Pull a chair up to the fire -- the Irish Fireside that is

Pull a seat up to the fire -- click on over to the Irish Fireside for a chance at winning A Journey into Ireland's Literary Revival. While you are there, check out his list of great Irish gifts and other wonderful things. It's a great site.

Passports with a Purpose is a success!

This just in from Passports with a Purpose about their fundraising efforts this December. I am contributing a copy of all three of my books and have sent my money into Heifer International in hopes of one of the great prizes below. Read on for more details:

Passports With Purpose: Get Ready to Win!


I'm excited to announce that we have raised over $3300 for Heifer International through Passports With Purpose! We're not done yet, though, and if you have not yet made a donation, this is your last full week to do so before you head off for the holidays. I'm posting the full list of prizes and instructions below. Odds off winning are still very good, and there are even a few prizes that don't yet have any entries. I thought I'd share that list so that you can rush over to FirstGiving and make your donation (just leave the code number for the prize you want in the comments). For more details, click on the link with each of the prizes below.C03 Merino Wool Long Underwear from Jones Wear ($120) from Nerds Eye ViewC06 Clothing items (one outfit) by Earth Creations from Travel With PurposeC07 His and Her Shirts by ExOfficio from Wanderlust and LipstickK05 $100 Gift Certificate with Babies Travel Lite (sponsored by Babies Travel Lite), signed copy of Travels With Baby($122) from Travels With BabyE04 Tour Pack from Mountainsmith ($70) from GoGreenTravelB03 Five Books from Lonely Planet ($94) from Ever The NomadB04 A selection of books from Lia HadleB07 2 items: Travel with Kids: The Definitive Guide to Family Holidays Worldwide AND A Magnetic Travel Art Kit for Children ($40) from LizAndTobiB08 Where to Go When: The Americas, DK Brazil, DK Peru, DK Argentina ($120) from WandermomB09 Signed copy of Sacred Places of a Lifetime ($40 plus signature value from National GeographicB12 Travel Guide Bonanza from Wandering EducatorsB14 A Set of CDs ($102) from The Blend Magazine
Here is the full list of prizes. Remember that each donation makes a huge difference in the life of a family struggling to keep food on the table.
Prize ID
Description
Blogger
Destinations
D01
3 Nights at the Wyland Waikiki in Hawaii ($400+)
NerdsEyeView
D02
Harlem Food and Cultural Tour ($190)
FarSightedTravelGirl
D03
Seattle TourSaver and Alaska TourSaver ($180)
AlaskaTravelGram
D04
$100 Gift Card for any hotel in the Mr. and Mrs. Smith Hotel Collection ($100)
Mr & Mrs Smith Luxury Hotels
D05
Two night stay for a family of four at The Wildflower Inn in Lyndonville, VT ($400)
TwoAndAHalfTravelers
D06
$100 gift certificate towards any Ciao Bambino property ($100)
Ciao Bambino
D07
2 night stay at B&B in CA($495)
TheBlendMagazine
D08
Cooking class and dinner for 4 in NYC ($600)
Collazo Projects
D09
Culinary Tour of Greenwich Village led by Addie Tomei ($240)
Things You Should Do
D010
PhotoWalks walking tour of Boston for 4 ($120)
Things You Should Do
D011
Horseback riding on the beach in Bradenton, FL ($120)
Things You Should Do
D012
Fairmont Hotel Package, One night in a suite, parking, dinner ($299)
Fairmont Hotel
Photography
P01
Flip Video Camera ($150)
MotherOfAllTrips
P02
$150 Gift Card to B&H Photo (valid online and in store) ($150)
EscapeFromNY
P03
Eye-Fi Wireless Camera Memory Card ($130)
WeJustGotBack
Clothing
C01
$200 shopping spree with ExOfficio & $100 lunch ($300)
WanderlustAndLipstick
C02
1 set of ExOfficio his/her shirts ($148)
Around the Bloc
C03
Merino Wool Long Underwear from Jones Wear ($120)
Nerd's Eye View
C04
Mountain Hardwear Women's Mynx Jacket (medium, dark adobe), Eagle Creek Messenger Bag ($265)
Away.com
C05
Merino Wool Long Underwear from Ibex ($120)
Nerd's Eye View
C06
Clothing items (one outfit) from Earth Creations
Travel With Purpose
C07
His and Her Shirts from ExOfficio ($170)
Wanderlust and Lipstick
Gadgets
G01
Casio Wave Ceptr WR10 Bar World Time Watch ($100)
MomMostTraveled
G02
Solio Charger - portable solar charger ($170)
Trusty Pony
G03
WordPress Premium Theme ($90)
Coming Soon from TravelRants!
Kids
K01
Medela Swing Single Electric Breastpump ($149)
JetWithKids
K02
Maclaren Techno XLR ($350)
JetWithKids
K03
Britax Boulevard Car Seat ($330)
JetWithKids
K04
CARES Flight Safety Harness (sponsored by Kids Fly Safe), signed copy of Travels With Baby ($97)
TravelsWithBaby
K05
$100 Gift Certificate with Babies Travel Lite (sponsored by Babies Travel Lite), signed copy of Travels With Baby($122)
TravelsWithBaby
K06
Sit-n-Stroll convertible car seat and stroller (sponsored by Lilly Gold), signed copy of Travels With Baby ($272)
TravelsWithBaby
K07
Ergo Hands Free Baby Carrier and iPod Shuffle ($213)
DeliciousBaby
K08
Peg Perego Primo Viaggio Infant Car Seat ($290)
Cookie Magazine and Going Places blog
Gift Bags and Baskets
GB01
Grab Bag of fun travel-related gifts including the Funkey Finder, hair products from Tassi, a Carson Lens Pen, luggage tags from BonjourFleurette.com and an Eastport Natural Collection Duffle Bag. ($155)
TravelingMamas
GB02
Grab bag of travel-related gifts from the Moms who participate in GNO
Coming Soon from GNO!
GB03
2 Indonesian sarongs, 2 matching Indonesian pillowcases, 1 Indonesian pillow cover, 1 Chinese bottle cover ($120)
HammockInParadise
GB04
Gift bag of travel goodies
Matador Travel
GB05
Gift basket from SkinStore ($200)
Just Go!
GB06
Makeup and Beauty Package from Erwin Gomez Salon and Spa ($300)
Things You Should Do
GB07
Original Oil Pastel Painting by Lola Akinmade ($250)
Geotraveler's Niche
GB08
TravelMuse Travel Journal, "Inspire Me" T-shirt and $100 Shutterfly gift certificate ($135)
TravelMuse
GB09
$100 gift card from American Express ($100)
Uptake.com
Equipment
E01
Eagle Creek ORV Duffel and Eagle Creek Messenger bags ($210)
Away.com
E02
REI Vagabond Travel Pack and PackTowl UltraLite Towel (XL) from Viking River Cruises ($130)
AlmostFearless
E03
Carry-on luggage from LuggageGuru.com
Go Galavanting
E04
Tour Pack from Mountainsmith ($70)
Go Green Travel Green
Tickets
T01
2009 Tampa Buccaneers home game tickets! ($170)
What Boundaries!
Books and Music
B01
Spain: A Culinary Road Trip by Mario Batali w/Gwyneth Paltrow
1,000 Places to See Before You Die-by Patricia Schultz
Immersion Travel USA-by Sheryl Kayne, Diners
Drive-Ins and Dives-by Guy Fieri
Frommer's 500 Places to See Before They Disappear-by Holly Hughes($100)
MidWestGuest
B02
Gift pack of Barefoot Books ($100+)
BackpackToBuggy
B03
5 books from Lonely Planet
The Travel Book
Best in Travel 2009
The Big Trip
Lonely Planet 2009 Wall Calendar
Travel Journal($94)
EverTheNomad
B04
Lonely Planet Travel Book
5 Time Out city guides of the winner's choice
2 Alastair Sawdays Guides
1 Pocket Comm Communications tool
2 Paperblanks 2009 diaries
HeatherOnHerTravels
B05
5 sets of Moo postcards by collage artist Lia Hadle
Lia Hadley
B06
$100 Gift Certificate for Amazon.com ($100)
MVOnTheSpot
B07
2 books: Travel with Kids: The Definitive Guide to Family Holidays Worldwide AND A Magnetic Travel Art Kit for Children ($40)
LizAndTobi
B08
Where to Go When: The Americas, DK Brazil, DK Peru, DK Argentina ($120)
WanderMom
B09
Signed copy of Sacred Places of a Lifetime ($40 plus signature value :-)
National Geo Intelligent Travel Blog
B10
Lonely Planet Guide of YOUR choice and copies of The Travel Book ($100)
RoamingTales
B11
A Journey into the Transcendentalists' New England A Journey into Ireland's Literary Revival Walking Boston. ($45)
OpenPage-OpenRoad!
B12
Travel guide bonanza:
Lonely Planet's Syria & Lebanon
Frommer's 500 Places to See Before They Disappear
Frommer's NYC Free & Dirt Cheap
Frommer's Cancun and the Yucatan
A Mindful Christmas($100+)
WanderingEducators
B13
$100 worth of Creative Memories Scrapbooking Supplies ($100)
TwoKidsAndAMap
B14
Set of 3 CDs from award winning Native American flutist, Evren Ozan
1 CD from cowboy poet, Mike Moutoux
1 CD from Americana musicians Steve Smith & Hard Road
1 CD from Nashville singer/songwriter Jon Roniger
1 CD from from Phoenix-based Michael & Spider($102)
The Blend Magazine
B15
Putumayo World Music CD's
Women of Africa
Asian Groove
Samba Bossa Nova
Turkish Groove
World Hits($75)
Wanderlust and Lipstick
B16
Signed copies of Getting Lost and Globejotting: How to Write Extraordinary Travel Journals AND a one-hour writing consultation with Dave Fox ($100)
Dave Fox

The Irish Gift of Gabbing about Irish Gifts

This is pretty cool. My book, A Journey into Ireland's Literary Revival, was listed as a top Irish themed gift for 2008 at the Irish Fireside website. These guys handpick stuff from quality craftspeople and artists, so I was thrilled to be included.

Take a look here at the link:

http://irishfireside.com/2008GiftGuide/ and scroll down until you find me.

live author chat on LibraryThing

Friends -

I am answering questions live over on LibraryThing. Stop on by and add to the conversation.

Thanks,

Todd

Passports with a Purpose

No matter how light we pack, we almost always carry our privilege with us. Our simple presence in a foreign land is a clear sign that we have the means to get there, and, as often is the case, when we carry camera equipment and backpacks worth hundreds of American dollars, that message is doubled. I struggle with this often -- how do I respectfully witness and document conditions so very different than mine in a way that empowers those I see, or at the very, very least does not take away from their sense of personal grace and humanity? What is my role as writer and photographer, as fellow human?

While I have no ready answers to these questions and welcome all perspectives, I do know of a few actions I can take. One is to read: read the perspectives of those who live different lives than me, read the accounts and thoughts of other travelers, read the theories of those who spend their lives thinking about these issues. Another is to write. A third option is to help provide the funds to help people overcome the challenges set in front of them.

Today, I grabbing that third option and linking up with Passports with a Purpose, a fundraiser run by four travel bloggers in Seattle. They have set up a December raffle for a series of great prizes offered by a variety of travel bloggers. They are raising funds for Heifer International.

For my part, I be contributing to Heifer International using the First Giving page set up by Passports with a Purpose. And, I am offering a bundled three-pack of my books to a lucky raffle winner. So, go to the First Giving page, make a donation and sign up to win a copy of each of these three books:

A Journey into Ireland's Literary Revival

From the 1890s until the 1920s, a great tide of literary invention swept Ireland. As the country struggled for political independence, the writers who formed the Irish Literary Revival created a new, authentically Irish literature. Some, such as W. B. Yeats, John Synge, and Lady Gregory, celebrated the mystical tradition of Ireland’s west; others, such as Sean O’Casey, explored Dublin’s crowded streets and tenements. This fascinating, revealing, and beautiful book examines the relationship between these writers and the towns and countryside that fueled their imaginations. Party history, part biography, and part travel guide, A Journey into Ireland’s Literary Revival takes the reader to Galway, the Aran Islands, Mayo, Sligo, Wicklow, and Dublin. Along the route, it visits the cottages and castles, crags and glens, theaters and pubs where some of the country’s finest writers shaped an enduring vision of Ireland.

A Journey into the Transcendentalists' New England
This lavishly illustrated volume examines the major figures of the Transcendentalist movement and explores the places that inspired them. Beginning with Transcendentalism’s birth in Boston and Cambridge, the book charts the development of a movement that revolutionized American ideas about the artistic, spiritual, and natural worlds. At the same time, it creates a vivid sense of New England in the nineteenth century, from its idyllic countryside and sleepy towns to its bustling ports and burgeoning cities. The book is divided geographically into chapters, each focusing on a town or village famous for its relationship to one or more of the Transcendentalists. Thus, for instance, one chapter spotlights Cambridge, where Ralph Waldo Emerson delivered his path-breaking lectures, while another explores Walden, when Henry David Thoreau spent two years attuning himself to the rhythms of nature. Other chapters retrace the paths of writers and poets such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Emily Dickinson, and Margaret Fuller through Salem, Amherst, Boston, and Concord and the utopian communities of Brook Farm and the Fruitlands.


Walking Boston

Boston has a revolutionary history that has established the city as New England’s cultural and historic capital. Here you can experience American history and fresh pasta in the North End, visit the shiny new waterfront and 50-acre greenway post-Big Dig, or wander the cobblestone streets to Henry David Thoreau’s house in Beacon Hill—and it’s all conveniently within walking distance. This portable guide features detailed maps for each trip, original photos, and public transportation information for every trip. Route summaries make each walk easy to follow, and a “Points of Interest” section summarizes each walk’s highlights. The 36 walks include trivia about architecture, local culture, and the city’s rich history, plus tips on where to dine, have a drink, and shop.

Chasing Frisbees in the Sky

Rest in Peace, Unti

She was a great dog -- happiest when chasing frisbees, swimming, or just lying around with us. We will miss her terribly.

Wandering Educators Brings Me Home

Do you ever have the experience when you are traveling of turning a corner in a city you’ve never been in before and having the feeling you’ve been there before? There’s something almost comforting in the layout of the buildings or the smell of a nearby bakeshop that seems somehow almost like home. Recently, in my various wandering around the travel-related corners of the web, I came across the name of a website that intrigued me. With the same curiosity that gets me peering down alleyways in strange cities, I clicked on the link and it brought me here: Wandering Educators.

From the moment the page booted up, I knew there was something strangely familiar about the place. This website is a compendium of compelling stories, important travel tips, job postings, sabbatical homes, and travel deals. The layout is simple and straightforward, the blog post titles unpretentious, and the whole vibe positive and encouraging. It simultaneously welcomes me home and sends me out the door for new experiences.

Founded in 2007, the website is the brainchild of husband and wife team, Jessie Voigts and Ed Forteau. In an email interview, Voigts told me that they wanted to create a project that they could work on together. With Voigts’ background in education and travel, Wandering Educators was a natural choice. However, they had no idea how quickly the idea would catch on. Since the founding, they have grown tremendously and now see over a thousand visitors a day. After tapping Joel Carillet to be chief editor, they have added over forty editors in charge of writing and recruiting new content in areas as diverse as Italy and teaching in South Korea. Although these are volunteer positions now, as the site grows, Voigts anticipates a revenue sharing agreement with her editors. Although she claims to want to slow down, Ms. Voigts seems indefatigable, posting post after post on other travel sites and blogs, travel books, and tips for traveling with children.

Of the many stories posted by Wandering Educators, there are stories on heritage trips, hidden gems of Ireland, reviews of travel books and websites, and breaking travel news. I also appreciate the “artist of the month” and “photographer of the month” features, as they introduce me to visions of worlds I might not otherwise see.

For me, one of the most tempting places on Wandering Educators is the listing of sabbatical homes in places like New Zealand, Egypt, Turkey & Germany. Actually living in a country is such a completely different experience than just traveling through it. My wife and I experienced that while living and working in Austria and have been longing to move back ever since we left. So, if anyone knows of a job in the Salzburg area, please let me know.

In the meantime, I like what I see at Wandering Educators and may just make myself at home here.

Vote Like a Transcendentalist

Vote Like a Transcendentalist


Like many Americans, I have been thinking a lot about this election and my place in the historic nature of it. As a modern day Transcendentalist, I turned to the likes of Thoreau and Emerson for their thoughts. Thoreau, who famously marched to the beat of his own drummer, quoted the motto, “the government is best which governs least” in his essay, “On Civil Disobediance,” calling government “a sort of wooden gun to the people themselves.” This is the man who famously spent the night in jail for failure to pay a local tax because he did not want to support the American government’s war with Mexico.

However, contrary to popular belief, Thoreau did not call for the abolishment of government:

But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.

In following this call, I am making known what kind of government will command my respect: one that will weigh many options before deciding what might be best for the majority of the world’s citizens, not just Americans; one that recognizes that we are merely temporary inhabitants of this earth and not owners of it; and one that will seek to erase the divides and injustices that separate us from each other and not seek to institutionalize them. That, for me, is best represented by the candidacy of Barack Obama, and I urge all of you to get out and vote.

The Voices of Moore Hall

BLOGAPALOOZA STORY!

This story is part of Angela Nickerson's Blogapalooza event over at her blog, Just Go!

After reading this little tale, click on over there and read some of the stories there and sign in to win prizes, including my own A Journey into the Transcendentalists' New England and A Journey into Ireland's Literary Revival. In fact, this little story comes from my research for that book.

The Voices of Moore Hall

It was still a bit chilly the morning I pulled into the small parking area along the northern shore of Lough Carra, a large lake near the center of County Mayo in Ireland. I was there early that morning to catch the morning light on what had been the novelist George Moore's home until it burned down in 1923. George Moore was a colleague and friend of the poet William Butler Yeats and occasionally hosted the poet at this house. I had driven in to the area the night before from Galway and would continue on to Sligo in the afternoon.

Day was just dawning steel grey as I headed up the path toward the house. About halfway up the path, I looked back and could see my footprints in the wet grass leading up from the dark grey water of Lough Carra on the other side of my car. I continued on.

When I got to the house, I set up my tripod and began taking the photos I needed for my book. It was very quiet in the early morning and, as the sun rose, it did little against the thick wool blanket of clouds overhead. I continued to shoot the house and marveled at how a house this massive and historically important could just be left in the middle of the woods. There was a sign to the right of what had been the front entrance stating that the inside was off limits, and iron bars on the first floor doorways and windows, but other than that, there was nothing...and nobody around. Standing on the porch, under that granite portico, I also noticed that if I climbed over to the first story window from the porch, I could actually climb up through the window above the iron bars and drop into the interior of the house to explore.

Of course my curiosity got the better of me, and I climbed inside the house. It was tremendous to stand on the inside of the crumbling building and try to imagine what it was like, imagine the parties and grand gatherings of literary talent. Because the interior of the house was completely gutted, there was no way I could get up to the upper stories, but there was a stone staircase down to the basement, the dark basement.

Well, okay. I'm not going to say I wasn't scared at all, but I knew that was just plain silly. So, gripping my tripod like a baseball bat, I went down the stairs. And, I was right, there was nothing down there but what one visitor described as a "sinister labyrinth of arched corridors and dark rooms, their floors carpeted by a mulch of decaying leaves and squelching mud."

But, while I was down there, flashing my camera flash into corners not to take pictures, but to see what was there, I heard voices upstairs. Shit! I had left my camera bag and car keys just inside the front door in easy view. I immediately had visions of the local police hauling me off to jail for trespassing and having to call my publisher to spring me out. Or, perhaps worse, someone stealing my stuff and rental car. The voices were actually inside the house, so whoever it was either had the keys to the lock on the iron gate or had climbed through the window like I had.

I crept back up the stairs, again with my tripod in hand and peaked around the corner. Hmm. Nobody. The voices had gone. My stuff was there, untouched. Maybe the voices just sounded like they were in the house. I slipped back out the window and dropped back down to the grass below. I looked around the sides of the house -- still nobody. The group must have just come up to the front door, looked in the gate and then headed back down the path, disappearing before I got back upstairs. Whew, nothing to worry about.

I chuckled to myself and shouldered my camera bag to head back to my car. I guess I startle easily. Then, I noticed that my footprints in the wet grass were still the only ones leading up to Moore Hall. Nobody else had come this way.

The Story is in the Details

One of the temptations I fight against when I photograph literary sites is to try to get everything into one shot. So I will stand across the street and try to get the house and surrounding trees, like this photograph of The Wayside in Concord, Massachusetts.

Both the Alcott family (think Louisa May Alcott and her eccentric educational reformer father, Bronson) and Nathaniel Hawthorne lived in the house. The leaves were at peak and it is an okay picture – but it is just a house. It doesn’t tell the story. The top floor addition was put on by Nathaniel Hawthorne – he called it his “Sky Tower.” He built it as a quiet writing retreat and put in a writing desk where he could pen his stories while standing. So, this picture is better for telling that story:





However, the best part of this trip was that I had contacted the house beforehand and spoke with the ranger in charge, Bob Derry, who agreed to not only give me a personalized tour, but allowed me to take photographs on the inside. So, I was able to get the picture I ended up including in the book:

Although this is not my favorite photograph, I’m happy with the sense of writer and place it gives. I think it tells the story of writer and place in a way that the first one does not. It gives a sense of intimacy.

Follow Me!

Hey - Follow Me!

Okay, I'm hoping it will be much easier to get people to follow my blog than to get this group moving in any one direction. I've added the "follow me" widget to my blog (look right) so you can sign up and check out new content when I post it. And with exciting new posts on photography, literary destination, green building, book marketing and the values of the two-two lineup for second-grade soccer, you will want to stay informed every step of the way.

It's a Party! A Blogapalooza Even!

My friend and fellow author, Angela Nickerson is hosting a blogapalooza party on October 29 at her blog:

http://aknickerson.blogspot.com/2008/10/blogapalooza-october-29.html

I will be slipping a few copies of my books into her goody bag for the party and contributing a strange trip of my own to the tale-telling. Put it on the calendar and stop on by.

Best Way to Plan a Best Weekend

Make the most out of the clear, crisp fall weekends with a trip to Boston. Grab a copy of Walking Boston and get to Beantown for a true taste of fall. The trees at the Arnold Arboretum are near peak, the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway is getting ready to celebrate its opening, and the waters of the Charles River will soon be churning with thousands of oars of crew teams from around the world.

If you go, take a look at this website, Jim Flynn’s Best Weekends. It’s a compendium of great tips and insider information for prime places to get away for the weekend all along the Eastern Seaboard. If you just want to hand the planning off to someone else, Best Weekends will find and book the perfect hotel, make reservations at the right restaurant, and snag those theater tickets you’ve been wanting. So, with perfect walking weather and the fall leaves providing the show, get online to Best Weekends, and then get out on the streets.

How to Photograph Literary Landmarks - The Old Manse

Photographing The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts

As I began working on A Journey into the Transcendentalists’ New England, I read Ralph Waldo Emerson’s book, Nature. He wrote it while living at the Old Manse, and the book serves as one of the foundations of Transcendentalism. Here is a key passage from the beginning of Nature:

In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, -- no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, -- my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, -- a mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God.
For me, this became a central tenet to my photography. Try to become Emerson’s “transparent eye-ball” and see “all.” This was particularly difficult on Boston’s Common during rush hour, but not so much at the Old Manse.

In Nature, Emerson writes of the importance of escaping not just from the society but also from one’s “chamber.” To that end, I wanted to capture a sense of the chamber in which Emerson wrote. Unfortunately, at the Manse (as at many literary landmarks), you need special permission requiring an application and a fee to shoot photographs for publication from the inside, so I set up this shot of the outside.

At the Old manse in Concord, the noises of the outside world fade away to be replaced with the sounds of place: the rustling of leaves, voices drifting across the yard, the occasional splash from the river, and, if you listen very carefully, echoes from the past. Of all the historical sites I’ve visited and photographed, the Old Manse is one where the past always feels close, so it was not at all surprising to find this colonial soldier guarding the bridge (actually, just a costumed volunteer).

How to Photograph Literary Landmarks

Photographing Literary Landmarks

One of my favorite parts of the three books I have done in the past four years is doing the photography. I have had the great fortune to photograph the Alcott’s Fruitlands farmhouse at sunrise on a cold January morning, William Butler Yeats’ Galway tower in the sunshine, Emily Dickinson’s bedroom, and Earnest Hemingway’s Cuban house. Each of these places presents a new challenge and offers new insights into the connections between literature and place. In the following series, I will explore some of the strategies I’ve used to create the photographs that accompany my books. I welcome your additional comments and suggestions.

Read Into It
All too many visitors have very little understanding of what was written at the literary landmark they’re at. Not to sound too much like a school teacher, but a little knowledge here can go a long way. While you may not be a scholar in the poetry of William Butler Yeats, you will want to know enough to realize that much of Yeats’ poetry is about the magic and mysticism found in nature. For example, while looking for the beach Yeats wrote about in “The Song of the Wandering Aengus,” these two swans who magically appeared as the sun broke out for the first time that day served quite well as symbols of what Yeats accomplished in verse.

Along the same lines, I had studied Yeats’ poem, “The Wild Swans at Coole,” numerous times and when my tour of Coole Park in Galway lead down to the water, I was thrilled to catch this view of the swans:

They only appear seasonally at the lakeside, so it was fortunate for me. But you don’t have to rely on luck. At the Old Manse in Concord, I knew I wanted to capture the paths that led Emerson from his study out into the woods that inspired his book, Nature and so walked around until I found this shot:

I will discuss photographing The Old Manse in the next installment of Photographing Literary Landmarks.