11 Perfect Bookish Places to Visit in California’s Wine Country
You probably don’t immediately think of California’s wine country as a vibrant place for bibliophiles but both the Napa and Sonoma Valleys are rich with literary history and sites to see. There are boutique, independent bookstores to pursue and estates of iconic authors to visit. There are two state parks named after authors within the […]
Everything You Must See in Robert Louis Stevenson’s California
This post contains affiliate links Best known for favorites such as Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson had quite a life in his 44 years. A Scotsman, he was born and educated in Edinburgh and endured chronic sickness from a young age. He would experience palpable sickness […]
Visit the John Muir National Historic Site: The Beautiful Home of an Iconic Preservationist, Author, and Father of Our National Parks
This post contains affiliate links A visit to the John Muir National Historic Site is absolutely worth it if you’re in the Martinez area–roughly 35 miles northwest of San Francisco or just want to pay homage to the father of our National Parks System. Muir authored dozens of books, essays, magazine articles and more during […]
The Best Highlights of Dashiell Hammett’s San Francisco
This post contains affiliate links If you’re a fan of The Maltese Falcon or appreciate all things noir, and you’re curious to learn more about Dashiell Hammett’s San Francisco this is the guide for you. Samuel Dashiell Hammett grew up in Philadelphia and Baltimore. He left school at an early age and began working for […]
Explore the Best of Octavia Butler’s Pasadena
This post contains affiliate links Octavia E. Butler was born in Pasadena in 1947 to a shoeshine and a domestic worker during a time of heavy racial segregation. She often accompanied her mother to clean houses (entering through back doors) and witnessed employers treat her mother poorly. She was incredibly shy and it was difficult […]
Maya Angelou’s San Francisco and Beyond: Everything You Need to See
This post contains affiliate links Maya Angelou’s San Francisco is full of places that helped shape the identity of the beloved poet and author. It’s where she first donned the name, Maya Angelou, after all. She graduated high school in the city, got a job as one of (if not the first) Black women streetcar […]
Tour the Inspiring M.F.K. Fisher’s Last House
This post contains affiliate links While most travelers head north of San Francisco to Glen Ellen to enjoy Sonoma wineries, visit the Jack London State Historic Park, or to eat at the Glen Ellen Star, making time to visit M.F.K. Fisher’s Last House is so worth the memorable experience. WHO WAS M.F.K. FISHER? A tour-de-force […]
The Best Beat Generation Literary Sites in San Francisco
San Francisco is an incredibly rich city of literary sites and so much of that is based on the Beat Generation. Whether they knew it or not at the time, the group of writers and poets who lived in post-war San Francisco in the 1950s created an entire literary subculture. Most of the local haunts […]
10 Best Literary Sites in San Francisco
With such rich literary history, there are dozens of literary sites in San Francisco to visit on your next trip. This list was hard to create, as I am leaving out some incredible places (and people) that have touched the literary world of the City by the Bay. But if I had to narrow it […]
The Best John Steinbeck Literary Sites in Salinas
This post contains affiliate links You can’t really drive through the Salinas Valley of California and not think about John Steinbeck. There were other authors to write about the “everyday man” before him such as Mark Twain and Jack London but Steinbeck really knew how to capture the experiences of the working man. Born in […]
