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| "Undershaw" |
I was shocked to find that Arthur Conan Doyle's home, "
Undershaw," is in a state of disrepair and set to be converted to multiple residences. Where are the museums? The funds to preserve this landmark where works such as
The Hound of the Baskervilles became a park of the canon? This is the home that saw the likes of J.M. Barrie (
Peter Pan), Bram Stoker (
Dracula), Virginia Woolfe (
Mrs. Dalloway), and "famous Sherlock Holmes actor" William Gillette (
wiki). Where are the preservationists?
It turns out, as much as they object, the money just isn't there. And I have to wonder if the public cares. Is it just an American thing that every piece of brick touched by famous hands is preserved eternally? Perhaps it is only normal that homes and other buildings throughout Europe would be renumbered and recycled. After all, there are hundreds of more years of history and less land on which those generations have lived.
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| Dickens House |
But there are some exceptions--many, as it turns out.
The Dickens Museum is located at 48 Doughty Street, where the Victorian author wrote
The Pickwick Papers and
Oliver Twist. A plaque resides at the 17th century home of diarist
Samuel Pepys. A home at
29 Fitzroy Square shared (at different times) by George Bernard Shaw and Virginia Woolfe bears plaques for both writers. Samuel Johnson's
locale and home have been preserved. Author Thomas Carlyle's
home is even furnished in the likes of his style.
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| Faulkner House |
In the US we have no problem marking something "historic" and setting up a foundation. Edgar Allan Poe has a museum at his homes in
Philadelphia,
Baltimore,
New York,
and Richmond, Virginia. You can visit Thomas Wolfe's
house across my state in Asheville, North Carolina. William Faulkner has his home in
Mississippi, Mark Twain in
Connecticut, and F. Scott Fitzgerald in
Minnesota.
Are these places important? Do they add to one's experience of the literature? I think so. What do you think?
