A FEW WORDS ON LITERARY ITINERARIES

Travelers for whom words are an inspiration often seek out homes of favorite writers to pay homage and to gain insight about the source of their vision.
Fortunately, America is littered with the landmarks of literary giants who have added their particular seasoning to our cultural melting pot.
New England, for example, is especially rich in literary history. Stop in Concord, Mass., to visit Henry David Thoreau's Walden Pond or see Orchard House, where Louisa May Alcott wrote "Little Women." A short stroll away is the Old Manse at North Bridge, which housed both Ralph Waldo Emerson and a newly wed Nathaniel Hawthorne. The town's Old North Bridge is the site from which the shot heard round the world was fired, beginning the American Revolution. In nearby Salem, you can visit the House of Seven Gables, made famous by Hawthorne's book of the same name, or call on the Custom House where he began "The Scarlet Letter." Other literati whose New England homes have been preserved include Emily Dickinson (Amherst, Mass.), Robert Frost (Derry, N.H.), Henry Longfellow (Cambridge, Mass., although it will be closed until October), Herman Melville (Bedford, Mass.), Edith Wharton (Lenox, Mass.) and Mark Twain and Harri et Beecher Stowe (Hartford, Conn.).
But the Northeast has no lock on literary landmarks. From Pearl Buck's house in Perkasie, Pa., to Washington Irving's estate in Tarrytown, N.Y., the mid-Atlantic also is well-endowed. In the South, there are the homes of William Faulkner (Oxford, Miss.), Ernest Hemingway (Key West, Fla.) and Carl Sandburg (Flat Rock, N.C.). Severely damaged in a fire last July, Thomas Wolfe's home in Asheville, N.C., is being restored.
The Midwest has Willa Cather (Red Cloud, Minn.) and Sinclair Lewis (Sauk Centre, Minn.). California boasts John Steinbeck (Salinas), Robinson Jeffers (Carmel) and Eugene O' Neill (Danville) to name but three.
Perhaps no country has more literary landmarks per square mile than England. In fact, considering all the cathedrals, cottages, colleges, even whole counties associated with a particular writer, it's hard to go anywhere in England without stumbling across the lair of some literary lion. And the British Tourist Authority makes them very easy to find.
Its nifty fold-out map "Literary Britain" identifies dozens of locations with strong ties to some 90 different writers.
Illustrated in full-color, it includes homes where these sacred scribblers were born and lived and schools and universities they attended, as well as the landscapes, both rural and urban, that inspired their work.
In addition to many of the better-known locations, such as Shakespeare's Stratford and the poet's corner in Westminster Abbey, there's the little cottage in Chalfont St. Giles where John Milton wrote "Paradise Lost," Charles Dickens' birthplace in Portsmouth and George Bernard Shaw's home near Luton.
The map points out the villages of Thomas Hardy's Dorset, the rolling green hills of the Lake Dis trict that inspired Beatrix Potter, and Hartfield, the quaint Sussex hamlet that was the setting for A. A. Milne's stories of Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends. Then there's the London cemetery where Karl Marx is buried.
For more information, find a copy of "Ideals Guide to Literary Landmarks" by Michelle Burke or the "U.S. Guide to Literary Landmarks" by Geri and Eben Bass.
For a copy of "Literary Britain," call 212-986-2200 or send a self-addressed, business-size envelope with 52 cents postage to the British Tourist Authority, 551 Fifth Ave., Suite 701, New York, NY 10176
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