Tag Archives: Wadsworth Longfellow House

American Writers Museum

Longfellow house and garden May 2015I am a big fan of literary sites – of course it helps that my office looks out onto the Longfellow Garden, behind the Wadsworth-Longfellow House, home of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of America’s most beloved poets. One of these days I want to travel the country, visiting literary homes and sites, reading and blogging about the literary works as I visit writer’s homes. But perhaps my first stop should be in Chicago at the American Writers Museum, which opens in 2017. The Wadsworth-Longfellow House and Garden is one of the affiliates.

The American Writers Museum Foundation is a 501 (c)(3) organization whose mission is to establish the first national museum in the United States dedicated to engaging the public in celebrating American writers and exploring their influence on our history, our identity, our culture and our daily lives.

Check it out! http://americanwritersmuseum.org/

 

MHS Book Group: Home Is Where the Heart Is

Another great book group is being offered at the Maine Historical Society, in conjunction with the current MHS exhibit on

Home: The Longfellow House and the Emergence of Portland

Tuesday, January 27 – Tuesday, May 26, 2015

MHS Book Group: Home Is Where the Heart Is

Wadsworth-Longfellow House, ca. 1880 (MMN #5417)

Wadsworth-Longfellow House, ca. 1880 (MMN #5417)

Facilitator: Larissa Vigue Picard, Director of Education

Join us this January through May for our sixth annual MHS reading group–a great opportunity to engage in literary discussions about history and connect with members of the MHS community.

“Home Is Where the Heart Is” takes as its stepping off point the 2014-2015 MHS museum exhibition, Home: The Longfellow House and the Emergence of Portland. Session readings explore themes of home, family, place, immigration, and community in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry with a historical resonance. There are even a couple haunted houses in the mix!

Books must be acquired on your own and include Tracy Kidder’s House, Sarah Waters’s The Little Stranger, Terry Farish’s The Good Braider, and George Howe Colt’s The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home. A number of additional short readings (essays, poetry, and a short story) will be provided as handouts or are available online.

WHEN: Tuesdays 1/27, 2/24, 3/24, 4/28, 5/26 @ 6:30PM
WHERE: MHS Lecture Hall
COST: $20 MHS members / $30 non-members (includes handouts/resources, facilitation, and refreshments)
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: Friday, January 23. Registration is required; space is limited. To sign up, email lvpicard@mainehistory.org for a registration form and copy of the full reading list, drop by the MHS museum store to register on-site, or download the registration form and full reading list.

Writers’ Houses

Here is a fun website to peruse through:

http://writershouses.com/

Founded in July 2010 by writer A. N. Devers, Writers’ Houses is an online publication dedicated to the exploring writers’ spaces and art of literary pilgrimage. It includes houses all around the world, even Kenya! (Karen Blixen House and Museum).

One of these days I will make it a goal to visit all these houses. But for now, you can start with two in Maine: the Sarah Orne Jewett House in South Berwick and the Wadsworth-Longfellow House in Portland, home of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Wadsworth Longfellow House black and white rear