Here are 12 famous author homes you can visit in New England

The home of Louisa May Alcott, the dark wood Colonial-style Orchard House, remains intact as a literary tourism site. Her novel Little Women has been translated into over 50 languages and is popular worldwide, plus there have been multiple film versions, including Greta Gerwig’s 2019 film. Traipse through the rooms that the real-life Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy lived in; Alcott famously based the March girls on her own family. And yes, her youngest sister May (a rearrangement of “Amy”) really did marry their version of Laurie. The house offers tours and a lot of events, including the chance to spend time alone in Alcott’s bedroom for up to two hours ($300 for the first hour, $500 for two).

Time Out tip: Amazing things come from small beginnings. Look for Alcott’s tiny half-moon-shaped desk, which swings out from the wall of her bedroom, built by her father for his budding author. She wrote Little Women here.

Address: 399 Lexington Rd, Concord, MA 01742

Price: $15 adults, $12 seniors and college students, $8 ages 6-17

When to visit: Open year-round

Mark Twain lived all over the country as he wrote his books and newspaper articles; he lived in this beautiful and unusual many-gabled brick home with his wife and children from 1874 to 1891. Here, he wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Interiors are incredibly swank and interior photography is not permitted, so you are freed up to put down your phone and just experience the space and learn about Twain’s life and losses here (he and his wife lost three of their four children at various ages). Creative events happen here, including the very fun-sounding “Get a CLUE” Tour with performers acting out a live action version of the board game Clue, offered seasonally (their website asks, “Was it Tom Sawyer in the library with a wrench?”). It provides, among other things, access to the… wait for it… secret passageway, which all three-story writer’s mansions should have.

Time Out tip: Twain’s house is literally next door to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s house, so make a day of it and pay homage to two incredible authors. It’s no accident they are close by; they were part of a planned community called Nook Farm that placed people in close quarters so that chance meetings would lead to fruitful conversations.

Address: 351 Farmington Ave, Hartford, CT 06105

Price: $28 adults, $26 seniors, $15 ages 6-16

When to visit: Open year-round

Not all preserved writers' homes are for 1800s writers; Stephen King is a modern, prolific horror author with worldwide name recognition. You can’t go inside his red and white clapboard mansion (unless you win a writer’s residency), but the exterior is worth stopping for. Even on a cold afternoon, fans convene outside to grab photos at his front gate decorated with wrought iron spiders and bats. In this home, King lived with his author wife, Tabitha, and their children from 1980 to roughly 2020. It now houses the Stephen Edwin King Archives (Congratulations, we now know his middle name!) and the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation, which provides $3 million in grants each year for various projects in Maine. Book a tour with SK Tours of Maine (not related to the house), and you’ll be taken to see this home’s exterior and other locations around town that you’ll recognize from King’s novels. You’ll also see the many places where his philanthropy has taken root (his family has donated millions to Bangor, including library renovations, the building of Mansfield Stadium for little league players, supporting a mental health facility and more). SK Tours start at $63.

Time Out tip: You’re a quick drive away from both an enormous statue of Paul Bunyan and the Internet-famous Duck of Justice.

Address: 47 W Broadway, Bangor, ME 04401

Price: Free

When to visit: Exterior photos may be taken year-round

Inside this interesting Saltbox-style home with preserved rooms, you’ll learn about the life of Noah Webster, the man who created the Webster’s Dictionary. The home’s curation underscores that the dictionary he created wasn’t just about listing words; it was intended to help shape a national identity for the new country by standardizing spellings and meanings. There are plenty of events offered as well, such as this year’s America250 Lecture Series. Nearby, Blue Back Square is a great place to head for lunch; it’s named after Webster’s Blue-Backed Speller.

Time Out tip: Come for the Real Ale Beer Festival in September, when 20 breweries showcase their unique cask ale creations and you can participate in early American tavern games.

Address: 227 South Main St, West Hartford, CT 06107

Price: $14 adults, $12 seniors and students ages 6-17

When to visit: Open year-round

Known as the Wadsworth-Longfellow House, this lovely brick home was owned by three generations of the same family—the middle generation being the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The florid wallpapers in this house are beautiful, as are the simple spaces and furnishings. Back when poets ruled the cultural space of the U.S., Longfellow was well-known and cherished; Edgar Allan Poe declared he was “unquestionably the best poet in America” (but later accused him of plagiarizing Alfred Lord Tennyson). His best-known works are “Paul Revere’s Ride” and the epic poems “The Song of Hiawatha” and “Evangeline.” Among other books and anthologies, he’s known for his translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Today, the house is owned and operated by the Maine Historical Society, which received it when his sister Anne Longfellow Pierce died in 1901. With separate admission, you can also visit the historical society’s museum next door.

Time Out tip: You’re a 15-minute walk from one of the best restaurants in Portland, Duck Fat. This tiny establishment’s specialty is Belgian frites, hand-punched and then deep-fried in (what else?) duck fat.

Address: 489 Congress St, Portland, ME 04101

Price: $18 adults, $12 students ages 6 or older

When to visit: Open May through October

The Emily Dickinson Museum includes both Dickinson’s home, The Homestead (the only one in which she ever lived), and her brother’s house next door, The Evergreens. The Homestead is being restored to its appearance during Dickinson’s time here; others lived in the house after her death. Dickinson was somewhat of a hermit (she once permitted a doctor to “examine” her by walking slowly past the doorway of a room in which he sat) and you can see the window from which the shy poet lowered baskets full of cookies down to delight neighborhood children. Her poems are deceptively simple and carry forward her revolutionary voice. Most schoolchildren learn her poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death,” but so many more of her poems, with their pre-AI use of the M-dash, are worth reading and rereading.

Time Out tip: The Amherst Inn across the street provides overnight stays in a 1873 home, or walk 8 minutes to the impressive, manor-like 1926 Inn on Boltwood. The Emily Dickinson Museum is just a few blocks away from downtown Amherst, with lots of dining and retail.

Address: 280 Main St, Amherst, MA 01002

Price: $25 adult, $18 college students and teachers with proper ID, free to ages 17 and under

When to visit: Open March to December

There are actually three homes in New England to “visit” the four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning Robert Frost, but this one is where he wrote his most famous poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” (the first poem I ever remember reading). Other poems he wrote here are “Nothing Gold Can Stay” and “Fire and Ice.” The stone-and-clapboard Dutch Colonial home was built in 1769, and Frost lived here with his wife and children from 1920 to 1929. You can see Frost’s writing room and explore some of the extensive grounds, including walking a woodland path (do two roads diverge? Only you can say) and finding an orchard where four apple trees are ones planted by Frost long ago.

Time Out tip: Visit Frost’s grave just a short distance away at the Old Bennington Cemetery to see his famous epitaph, “I Had A Lover’s Quarrel With The World.” And art lovers should check out the Bennington Museum’s Grandma Moses collection, the largest public collection of her paintings.

Address: 121 Historic Route 7A, Shaftsbury, VT 05262

Price: $10 Adults, $6 seniors and students, $5 ages 10-18

When to visit: Open May through October (and November through April by appointment)

Wharton was the first woman to win a Pulitzer and her home is probably the most elaborate and fancy. Known as The Mount, it’s a true mansion, and it and its grounds were designed by her. It’s a gleaming white sprawl with multiple rooflines and chimneys, green shutters and striped awnings… plus lavish lawns. Built in 1902, this Georgian Revival home is where Wharton wrote her most famous novel, The House of Mirth, as well as the novella Ethan Frome. Overall, Wharton wrote 40 novels over 40 years, notoriously writing in bed. Separate tours can be booked for her mansion, gardens and extensive library. Fun fact: Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey, says, “It is quite true that Edith Wharton has been a tremendous influence on me… I decided, largely because of her work, that it was time I wrote something.” The Mount’s website lists a cavalcade of other notable folks who have declared adoration of Wharton, including Ta-Nehisi Coates, Mindy Kaling, Lauren Groff, Roxane Gay, and Martin Scorsese. And Gossip Girl was originally modeled after Wharton’s The Age of Innocence!

Time Out tip: There’s a touching pet cemetery on a hillside where six of Wharton’s beloved dogs were laid to rest, where they could still keep watch over the property.

Address: 2 Plunkett St, Lenox, MA 01240

Price: $22 adults, $20 seniors, $13 college students with ID, free for 18 and under

When to visit: Open May to December

So close to Mark Twain’s home that the two authors could’ve tossed a ball to each other, or better yet, a cup of sugar to borrow, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s house is a sober gray brick one surrounded by bright gardens. It’s called the Stowe Center for Literary Activism, with collections that focus on women’s and African American history and contain the largest collection of materials related to the author. Stowe lived here with her husband and children from 1873 until her death in 1896. Also like Twain, Stowe moved around quite a bit, and her Cincinnati house, also tourable, is where she wrote her bestselling novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin (outselling only the Bible in the 1800s and translated into 70 languages), which drew attention to the unjust system of slavery. Stowe also wrote 29 other novels and was an abolitionist who hid an escaped enslaved man in Maine on his way north.

Time Out tip: From October to February, a “Spirits at Stowe” tour happens after dark, focusing on the history of Victorian Spiritualism, the practice of communicating with the dead.

Address: 77 Forest Street, Hartford, CT 06105

Price: $20 adults, $15 seniors, $10 college students and ages 6-16

When to visit: Open year-round

Essayist, poet, thinker, lecturer, pastor, abolitionist and Transcendentalist, Ralph Waldo Emerson lived here with his mother, second wife Lidian and their four children. The home has been kept intact with family relics and original furnishings from their time there. He was a friend to many other literary figures of the day, such as Walt Whitman, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He helped Louisa May Alcott’s father, Bronson Alcott, purchase Hillside, their house, which predates No. 1 on our list. Some say his journals are his best works, published by Harvard University Press in a 16-volume set. Emerson was so beloved that when he returned from a six-month world tour while his home was being rebuilt from a fire, all of Concord celebrated, and school was canceled for the day.

Time Out tip: Emerson let his friend Henry David Thoreau build a cabin at Walden Pond on his land, resulting in Thoreau’s book Walden. Nearby, you can visit a replica of that one-room cabin at Walden Pond State Reservation.

Address: 28 Cambridge Turnpike, Concord, MA 01742

Price: $15 adults, $12 seniors, $8 ages 7-1

When to visit: Open late April through October

In this 1700s Georgian-style home, poet and novelist Sarah Orne Jewett was born and lived the first five years of her life, and then inherited it as an adult when her grandparents died. It’s the setting of her novel Deephaven, and is a home that the Boston-based author would return to for several months each year. Upon Jewett’s death in 1930, she left the home to Historic New England. You can walk through Sarah’s bedroom, left untouched, the parlor, library, and other rooms decorated with 1800s sensibilities; Sarah and her sister kept in place furnishings and artwork that preserved family history. Next door is a visitor center in a Greek Revival home that was also owned by the Jewett family. Jewett wrote seven novels, one poetry collection and 13 short story collections. Her short story “A White Heron” is often anthologized, a story with feminist and ecological themes.

Time Out tip: Come for the “Dear Fuff: the Sarah Orne Jewett Pride Tour” in July, honoring Jewett’s 30-year marriage with Annie Fields. The two women exchanged rings and vows, although the ceremony was not considered legal at the time: this sort of arrangement was once called a Boston Marriage.

Address: 5 Portland St, South Berwick, ME 03908

Price: $15 adults, $13 seniors, $7 students

When to go: Open June through October

Whimsicality rules the day in the Edward Gorey House, as cardboard cutout illustrations of Victorians in fur coats loom in windows and a sculpture of a scarf-wearing penguin (of sorts) rules the backyard. Gorey gained fame for his playfully morbid book The Gashlycrumb Tinies, which outlines, alphabetically, terrible ways in which hapless children perish (“A is for Amy, who fell down the stairs, B is for Basil, assaulted by bears”). He lived in the house, a former sea captain’s home that is several centuries old, from 1979 until his death in 2000. He illustrated more than 500 books for other people—and the memorable animated beginning to Boston Public Television’s “Mystery!” series—while his own number 116. His book The Unstrung Harp can be seen as a precursor to the graphic novel. Currently, the 2026 exhibition on display, “O Sordid Type: Edward Gorey’s Art of Lettering,” focuses on Gorey’s careful handlettering of all text in his books (he called his own font Sinister Cozy, which is way better than Papyrus).

Address: 8 Strawberry Ln, Yarmouth Port, MA 02675

Price: $10 adults, $8 students, teachers and seniors, $4 ages 5-12

When to visit: Open mid-April through December