Daniel Grant

Bare and authentic or full and fake? The dilemma of preserving writers’ houses

Mark Twain's chair, Louisa May Alcott's pillows, Robert Frost's many houses and the empty home of Edgar Allen Poe

Louisa May Alcott, Orchard House [Getty Images/Shutterstock/iStock/Alamy] 
issue 15 March 2014
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Every year, tens of thousands of visitors flock to the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut, in order to see where he lived and wrote. Many famous writers’ homes are preserved for visitors, some of whom are devoted readers (and some who know they are supposed to read his or her books).

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