Greetings 2013 aka Year of Change aka The Year Lindsay Went Into The Woods And Found An Agent And A Publishing Deal!

So, I spent the 29^th Dec – 6^th of Jan in Boston and had a whale of a time!* We soaked up the history, delved into the local cuisine with vigour and enthusiasm, and shopped til we dropped.         New Year’s Eve or First Night (as it is known in those parts) was spent on a cruise ship out in the bay where we watched the fireworks erupt over the Boston skyline. Magnificent!

As one of the oldest cities in the U.S., Boston is jam-packed with historical and literary landmarks – would that I had had the time to see them all. Like any great city, I could have spent months there and still not discovered all Beantown has to offer. Hmm…I guess I’ll have to go back.

Boston has been home to some truly inspirational and influential people (writers, artists, musicians, actors, sports-people, inventors, politicians, and revolutionaries), but to list them all here would be cray-cray. Instead, here are but a handful of notable literary folk who once resided in or around this exciting city: Louisa May Alcott, Robert Frost, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jack Kerouac, Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allen Poe, Henry David Thoreau, and many others. I was also heartily enthused to hear that Charles Dickens had visited Boston on his first trip to the New World in January 1842; upon arriving he was apparently mobbed by fans and complained “I can do nothing that I want to do, go nowhere where I want to go, and see nothing that I want to see. If I turn into the street, I am followed by a multitude.” (Perdue) World’s First Celeb…Dickens? Ha, good on ya, Boz!

My one regret upon leaving Massachusetts was not having the time to visit Concord, home to Louisa May Alcott and the fictional March family. The story of Jo and her sisters in Little Women (1868), Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871), and Jo’s Boys (1886) was, and still is, one of my favourites. These novels explore such themes as independence, gender constraints, sibling rivalry, economic status, loss, and love. Even thinking about trying to describe my affection for caring and complacent Meg, brave and hot-tempered Jo, gentle and loyal Beth, and spoiled and cultured Amy, and their love for each other, brings a sweet sting to my eyes. Sorry, I’m a bit of a goob.

The release of Little Women really was a turning point in children’s literature; published in what can be described as the first ‘Golden Age’ of books for children (approx. 1862 to 1915) (Hunt 73), Little Women showed young girls and female teenagers behaving in a recognisable way, as opposed to acting as filters for a morality lesson. Sarah Elbert describes Jo and her sisters with their varying characteristics as the first appearance of the ‘American Girl’ (Elbert 199).

I remember how much I identified with them and how many times I reread those books. How I mourned for the loss of my hair when my mother said I had to have it all cut off (from down to my bottom into a bob) and like Jo thought it was my “one true beauty”; and how I longed for a boy to love me like Laurie loved our Jo just so I could break his heart. Sigh.

So, I guess I will just have to visit Concord and walk in Louisa May Alcott’s footsteps another time!

To conclude, Boston is a grand place – not to be missed. There truly is something for everyone.

Thanks, Boston: you had me at chowder, you had me at chowder…

Lx

*Note: this does not mean we saw whales, which you can see off the coast of Massachusetts in the right season. IT DOES NOT MEAN WE SAW WHALES. Full-blown phobia here, people, like a crazy lady. Cetaphobia…yes, it’s a real thing!

Sources:

Perdue, David A. “Dickens in America.” Charles Dickens Page, 1997-2013.        <http://charlesdickenspage.com/america.html>

Hunt, Peter. An Introduction to Children’s Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Elbert, Sarah. A Hunger for Home: Louisa May Alcott’s Place in American Culture. Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, 1987.