Block Island RI is considered a ``reader's paradise.''
Photo Credit: The Inn at BlockIsland
The Mark Twain House-The Billiard Room, possibly the first ``Man Cave.''
Photo Credit: John Groo/The Mark Twain House & Museum
With the official start of summer (June 20) less than a month away, many are making vacation plans.
For those planning literary vacations; or are just looking for a peaceful site to engage in some quiet reading, there are a number of possibilities.
Walden Pond, the lake in Concord, Mass. and the destination transcendentalist and philosopher Henry David Thoreau made famous after living on the northern shore of the pond from 1845 through 1847, where he outlined his philosophy of life, politics, and nature in his masterwork, ``Walden’’; or, ``Life in the Woods’’ (1854) is certainly a strong possibility.
In order to get a better sense of other ideal settings for summer reading, I asked some literary scholars, where they consider the perfect spot.
Nancy Armstrong, Professor in the English department at Duke University, said she goes to a solitary beach house in Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard, with views out into Nantucket Sound, "the site of mental health and good reading."
Nantucket Sound, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean and the waters surrounding the Cape and Islands are famous for their natural beauty and abundant, diverse, and unique wildlife. The Sound typically draws over six million visitors annually to Cape Cod and the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.
James Shapiro, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, at Columbia University and the author of a number of books, including, ``The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606,'' encourages lovers of literature to head for the New-York Historical Society in June, where one of the surviving First Folios of William Shakespeare's plays will be on display in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the death of England's national poet.
The Society will collaborate with the 92nd Street Y and The Public Theater, to share Shakespeare’s first published scripts of his 36 most famous plays (first published in 1623)—including Hamlet, Macbeth and As You Like It—the First Folio will be on display at the New-York Historical Society for six weeks, beginning June 7.
According to Shapiro, ``it’s a once in a lifetime chance to get close to a volume that has changed the course of literary history.’’
John Williams, Associate Professor of English at Yale University, recommends a journey to Hartford, the capital of Connecticut, to pay a visit to the Mark Twain House and Museum.
Beginning in 1874, Samuel and Olivia "Livy" Clemens (Twain's real name) took up residence at the mansion on Farmington Avenue. It's here where ``Twainiacs’’ can see for themselves the bed where Mark Twain read and smoked, and the billiard room (the original man cave, according to some) where America’s most celebrated author and humorist wrote the ``Adventures of Tom Sawyer,’’ ``Life on the Mississippi,’’ `The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' and ``A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,’’ among others.
The mansion is where Twain's daughter, Susy, died of spinal meningitis in 1896 at the age of 24, the same year he declared bankruptcy.
Twain (away on a European lecture tour) and his wife, so distraught over their second child's tragic death, never returned to the Hartford home. It was sold in 1903.
Sometimes, great minds think alike, especially among literary scholars.
Such is the case with Nicholas Dames, Professor of Humanities in the department of English and Comparative English at Columbia University and Elizabeth Taylor, Co-Director of the Nonfiction Writing Program and Senior Lecturer in the English department at Brown University who both favor Block Island, RI as a perfect setting to dip into your favorite books.
In particular, Dames thinks Block Island is ``a great place to read Edith Wharton and other novels of manners of the Gilded Age of the nineteenth century,'' while Taylor considers it a ``reader’s paradise,'' with an excellent library, 40 percent conserved land, walking trails, ocean views everywhere, giving it a magnificent 19th century feel.
According to Block Island's Chamber of Commerce website, its population climbs from 900 to an estimated 12,000 people in the summer; and has been named “One of the 12 Last Great Places in the Western Hemisphere” by The Nature Conservancy.
Occasionally, the best things in life are right in your own backyard.
Maura Spiegel, Senior Lecturer in Discipline in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York City, said she loves reading on the subway. According to Spiegel, one of her students ``wrote much of her dissertation on the Long Island Railroad —traveling the length of L.I. —never getting off.''
Other local favorites of Spiegel include Central Park during the week (especially watching small children with their nannies) and Morningside Drive, above Morningside Park, which has benches that remain in the bright sunshine until late in the day.
Away from the Big Apple, Spiegel said her favorite place to read is Maine, on an island if possible. ``The breezes are sweet and swirling, and you can sit for hours as the light changes and the sail boats drift by.''
Much like Spiegel, Michael Gamer, Associate Professor in the department of English at the University of Pennsylvania, likes reading on his own turf.
University of Pennsylvania Library, especially the 6th floor, which houses the Furness Collection and the reading room for special collections is a favorite spot for Gamer; as is the upstairs bar of West Philadelphia’s Fiume (just above Abyssinia restaurant at 45th and Locust), ``especially early in the evening, with a seasonal ale.''
American poet Cleopatra Mathis and Professor in the English department at Dartmouth College, where she is also director of the Creative Writing Program, highly recommends the outer beach of the National Seashore in Provincetown, Mass.
It’s this small coastal resort town located at the extreme tip of Cape Code in Barnstable County, where, according to Mathis, ``there aren't many people or diversions, unless you count the piping plovers and random beach critters. Otherwise, a cabin in the woods somewhere, preferably near a pond.''
During the year, Provincetown consists of 3,000 residents; but in the summer the population balloons to as many as 60,000.
And just so there is no eastern bias when it comes to ideal places to read, Thomas Austin Graham, Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, recommends spending time in Big Sur, located along Scenic Highway One approximately 150 miles south of San Francisco and 300 miles north of Los Angeles.
Graham believes the big selling point of Big Sur is the opportunity for lovers of literature to make themselves a cup of coffee and browse through books at the Henry Miller Memorial Library (48603 Highway One, 35 miles south of Carmel-by-the Sea), which is an arts center, bookstore, and performance venue, in honor of the late writer, artist, and Big Sur resident, Henry Miller.
Brooklyn NY native Henry Miller (1891-1980) lived in Big Sur between 1944 and 1962 and was best known for revolutionizing the fictionalized autobiography, including Tropic of Cancer (1934), Black Spring (1936) and The Rosy Crucifixion Trilogy (1965).
In all honesty, probably spending a vacation, anywhere, without a television or access to the Internet would be a perfect setting for fruitful reading.
But at least now you have a menu of options in the event you want to venture away from your front porch.
Enjoy the summer; and happy reading!
Bill Lucey
May 23, 2016
