"lived in sites connected with literary figures...."

As some here know, I grew up in Atlanta, home of Margaret Mitchell, author of "Gone With the Wind." Her own neighborhood was across the city from where I lived. When I was a girl, my mother pointed out to me the corner where she was run over, on the notorious "Peachtree Street." There was an aura of legend that burnished the author's memory.

At present, I live in the home city of author William Styron, now deceased. His novel, "Lie Down in Darkness" is a roman a clef, about actual personnages in his native city. He grew up in quaint Hilton Village, which leafy streets and old houses were the setting of "A Tidewater Morning", based upon his boyhood memories. In fact, I live within walking distance of his childhood home in the Village, built circa 1919, English style, with slate roof and sidewalks.

For one year about twenty years ago I lived in a small rural town called Honesdale, Pennsylvania, located along the Lackawaxen River. Honesdale's main claim to fame is that it was the home of the Stourbridge Lion, the first commercial steam locomotive to run on rails in the United States. This is anthracite coal country and I believe it was used to transport coal.

On the other side of the Lackawaxen is a tall, steep hill. Up on that hill, Washington Irving was said to sit and write as he overlooked the view. Whether this is true or local rumor I cannot say; but it is indeed a fine view.

Rosefolly

Styron is one of my very favorite authors. I think I have read all of his books at one time or another and reread several of them.

I currently live in the actual Country of the Pointed Firs as described by Sarah Orne Jewett. When I am walking home up the hill with my back to the harbor I always think of her. Things aren't so different in many ways, and I live in a house that was built in 1850. She may have actually seen this very house; I like to think so.

I didn't live in the same town, but I lived north of Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., home to John Updike for many years. I saw him several times, he was very active in the community. He was originally from Pennsylvania, I believe. Although he was mostly known for his novels, he was a wonderful poet.

Speaking of Boston, it is pretty awful darn literary itself, although I never lived in the city itself (way too expensive, alas).

Lackawaxen, I love it!

Two more author connections here. I was a student at Penn State in the 1970's. While there I took a class on the history of science fiction from a professor named Philip Klass. He was himself a noted SF writer under the name William Tenn. He died earlier this year.

Finally, I currently live in the Silicon Valley. We moved here about twenty years ago and I expected to be bumping into famous people all the time, at the library, at the movie theater, in line at the grocery store. Perhaps I have, but if so I never recognized any of them. At a nearby community college, writer Chitra Bannnerjee Divakaruni used to teach, and at the time she lived in the town next to me. While I have taken horticulture classes at that school, I never met her, and she has since moved on to Texas. I like her books a lot.

Are movie connections of interest? When my husband was in college, he was one year a housemate of George Romero of zombie movie fame.

R

I visited Ralph Waldo Emerson's house in Concord, Massachusetts, and rode past that of Louisa Mae Alcott without, alas, time to stop.

Louisville is the home of Sena Jeter Naslund who wrote, among others, Ahab's Wife which I really liked. I have quoted the first line from that novel as one of my favorite opening lines: "Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last."

A small town now on the outskirts of Louisville is Peewee Valley, home of Annie Fellows Johnston who wrote the Little Colonel series. They are quite dated (as well as politically incorrect these days) but in my day were delightful stories of a little girl growing into womanhood. You may have seen the movie with Shirley Temple based on the first book, but, as is usual, the book was much better. When my daughter was the right age, we used to drive out there to an old house whose owner collected and resold the books. We managed to get an entire set, but they are not of the same publishing date and do not match. The house Mrs. Johnston called The Locusts in the books still stands but is occupied so you can't go inside. I worked with a woman once who knew the woman upon whom Betty was based.

Liz Curtiss Higgs is another Louisvillian. She is a humorist speaker and writer as well as having written several religious books. I have had the privilege of hearing her speak, and she is hilarious.

I grew up northwest of Philadelphia, in the area made famous by Jerry Spinelli in his Newbery winning Maniac Magee. A small zoo features in that story-we went there often as children.

Holly Payne, who wrote The Virgin's Knot, grew up and went to school where my children did, albeit a few years ahead of them.

There is a mystery author who lives in my county now, but I didn't like the first one, haven't read any others over the years and can't for the life of me remember or find his name. There are lawyers in the series, that is all I remember;-)

I grew up in the town where Noah Webster, writer of the first American Dictionary was born. His house -- which had been modernized and lived in since the 1700's -- was gifted to the town in the 1960's and stripped back to its original state. It is now a museum and, though tiny, well worth a visit.

The largest city near me is Hartford, CT, which was home to both Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe, and both of their magnificent homes are now museums. The Twain house in particular is stunning. He wrote Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court while living in Hartford.

Katherine Hepburn also grew up in Hartford, and as a child I used to vacation a town or two away from her shoreline home. Though I never saw her (and oh, how badly I wanted to!), I have seen her lovely home -- though only at a distance :)

As for other literary connections, one of my college English professors was Oliver Butterworth, author of The Enormous Egg, a book I loved as a child. He was charming, delightful and a true gentleman.

Siobhan, I was lucky enough to live on Beacon Hill in Boston in the 1960's, before it became "gentrified" and prices sky-rocketed. It was marvelous to live near Louisburg Square, first, then on an alley, Cedar Lane Way. For me, it always had the aura of Edith Wharton. I loved the small community, and from my roof, had a marvelous view of the Charles River. Just as is Paris, Boston is a very literary city.

Carolyn, I came along just as the Little Colonel books were falling out of favor. I own a couple and thought them quite charming, as a girl.

Rosefolly/Paula your mention of Washington Irving reminds me that he visited my old home town of Stratford-on-Avon, where the hotel in which he stayed named a room in his honour.
Despite all its connections with Shakespeare a more recent literary figure and 'popular novelist' of the Edwardian era Marie Corelli moved to Stratford, quarrelled with many of the 'locals' and kept a gondola on the River Avon where a man-servant, dressed in the correct get-up steered her up and down the river.
This gondola has recently been re-discovered and brought back to Stratford for repairs at my brother's boat yard. Perhaps one day, I'll get to ride in it. ;-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Marie Corelli and her gondola (scroll down)

When I was growing up in England, I lived in Bedford which was famous for John Bunyan who wrote "Pilgrim's Progress" whilst he was in jail there. The jail is no longer there, but there is a floor plaque in its place detailing Bunyan's ordeal etc.

I have never read "Pilgrim's Progress" nor do I know anyone who has. It always looked extremely boring to me, but perhaps I'm wrong...

Now I'm in Texas, I am not too far from Amarillo who has a famous romance author called Jodi Thomas who is supposed to be a bigwig in that world....

F. Scott Fitzgerald is buried, improbably enough, at St. Mary's Cemetery just off Rockville Pike in Maryland, a bustling stretch of commercial enterprises that goes on for miles. The site is perhaps 8 miles from my house as the crow flies. Zelda resides there with him. My husband is currently reading "The Great Gatsby" and intends to go to the cemetery and finish the last chapter next to Fitzgerald's headstone.

Speaking of F.Scott Fitzgerald. . .I live in his hometown of St. Paul MN. There are at least 5 homes right near mine in which he or family members lived for a time, including the stone rowhouse on Summit Avenue where he lived with Zelda and wrote several books. There's a book on these sites that will guide you on a tour.

My English major niece and I visited the Dickens House in London, too. They have numerous leather-bound volumes of his works there and the desk at which he worked. Alas, I've forgotten which novels he wrote while living there.

Emma Currie rests in a little cemetery only minutes away from where I live. She was a writer of Canadian history, and is best remembered as the author of an early biography of Laura Secord, a heroine of the War of 1812.

Several years ago my book group visited Monterey, California after reading John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row." We toured Doc's lab and some of the other sites mentioned in Steinbeck's various books. We did not visit his museum, however, which is in Salinas. We took over most of a B&B, and had a great time.

J M Coetzee now lives in Adelaide and is an honorary professor at the University of Adelaide. He is somewhat of a recluse I believe, although he does appear at Adelaide Writers' Week.
Peter Goldsworthy is a local who has written quite a few books. The last one I read I didn't like much and haven't tackled another, although I did find it interesting to read a book where I recognised descriptions of the localities.