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Literary Adventures: The Five Best Lit Trips for Fall in the U.S.

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Fall is the best time for literary travel just about anywhere, including Newport, Rhode island.
Fall is the best time for literary travel just about anywhere, including Newport, Rhode island.

If you’re a traveler, fall, not Christmas, is the “most wonderful time of the year.” Same sites but fewer crowds, cooler temps, and often, lower prices. It’s the perfect time to go so many places, you may find it hard to choose a destination. The answer lies on your bookshelf. Whether they’re classics or “beach reads,” your favorite books can offer guidance and inspiration for a “lit trip” to see the sites of the stories, absorb the environment that inspired the authors, and even walk the paths of fictional characters.  Literary travel allows you to extend the experience of a great book and expand your understanding of your destination. Reading and travel enhance each other, and one taste will leave you yearning to go back for more. Best of all, you don’t need to head for Hemingway’s favorite Paris haunts or Jane Austen’s English countryside to take a lit trip. Opportunities for book-based travel abound in the U.S., too, and many are at their best in fall.

California Wine Country – Vintage Reading

Harvest time in California’s wine regions, typically from mid-August through October, Unknown-13overflows with vibrant golden yellow and crimson colors and the trucks rumbling by overflow with grapes ready for the crush.  M.F.K. Fisher captured the delights of Napa and Sonoma where she lived and wrote her classic essays on food, wine, and life. Jack London also loved the Sonoma area where he lived and wrote in his later years. And, for fans of another type of grape, The Grapes of Wrath (which has absolutely nothing to do with wine), the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas, is a short jaunt from wine country, making literature and wine the perfect blend for fall travel.

Read: M.F.K. Fisher, Musings on Wine and Other Libations, (Anne Zimmerman, ed.)

Jack London, Valley of the Moon (another name for Sonoma),

For more contemporary reading, try James Conaway, Nose, and Rex Picket, Sideways.

Explore: the vineyards of Napa and Sonoma counties, and take a side trip to the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas (www.steinbeck.org)

Stay: L’Auberge Du Soleil, Rutherford (www.aubergedusoleil.com)

Eat: pack a picnic and enjoy it on the grounds of your favorite winery or in Jack London State Historic Park in Glen Ellen www.jacklondonpark.com

Events: Fall in wine country means special celebrations of wine and food such as Flavor! Napa Valley in November (flavornapavalley.com), vintner dinners such as those at Grgich winery (grgich.com). Schramsberg winery in Calistoga offers special camps in fall and spring for wine and food lovers (www.schramsberg.com/news/campschramsberg)

Santa Fe – Willa Cather’s Archbishop Comes to LifeUnknown-14

Santa Fe is a sensory fiesta year-round but in fall the aroma of roasting chili peppers adds to the mix. New Mexico’s beauty, dramatic history, and architecture have lured for artists and writers for decades.  Among them, D.H. Lawrence (to Taos) and Willa Cather, who captured the drama of the New Mexico environment as she wrote a fictional version of the real-life story of Bishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy, in Death Comes for the Archbishop.  Shoppers and art lovers will find equally dramatic adventures in Santa Fe.

Read: Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop

Explore: Bishop’s Lodge which offers a spa, horseback riding, and a chance to see Bishop Lamy’s chapel and home. (www.bishopslodge.com)

Stay: Inn on the Alameda (www.innonthealameda.com)

Eat: The Shed (www.sfshed.com)

Events: Santa Fe Wine and Chili Fiesta (www.santafewineandchile.org)

Newport, RI – America’s “Downton Abbey”1492312

Since the 1800s, America’s wealthiest families have flocked to Newport, Rhode Island, and built summer “cottages” that most of us would call “palaces.” Among them was Edith Wharton, who wrote of her experiences in Gilded Age Newport in books such as The Buccaneers, which is about wealthy heiresses who married into the British aristocracy, much like “Downton Abbey’s” Cora Crawley. You can explore Newport’s Gilded Age mansions as well as its gorgeous seaside sites. The more “off season” you go, the more you can afford live like a Vanderbilt.

Read: Gail McColl and Carol Wallace, To Marry and English Lord 

Edith Wharton, The Buccaneers

Explore: Newport Mansions (newportmansions.org)

Stay: Vanderbilt Grace (www.gracehotels.com/vanderbilt)  Ask about packages that include admission to the Newport Mansions.

Eat: The Mooring (www.mooringrestaurant.com)

Events:

Polo matches, sailing regattas, or just a hike along Cliff Walk.  In Newport you can sample “upper crust activities” or just enjoy the view. (www.gonewport.com)

Nantucket – A Whale of a Trip

You can’t find a more concentrated dose of New England charm than in Nantucket. And, if you’re a fan of Herman Melville’s whale tale, Moby Dick, you know that Nantucket is the place where Captain Ahab’s ship, the Peaquod, set sail.

Read: Herman Melville, Moby Dick,

Nathaniel Philbrick, Why Read Moby-Dick? and In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex

Sena Jeter Nasland, Ahabs Wife

Or for more contemporary tales, read Summerland and other books by Nantucket resident Elin Hilderbrand.

Stay: White Elephant (www.whiteelephanthotel.com)

Eat: Millie’s. Enjoy the sunset and sample a Whale Tale Pale Ale. (www.milliesnantucket.com)

Explore: Nantucket Whaling Museum (www.nha.org)

Events: The Nantucket Maritime Festival. You’ll hear sea shanties sung, see harpoons thrown, and boats raced. (www.nantucketmaritimefestival.org)

Driftless in WisconsinUnknown-15

Because of its geology, the Driftless Area of southwest Wisconsin is a place tailor-made for meandering. And the fall colors are reaching their peak in Wisconsin right now. As David Rhodes explains it in his beautiful book Driftless, “The last of the Pleistocene glaciers did not trample through this area, and the glacial deposits of rock, clay, sand, and silt–called drift–are missing.  Hence its name, the Driftless Region.  Singularly unrefined, it endured in its hilly, primitive form untouched by the shaping hands of those cold giants.” In this area, you’ll meet friendly folks who may remind you of the characters in Rhodes’s book—organic farmers, artists, shopkeepers, and the nice Norwegian lady at the dairy coop.  Amish folks sell produce and hand-made wares at roadside stands, making the entire area a giant farmers market through fall. By the end of your trip, you’ll be reluctant to leave.  But you can return by reading Rhodes’s newest book, Jewel Weed.

Read: David Rhodes, Driftless and its sequel, Jewel Weed

Stay: Charming B&Bs abound in the Driftless Area. Check out The Roth House(therothhouse.com) and the sister property The Old Oak Inn (theoldoakinn.net) in Soldier’s Grove or Westby House Inn in Westby (www.westbyhouse.com)

Eat: Driftless Cafe, Viroqua (www.driftlesscafe.com)

Explore: Amish farms and shops (www.downacountryroad.com) and Wildcat Mountain State Park (www.dnr.wi.gov/topic/parks/name/wildcat/)  For more Driftless information see driftlesswisconsin.com

Events: Gays Mills Apple Festival (www.gaysmills.org/Apple_Festival)

Newport, Rhode Island

Things To Do in Newport, Rhode Island

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Newport Rhode Island, www.offthebeatenpagetravel.com

There’s plenty to do in Newport, Rhode Island, year-round, but “America’s first resort” really swings into action starting Memorial Day weekend, through Labor Day. For example, you can spend a weekend sampling great chowder in Newport any time of year, but the Great Chowder Cook Off takes place June 1. You can plan a picnic and head for Brenton Point State Park to fly kites and enjoy the fabulous scenery and the Newport Kite Festival July 13 and 14. And, there’s the world famous Newport Jazz Festival August 2, 3, and 4.  You can watch polo events and tennis tournaments, attend sailing regattas and find opportunities to go sailing yourself.

Admittedly, when you arrive in Newport,  you may feel like you somehow stepped out of your car and into a Ralph Lauren ad.  The town is a haven for hot-pink and lime-green plaid shorts, deck shoes, and monogrammed sweaters. But, as you may have seen from a few of my previous posts (see “The American Stories Behind Downton Abbey,” “Gifts for Mom“) I really love Newport, because it offers activities for just about every taste, even if you’re not part of the preppie set.  And, while modern-day events like those above abound, the town also offers a special chance to glimpse its Gilded Age history when you go “calling” at the fabulous mansions along Bellevue Avenue.  To get in the mood for your Newport trip, be sure to read Edith Wharton’s The Buccaneers, Thornton Wilder’s Theophilus North, or non-fiction works such as Lucius Beebe’s The Big Spenders or Amanda Mackenzie Stuart’s Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: The Story of a Daughter and a Mother in the Gilded Age. You’ll also want to check out a blog I’ve found, The American Countess, which is written by someone even more intrigued with Gilded Age Newport than I.

Newport is one of the destinations I investigate in  Off The Beaten Page: 
The Best Trips for Lit Lovers, Book Clubs and Girls on Getaways. Find out more at http://www.terripetersonsmith.com

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Gifts for Mom: Ten Book Ideas to Inspire A Mother’s Day Adventure

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Give your mom the Mother’s Day gift she really wants: time with her kids and a good book.  

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My 80-plus-year-old mother and I went sailing last year in Narragansett Bay while doing a Edith Wharton-related trip to Newport, Rhode Island. You can create a lit-trip just about anywhere, a great Mother’s Day gift.

It’s often a challenge to find an interesting way to celebrate Mother’s Day beyond flowers and candy, or maybe breakfast in bed.  But the gift of a good book and a book-based adventure to go with it makes a present any Mom will treasure.

Women love to bond over books. The popularity of book clubs proves that. But Moms and their kids—of any age—can also share the experience of reading a great book together.  Better yet, take reading a step further with a “lit trip,” based on the book. Meaningful time with her kids is the gift every mother wants.

My book, Off The Beaten Page: The Best Trips for Lit Lovers, Book Clubs, and Girls on Getaways offers reading lists and itineraries for three-day “lit trips” to 15 U.S. destinations. But it’s easy to create your own lit trip close to home, no matter where you live. Think “field trip” like the kind you took in school, only without the yellow bus and the sack lunch. Find a book topic that interests both you and your mother (or your kids), then think of place to go where you can experience the subject of the book in person. These don’t have to be high-brow or “girly” outings. We’re not talking reading Keats or Shelley and dancing the gavotte.  Here are a few of my ideas for Mother’s Day lit trips for readers, from young adults to the young at heart:

  1. For those who love horses or horse-racing- Read Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit
    Read Seabiscuit and head for the racetrack
    Read Seabiscuit and head for the racetrack

    and spend an afternoon at the track or visit a horse farm.

  2. For fans of “whodunits” – Read a book about an art heist such as The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World’s Largest Unsolved Art Theft by Ulrich Boser or The Rockwell Heist by Bruce Rubenstein and visit an art museum.
  3. For history buffs – Read Assassination Vacation by Sarah Vowell (or ask a librarian for tips on great books about your local history) and visit an historical society, battlefield or landmark.
  4. For baseball fans – Read Bernard Malmud’s The Natural or Michael Lewis’s Moneyball and take in a game together.
  5. For animal lovers – Read Temple Grandin’s Animals Make Us Human or Julie Klan’s Love at First Bark: How Saving a Dog Can Sometimes Help You Save Yourself and visit or volunteer at an event at your local humane society or animal rescue group.
  6. For the outdoorsy – Read Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest  Trail and go take a hike.
  7. For music fans– Read an autobiography by a favorite musician or other book about music and take in a concert. Try Cash: The Autobiography; Blues All Around Me by B.B. King; or  Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller.
  8. For cooks – Read Animal Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver or My Life in France by Julia Child and visit a farmers’ market or take a cooking class.
  9. For movie goers – Read F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby or Therese Anne
    How does the movie compare to the book? Read the Great Gatsby and then take in the movie. A great outing for Mother's Day.
    How does the movie compare to the book? Read the Great Gatsby and then take in the movie. A great outing for Mother’s Day.

    Fowler’s Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald and see the new Gatsby movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

  10. And, for moms who really do love flowers, read The Language of Flowers: A Novel, by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and go on an arboretum or garden tour.

Off The Beaten Page: The Best Trips for Lit Lovers, Book Clubs, and Girls on Getaways, published by Chicago Review Press, is available now in bookstores and online everywhere.