There are many great authors who have come from the Greater Merrimack Valley. However, there are just as many great novels and short stories set in the area, written by both locals and Massachusetts enthusiasts. If you’re missing the area or want to get yourself in the Greater Merrimack Valley mindset, pick up one of these books.
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Perhaps one of the most iconic American novels ever published, Little Women is set in the Merrimack Valley and written by Concord native Louisa May Alcott. It’s the tale of Jo March and her three sisters navigating the passage of childhood to womanhood in the 1800s. The book covers themes of personal growth, gender stereotyping, familial duty, and love and has resonated with girls and women worldwide even more than a century since it was published.
Alcott based much of the book on her own childhood, so naturally it’s set in the houses and town she grew up in, as well as other notable places in the Greater Merrimack Valley. You can visit the Wayside and Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, stepping into actual scenes from the book as you tour the colonial houses. Little Women has been adapted into several films, too, with the 2019 version even having several scenes that were filmed on location. You can visit the sites that appeared in the film for an immersive experience that any fan would die for.
“Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Perhaps one of the most famous poems set in Massachusetts is “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Published in 1860, the poem is a dramatic retelling of the night Paul Revere rode through Medford, Lexington, and Concord to warn the Patriots that the British were coming.
When you visit the Greater Merrimack Valley you can visit the places Paul Revere rode past during his actual midnight ride, including his ultimate destination: the Hancock-Clarke House. It was here that he gave his warning to patriots and Founding Fathers John Hancock and Samuel Adams as he knew the British would wish to arrest them. If you come to Lexington during Patriot’s Day weekend, you can even witness a reenactment of Paul Revere’s midnight ride.
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American naturalist, essayist, poet, and philosopher from Concord. Perhaps his most famous work is Walden; a collection of essays he wrote while experiencing “simple living” in a cabin out in the woods. The book is a mix of memoir, satire, social experiment, and quest for self-discovery which has allowed it to remain popular and relevant even today.
Thoreau spent over two years living in the woods by Walden Pond on land that was owned by his good friend Ralph Waldo Emerson. You can visit the pond and take a self-guided tour of the trails he would stroll down, making observations about the natural world. There’s even a replica of his cabin you can peer into! While you’re in the Greater Merrimack Valley, consider also stopping by Thoreau Farm where he was born. Check out the beautiful landscape surrounding the farm that helped inspire his love of nature, and you can even book his old room for a writer’s retreat if you’re an aspiring novelist yourself. For those who would rather read than write, pop over to the Thoreau Society Shop at Walden Pond to pick up copies of his works, as well as books written by those who were inspired by him and follow similar philosophies.
The Bobbin Girl by Emily Arnold McCully
Written and illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully, The Bobbin Girl is a children’s book that takes place during the Industrial Revolution and is set in the textile mills of Lowell. It follows the story of ten-year-old Rebecca Putney, who works 12-hour days in the hot, noisy cotton mills to help support her struggling family. With talk of wages being lowered, the workers start planning protests, though troublemakers at the mill are quickly fired. Rebecca must decide if she should keep working in unfair conditions for low pay or risk getting dismissed from her job to fight for herself and her fellow workers. Inspired by the true story of mill girl Harriet Hanson Robinson, this children’s book is a story of child labor, early efforts to organize against unfair employers, and courage.
While the book does have a section dedicated to discussing the history of the textile mills, there’s nothing like seeing the real thing. Head to Lowell and visit the Boott Cotton Mills Museum, where you’ll get an inside look at the textile mills. You can visit the weave room where over eighty historic power looms from the 1920s are still weaving cotton cloth. There are also exhibits focused on Lowell’s creation as the first mill town and a look at child labor through historical photographs. For an in-depth look at how Mill Girls like Rebecca actually lived, go to the Patrick J. Mogan Cultural Center. Visitors can see a recreation of a typical 1840s boarding house and listen to audio recordings of diary entries to learn about the daily lives of the mill girls working in the factories. It’s a fascinating look into history that will give an even greater understanding of the Bobbin Girl’s plight.
Doctor Sax by Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac is one of Lowell’s most beloved figures of the 20th century. One of the leaders of the Beat Generation, this poet and novelist spent much of his youth in Lowell and set several of his works in the city. In fact, Doctor Sax is a stylized recollection of his childhood in Lowell along with his childhood fantasies, which blend together through his stream-of-consciousness style of writing.
The City of Lowell serves as a backdrop for many of Kerouac’s books, and while some have been lost to time, there are still several landmarks you can visit that were featured in Doctor Sax, among other stories. Boott Cotton Mills is a prime example, described with bittersweet prose as “a maze of haze sorrow,” where the red chimneys sway in “the dreambell afternoon” or, at night, the windows shine “like a lost star in the blue city lights of Lowell.” Come to the city and see for yourself if such a description still fits the Mills and other places Kerouac talks about in his books.
With so many novels and poems set in the Greater Merrimack Valley, it’s truly a bibliophile’s dream location. Pack up your book collection and plan your own self-guided literary tour of the cities and towns, immersing yourself in the stories you’ve come to love.
