Thanatopsis
The Yellow Violet
Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood
Song.—"Soon as the glazed and gleaming snow"
To a Waterfowl
Green River
A Winter Piece
The West Wind
The Burial-place. A Fragment
Blessed are they that Mourn
No Man knoweth his Sepulchre
A Walk at Sunset
Hymn to Death
The Massacre at Scio
The Indian Girl's Lament
Ode for an Agricultural Celebration
Rizpah
The Old Man's Funeral
The Rivulet
March
Sonnet.—To—
An Indian Story
Summer Wind
An Indian at the Burial-place of his Fathers
Song—"Dost thou idly ask to hear"
Hymn of the Waldenses
Monument Mountain
After a Tempest
Autumn Woods
Sonnet.—Mutation
Sonnet.—November
Song of the Greek Amazon
To a Cloud
The Murdered Traveller
Hymn to the North Star
The Lapse of Time
Song of the Stars
A Forest Hymn
"Oh fairest of the rural maids"
"I broke the spell that held me long"
June
A Song of Pitcairn's Island
The Skies
"I cannot forget with what fervid devotion"
To a Musquito
Lines on Revisiting the Country
The Death of the Flowers
Romero
A Meditation on Rhode Island Coal
The New Moon
Sonnet.—October
The Damsel of Peru
The African Chief
Spring in Town
The Gladness of Nature
The Disinterred Warrior
Sonnet.—Midsummer
The Greek Partisan
The Two Graves
The Conjunction of Jupiter and Venus
A Summer Ramble
Scene on the Banks of the Hudson
The Hurricane
Sonnet.—William Tell
The Hunter's Serenade
The Greek Boy
The Past
"Upon the mountain's distant head"
The Evening Wind
"When the firmament quivers with daylight's young beam"
"Innocent child and snow-white flower"
To the River Arve
Sonnet.—To Cole, the Painter, departing for Europe
To the fringed Gentian
The Twenty-second of December
Hymn of the City
The Prairies
Song of Marion's Men
The Arctic Lover
The Journey of Life

Literary Site: Gertrude Chandler Warner - The Boxcar Children Museum, Putnam, CT

Gertrude Chandler Warner

The Boxcar Children Museum

Putnam, CT

GPS: N41° 54.894; W071° 54.467

Short Description: 

The Gertrude Chandler Warner The Boxcar Children Museum is located in a railroad boxcar off Main Street (Route 12) just south of Route 44 in Putnam, CT.
Location: Connecticut, United States

Long Description:

Gertrude Chandler Warner (April 16, 1890 - August 30, 1979) was the author of The Boxcar Children, an ongoing series of children's stories. She was born in Putnam, CT and taught at nearby Israel Putnam Elementary School. Her stories were very popular with her students and are now widely read by young children everywhere.

Starting in 1924, she wrote the first 19 books of The Boxcar Children series. The stories continue after her death by other writers who have contributed an additional 130 books to the series. The Boxcar Children tells of the adventures of four orphaned children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny, that live in an abandoned boxcar in the forest. The museum is housed in a boxcar, similar to the one described in the book.

The Museum was opened in 2004. It is open on Saturdays and Sundays, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm, from mid-May to mid-October. Admission is free and a volunteer docent will describe the exhibits. Donations are welcome.

Literary Site: Herman Melville's Arrowhead - Pittsfield, MA

Herman Melville's Arrowhead

Pittsfield, MA

GPS: N42° 24.924; W073° 14.914

Short Description: 

Arrowhead, the home of Herman Melville during his most productive writing years, is located at 780 Holmes Road in Pittsfield, MA

Long Description:

The farmhouse and inn, built in the 1780's, known as Arrowhead was the home of Herman Melville for the 13 most productive years of his literary career. He live here from 1850 to 1863. During this time he wrote several novels including his allegorical masterpiece, Moby Dick.

Melville lived at Arrowhead from 1850 to 1863 then returned to his place of birth, new York City. Melville sold the property to his brother. The house was a private residence until it was acquired by the present owner in 1975, the Berkshire County Historical Society.

Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819. As a young man Melville had wanderlust and went to sea, first across the Atlantic Ocean then, in 1841, on the whaling ship Acushnet across the Pacific Ocean. He joined the crew of the USS United States for a return trip to Boston. His experiences as a seaman inspired his novels Typee, Omoo and White-Jacket.

In 1847 Melville married, lived for a short time in new York City then moved to Pittsfield, MA in 1850. It was here in a farm house he called Arrowhead that Melville wrote his greatest novel the allegorical masterpiece Moby Dick. Herman Melville lived here for 13 years.

Melville also wrote poetry that was published in later life. He wrote Battle Pieces and Aspects of the War in 1866 and published an the epic-length verse, Clarel, in 1876. His second great novel Billy Budd was published after his death.

A bronze plaque outside his Pittsfield residence, Arrowhead, contains an image of a sailing ship and is inscribed:

ARROWHEAD 

FOR THIRTEEN YEARS (1850-1863)

THE HOME OF 

HERMAN MELVILLE 

1819 — 1891 

MARINER AND MYSTIC

AUTHOR OF MOBY DICK (WRITTEN IN PITTSFIELD)

AND OTHER TALES OF THE SEA. 

“MOBY DICK IS AMONG THE FEW VERY

NOTABLE LITERARY ACHIEVEMENTS OF 

AMERICAN LITERATURE”

RAYMOND M. WEAVER

Arrowhead is open daily from Memorial Day Weekend through Columbus Day, from 9:30 am. to 5 pm. Hourly tours take 45 minutes and begin at 10 am. Tour rates are: adults $13.00 and children & students (with I.D.) $8.00.

Literary Site: Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House - Concord, MA

Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House

Concord, MA

GPS: N42° 27.539;  W071° 20.097

Short Description: 

The Orchard House was the home of the Alcott Family. Both the father, Amos Bronson Alcott, and his daughter Lousia May Alcott, wrote several books while living here. It is located at 399 Lexington Road, Concord, MA.

Long Description:

Educator and philosopher Amos Bronson Alcott, his wife Abigail, and three surviving daughters, Anna, Louisa May, and Abigail May, moved to this country house in Concord, MA in 1858. Because it was surrounded apple trees, he name it the Orchard House.

This was the family home of the Alcott family for 19 years between 1858 to 1877. It was here that the middle daughter, Louisa May, wrote her classic Little Women (1868), as well as several other books. Bronson Alcott was also a writer. He wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson (1865 - published 1882), Tablets (1868), Concord Days (1872), and Table Talk (1877) while residing at the Orchard House.

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Visiting hours for Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House:

November 1 - March 31
Monday - Friday, 11:00 - 3:00; Last tour at 3:00
Saturday, 10:00 - 4:30
Sunday, 1:00 - 4:30
Last tour at 4:30

April 1 - October 31
Monday - Saturday, 10:00 - 4:30
Sunday, 1:00 - 4:30
Last tour at 4:30

Closed: Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and January 1 & 2;
Opens at 12 noon on Patriots' Day (3rd Monday in April)

Wikipedia list the following books by Louisa May and Amos Bronson Alcott:

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Writings by Louisa May Alcott:

The Little Women trilogy:

Little Women or Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy (1868)
Good Wives (1869)
Little Men: Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys (1871)

Other Novels:

The Inheritance (1849, unpublished until 1997)
Moods (1865, revised 1882)
The Mysterious Key and What It Opened (1867)
An Old Fashioned Girl (1870)
Will's Wonder Book (1870)
Work: A Story of Experience (1873)
Beginning Again, Being a Continuation of Work (1875)
Eight Cousins or The Aunt-Hill (1875)
Rose in Bloom: A Sequel to Eight Cousins (1876)
Under the Lilacs (1878)
Jack and Jill: A Village Story (1880)
Jo's Boys and How They Turned Out: A Sequel to "Little Men" (1886)

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Works by Amos Bronson Alcott:

Observations on the Principles and Methods of Infant Instruction (1830)
Conversations with Children on the Gospels (Volume I, 1836)
Conversations with Children on the Gospels (Volume II, 1837)
Concord Days (1872)
Table-talk (1877)
New Connecticut. an Autobiographical Poem (1887; first edition privately printed in 1882)
Sonnets and Canzonets (1882)
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Philosopher and Seer: An Estimate of His Character and Genius in Prose and Verse (1882)
The journals of Bronson Alcott

Literary Sites - Louisa May Alcott - Boston, MA

Louisa May Alcott 

Boston, MA

N 42° 21.583 W 071° 03.990

Short Description:

The childhood home of the novelist Louisa May Alcott is at 20 Pinckney Street on Beacon Hill in Boston.

Long Description:

Louisa May Alcott was born on November 29, 1832. As a child she lived at 20 Pinckney Street with her parents Abigail May Alcott and Amos Bronson Alcott along with her three sisters: Anna Bronson Alcott, Elizabeth Sewall Alcott, and Abigail May Alcott. Her family was part of the Boston literary scene with such friends as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau.

She began writing at a young age and published her first story, at age 20, “The Rival Painters: a Tale of Rome”, in 1852, and her first book, Flower Fables in 1854. As an adult, in 1868, she wrote her most famous work "Little Women", a story about her childhood experiences with her three sisters.

A plaque in front of the house identifies the building as Louisa May Alcott's childhood home. it is inscribed:

20 Pinckney Street

As little girl Louisa May Alcott lived in rented
rooms at 20 Pinckney Street. The Alcott home
was part of the Boston literary scene during
the decades before the Civil War. Louisa's 
father Bronson Alcott, was a innovative 
educator whose friends included Ralph Waldo
Emerson, William Ellery Channing and
William Lloyd Garrison

In the 1880's he reputation and fortune secure,
Miss Alcott returned to Beacon Hill. She lived
at 10 Louisburg Square until her death.

Beacon Hill

10 Louisburg Square

Literary Site: Emily Dickinson Homestead - Amherst, MA

Emily Dickinson Homestead & Grave

Amherst, MA

GPS: N42° 22.555;  W072° 30.873

Short Description: 

The house where Emily Dickinson was born, lived all her life, wrote her poems, and died is located at 280 Main Street in Amherst, MA

Long Description:

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (1830-1886) lived in this house in Amherst all her life. She was born into a prominent Massachusetts family. Her father was a lawyer and her grandfather was one of the founders of Amherst Academy and Amherst College. Emily attended Amherst Academy and entered nearby Mount Holyoke College Female Seminary for one year. In her thirties she became very reclusive and spent most her her time in her bedroom writing poetry. Nonetheless, she was well informed by virtue of the family subscriptions to literary journals and her own correspondence.

Emily Dickinson began writing poetry in her early twenties and and was very prolific by the time she was thirty. She eventually wrote 1800 poems. Her poems were stories in meter and rhyme drawn from everyday life. They were noted for their insight into human nature, concise style, brilliant imagery, and use of varied meter and irregular rhymes. The first book of her poetry was published in 1890, four years after her death. Publication was through the efforts of her sister Lavinia and editors Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd. Emily Dickinson is among the most read, admired, and loved poets in the world of literature.

In 1963, the Home of Emily Dickinson was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

GPS: N42° 22.746; W072° 31.074

Emily Dickinson is buried only few hundred meters away from her home in North Amherst Cemetery.

Her most appropriate poem on the subject of death - a classic example of her wisdom and style.

"Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality. 
We slowly drove, he knew no haste, 
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity."

Literary Site: Edward Bellamy House - Chicopee Falls, MA

Edward Bellamy House

Chicopee Falls, MA

GPS: N42° 09.364; W072° 35.041

Short Description: 

The Edward Bellamy House at 91-93 Church Street was the home to the American novelist whose most famous work Looking Backwards 2000 - 1887 expressed a Utopian vision for America.

Long Description:

Edward Bellamy's concerned with social and economic justice inspired his novel Looking Backwards, which was published in 1888. The book describes a Utopian vision for American society of the year 2000. The concept of the credit card was one of Bellamy's insights into the future. The vision expressed in this book inspired groups around the nation to political action and has been described as the basis for 19th century liberalism in America. At that time, Looking Backwards sold more copies than any other book published in America, except for Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Other books by Bellamy are: Six to One (1877), Dr. Heidenhoff's Process (1880), Miss Ludington's Sister (1884), To Whom This May Come (1888), Looking Backward 2000–1887 (1888), Equality (1898), The Duke of Stockbridge (1900).

The Edward Bellamy House is located at 91 - 93 Church Street. Bellamy's family moved to this house when he was two years old and he, mostly, lived here until his death in 1898. This a two story, white clapboard structure has a gable roof, three front bays and a single story porch on the north end. The doorway, at the right side bay, is flanked by Roman Doric pilasters and topped with a transom. A front cornice forms a pediment with a circular window.

On the right of the doorway is a two bay, two story wing with a cross gable roof. This wing has a second doorway between the two lower windows. A second set-back wing with two windows is at the south end of the home.

A lawn sign and a bronze plaque on the identifies the building as the Edward Bellamy House. The plaque is inscribed:

EDWARD BELLAMY HOUSE

HAS BEEN DESIGNATED A

REGISTERED NATIONAL 

HISTORIC LANDMARK

UNDER THE PROVISION OF THE

HISTORIC SITES ACT OF AUGUST 21, 1935

THIS SITE POSSESSES EXCEPTIONAL VALUE

IN COMMEMORATING OR ILLUSTRATING

THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

1972

Literary Site: Edward Gorey House - Yarmouth Port, MA

Edward Gorey House

Yarmouth Port, MA

GPS: N 41° 42.319 W 070° 14.563

Short Description: 

Edward Gorey House is located at 8 Strawberry Lane in Yarmouth Port, MA on Cape Cod.

Long Description:

Edward Gorey, an American author, illustrator, playwright, set, and costume designer. He was born in Chicago in 1925 and attended Harvard University. He established his eccentric artistic lifestyle during his college years. His first book, The Unstrung Harp, was published in 1953. Since then he published over 100 titles. He employs macabre humor and a distinctive style of illustration. During the 1960's he developed a cult following.

His most widely known title, the Vinegar Works trilogy, includes his most well known work, The Gashlycrumb Tinies, a abecedarian book published in 1963. Using each of the 26 letters of the alphabet, he relates, in rhyming dactylic couplets and with distinctive illustrations, how each of 26 children met an untimely and grisly death. Read the Gashlycrumb Tinnies: Link

Edward Gorey purchased this 200 year-old sea captain’s home in 1979. After his death, in 2000, the property was purchased by the Highland Street Foundation, in 2002. They operate the home as a museum from April through December.

Wikipedia lists over 100 books written by Edward Gorey:

The Unstrung Harp, Brown and Company, 1953
The Listing Attic, Brown and Company, 1954
The Doubtful Guest, Doubleday, 1957
The Object Lesson, Doubleday, 1958
The Bug Book, Looking Glass Library, 1959
The Fatal Lozenge: An Alphabet, Obolensky, 1960
The Curious Sofa: A Pornographic Tale by Ogdred Weary, Astor-Honor, 1961
The Hapless Child, Obolensky, 1961
The Willowdale Handcar: Or, the Return of the Black Doll, Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1962
The Beastly Baby, Fantod Press, 1962
The Vinegar Works: Three Volumes of Moral Instruction, Simon & Schuster, 1963
The Gashlycrumb Tinies
The Insect God
The West Wing
The Wuggly Ump, Lippincott, 1963
The Nursery Frieze, Fantod Press, 1964
The Sinking Spell, Obolensky, 1964
The Remembered Visit: A Story Taken From Life, Simon & Schuster, 1965
Three Books From Fantod Press (1), Fantod Press, 1966
The Evil Garden
The Inanimate Tragedy
The Pious Infant
The Gilded Bat, Cape, 1967
The Utter Zoo, Meredith Press, 1967
The Other Statue, Simon & Schuster, 1968
The Blue Aspic, Meredith Press, 1968
The Epiplectic Bicycle, Dodd and Mead, 1969
The Iron Tonic: Or, A Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley, Albondocani Press, 1969
Three Books From The Fantod Press (2), Fantod Press, 1970
The Chinese Obelisks: Fourth Alphabet
Donald Has A Difficulty
The Osbick Bird
The Sopping Thursday, Gotham Book Mart, 1970
Three Books From The Fantod Press (3), Fantod Press, 1971
The Deranged Cousins
The Eleventh Episode
The Untitled Book
The Awdrey-Gore Legacy, 1972
Leaves From A Mislaid Album, Gotham Book Mart, 1972
The Abandoned Sock, Fantod Press, 1972
A Limerick, Salt-Works Press, 1973
The Lost Lions, Fantod Press, 1973
The Green Beads, Albondocani Press, 1978
The Glorious Nosebleed: Fifth Alphabet, Mead, 1975
The Grand Passion: A Novel, Fantod Press, 1976
The Broken Spoke, Mead, 1976
The Loathsome Couple, Mead, 1977
Dancing Cats And Neglected Murderesses, Workman, 1980
The Water Flowers, Congdon & Weed, 1982
The Dwindling Party, Random House, 1982
The Prune People, Albondocani Press, 1983
Gorey Stories, 1983
The Tunnel Calamity, Putnam's Sons, 1984
The Eclectic Abecedarium, Adama Books, 1985
The Prune People II, Albondocani Press, 1985
The Improvable Landscape, Albondocani Press, 1986
The Raging Tide: Or, The Black Doll's Imbroglio, Beaufort Books, 1987
Q. R. V. (later retitled The Universal Solvent), Anne & David Bromer, 1989
The Stupid Joke, Fantod Press, 1990
The Fraught Settee, Fantod Press, 1990
The Doleful Domesticity; Another Novel, Fantod Press, 1991
The Retrieved Locket, Fantod Press, 1994
The Unknown Vegetable, Fantod Press, 1995
The Just Dessert: Thoughtful Alphabet XI, Fantod Press, 1997
Deadly Blotter: Thoughtful Alphabet XVII, Fantod Press, 1997
The Haunted Tea-Cosy: A Dispirited and Distasteful Diversion for Christmas, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1998
The Headless Bust: A Melancholy Meditation on the False Millennium, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1999

Literary Site: Theodor Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss) - Springfield, MA

Theodor Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss)

Springfield, MA

N 42° 06.224 W 072° 35.137

Short Description:

Theodor Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss) was born and raised in Springfield, MA. Many of his books were inspired by the people and places of Springfield.

Long Description

Dr. Seuss was born as Theodor Geisel on March 2, 1904 into a German American family in Springfield. His grandfather Theodor as born in Muhlhausen, Germany and emigrated to America in 1867. His grandmother Christina Schmaelzle was born Wurttemberg, Germany.  The family opened a successful brewery in Springfield. Soon it became one of the largest breweries in New England.   His German maternal grandparents, George J. Seuss and Margaretha Seuss, provided young Theodor with his pen name. His father Theodor Robert Geisel managed the family brewery and later became head of the Springfield parks department.

Theodor Geisel Boyhood Home

The Geisel family lived in an upper ,middle class neighborhood in the Forest Park section of Springfield at 74 Fairfield Street. His experiences in Springfield were to be the inspiration for many of his children's book.  One of his first books And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street! was inspired by a street not far from his family home.

Theodor Geisel graduated Springfield Central High School in 1921 and graduated Dartmouth College in 1925. He entered the Ph.D program in Lincoln College, Oxford but quit to pursue a career in drawing. He moved to new York City in 1927 and married Helen Palmer whom he met at Oxford. He supported himself and his wife by creating advertising drawings for such companies as: General Electric, NBC, Standard Oil, and Narragansett Brewing Company.

Dr. Seuss books have sold over 222 million copies, and have been translated into more than 15 languages. According to Publishers Weekly, among the best-selling children's books of all time, 9 of the top 20 hardcover books were written by Theodor Geisel, including Green Eggs and Ham (4), The Cat in the Hat (9), One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish (13), Hop on Pop (16), Oh, The Places You'll Go (17) and Dr. Seuss's ABC (18).

The Dr. Seuss National Memorial Garden is located in the Quadrangle (21 Edwards St.) in Springfield.

The sculpture garden has five bronze sculptures ranging in size from small to huge each depicting a Dr. Seuss characters and Dr. Seuss himself. In addition, there is a twelve foot high replica of the book Oh, The Places You'll Go!, complete with the entire readable text.

The sculptures are:

1. Dr. Seuss and the Cat-In-The-Hat - Dr. Seuss is sitting at his desk with the Cat-In-The-Hat looking over his shoulder.

2. The Horton Court - A huge sculpture featuring Horton the Elephant, Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, Sam I Am, One Thing, Two Thing Conrad, and Sally. All the characters except Sally are placed on the pages of an open book. Sally is on a flat platform extending under the book.

3. The Storyteller - A twelve foot high replica of the book Oh, The Places You'll Go!, complete with the entire text. Standing next to it is the Grinch and his dog Max.

4. The Lorax - A small statue of the Lorax inscribed with the word Unless on its base.

5. The Yertl Garden - Yertl the Turtle sits atop a stack of his fellow turtles.

And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street!

"All the long way to school
and all the way back
I've looked and I've looked
and kept careful track,

But all that I've noticed
except my own feet
was a horse and a wagon
on Mulberry Street"

--Dr. Seuss

And so begins a tale of a young boy's imagination that turns a horse and a wagon on Mulberry Street into a fantastic extravaganza.

Theodor Seuss Geisel's first children's book is "And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street!". Mulberry Street, the location for this story, is less than a mile from his boyhood home on Fairfield Street. The illustrations for this book contain Springfield imagery. A Mayor Fordis Parker look-alike is on the reviewing stand for the parade. The police officers riding red motorcycles, the traditional color of the iconic Indian Motorcycles manufactured in Springfield.

N 42° 06.102 W 072° 34.719

There is now a plaque near the site of one of the original homes on Mulberry Street acknowledging Mulberry Street as the the locale for the story. It is inscribed:

This was the site of one of Mulberry's Street's oldest

houses, Circa 1830. Mulberry Street was memorialized in

"AND TO THINK THAT I SAW IT ON MULBERRY STREET"

the first book authored by Springfield native

Theodore Geisel, known as Dr. Seuss

Literary Sites: The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home - Lenox, MA

The Mount

Edith Wharton's Home (1902 -1911)

Lenox, MA

GPS: N42° 19.859; W073° 16.911

Short Description: 

The Mount, the home of Edith Wharton from 1902 to 1911 is located at 2 Plunkett Street in Lenox, MA.

Dolphin Fountain

Bedroom

Dining Room

Library

Living Room

Long Description:

Edith Jones was born into the privileged world of New York society on January 24, 1862 to George Frederic Jones and Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander of New York City. At the age of 10 she gained access to her father's extensive library. This began her interest in the world of literature. She was highly regarded for her books on gardens and design, but most well known for her works of fiction.

In 1885, she married Edward Robbins Wharton. In 1902, she built The Mount, a 113 acre estate in Lenox, Massachusetts, which expresses her principles of garden and interior design. She lived at the Mount from 1902 until she moved to France in 1911. During her years at the Mount she wrote some of her most famous novels including Sanctuary (1903), The Fruit of the Trees (1907) along with the bestselling novels House of Mirth (1905) and the classic Ethan Frome (1911).

During her life Edith Wharton wrote over 40 books, including novels, short stories, poetry travel, architecture, garden and interior design. She was the first woman to be awarded the Pulitizer Prize in Literature for her 1921 novel The Age of Innocence and the first woman to be awarded an honorary doctor of letters from Yale University.

Edith Wharton died of a stroke on August 11, 1937 in Le Pavillon Colombe, her 18th-century house on Rue de Montmorency in Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt (now rue Edith Wharton). She is interred in the American Cemetery in Versailles, France.

The following is a listing of her works from Wikipedia (q.v.)

Novels:

The Touchstone, 1900
The Valley of Decision, 1902
Sanctuary, 1903
The House of Mirth, 1905
Madame de Treymes, 1907
The Fruit of the Tree, 1907
Ethan Frome, 1911
The Reef, 1912
The Custom of the Country, 1913
Summer, 1917
The Marne, 1918
The Age of Innocence, 1920 (Pulitzer Prize winner)
The Glimpses of the Moon, 1922
A Son at the Front, 1923
Old New York, 1924
The Spark (The 'Sixties), 1924
The Mother's Recompense, 1925
Twilight Sleep, 1927
The Children, 1928
Hudson River Bracketed, 1929
The Gods Arrive, 1932
The Buccaneers, 1938
Fast and Loose, 1938 (first novel, written in 1876–1877)

Poetry:

Poetry Verses, 1878
Artemis to Actaeon and Other Verse, 1909
Twelve Poems, 1926

Short story collections:

The Greater Inclination, 1899
Souls Belated, 1899
Crucial Instances, 1901
The Reckoning, 1902
The Descent of Man and Other Stories, 1903
The Other Two, 1904
The Hermit and the Wild Woman and Other Stories, 1908
Tales of Men and Ghosts, 1910
Xingu and Other Stories, 1916
Old New York, 1924
Here and Beyond, 1926
Certain People, 1930
Human Nature, 1933
The World Over, 1936
Ghosts, 1937
Roman Fever, 1934
"The Angel at the Grave"

Non-fiction:

The Decoration of Houses, 1897
Italian Villas and Their Gardens, 1904
Italian Backgrounds, 1905
A Motor-Flight Through France, 1908 (travel)
France, from Dunkerque to Belfort, 1915 (war)
French Ways and Their Meaning, 1919
In Morocco, 1920 (travel)
The Writing of Fiction, 1925 (essays on writing)
A Backward Glance, 1934 (autobiography)
As editor The Book of the Homeless, 1916
Edith Wharton died of a stroke on August 11, 1937 in Le Pavillon Colombe, her 18th-century house on Rue de Montmorency in Saint-Brice-sous-Forêt (now rue Edith Wharton). She is interred in the American Cemetery in Versailles, France.