Literary Vacationers: Consider Hartford, CT

Those who enjoy literary site-seeing as part of their vacation destination might look no further than Hartford, Connecticut, where Wallace Stevens worked as an insurance executive, and where a number of significant authors built family homes, including Mark Twain. As Michele Herrmann explains at Literary Hub, "nicknamed the 'Insurance Capital of the World' due to its legacy as a location for the headquarters of several insurance providers, Hartford’s connection to the written word goes beyond policy." More: 

Connecticut’s capital city has a long literary history, starting with newspaper printing during America’s colonial era (the Hartford Courant, an offshoot of the Connecticut Courant, remains in circulation) to its status as a publishing hub in the 19th century. Twentieth-century American poet and Pulitzer Prize-winner Wallace Stevens once held a day job as an executive at the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, now known as The Hartford.

Other writers have lived certain chapters of their lives in Hartford. It’s been the birthplace of many authors—including Jay McInerney, Dominic and John Gregory Dunne, and Suzanne Collins—while others have come to stay and create over time. These days, from maintaining historic homes to creating new gathering spots, storytelling in Hartford continues in many ways.

Story and Soil Coffee (387 Capitol Ave.)
8:30 am

This coffee shop in the Frog Hollow neighborhood is named after the title of a Bright Eyes album, The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground. Some of their coffees, teas and other products are directly sourced from Connecticut businesses. It also stocks up on reading material. Find copies of The Paris Review and other literary journals along with coffee industry magazines and books by Hartford poet Brett Maddux. The menu lists rotating in-house baked goods and breakfast choices such as the BEC, a bacon, egg and aged cheddar medley with a sriracha aioli on brioche. Try their Spanish Latte, with espresso, both milk and evaporated milk, vanilla, and cinnamon garnish.

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The Mark Twain House & Museum (351 Farmington Ave.)
10 am

Hartford’s Nook Farm is a historic section of the city that was originally farmland and evolved into an artistic community, enticing authors to build their family homes here. One of them was Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. This 25-room, three-floor house-turned-museum was where Twain, his wife, Olivia, and their three daughters Susy, Clara, and Jean lived from 1874 to 1891. Twain’s time in Hartford was productive; while there, he penned A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, The Prince and the Pauper, A Tramp Abroad, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Continue reading at Literary Hub.