John Steinbeck House in Salinas, California.
If you enjoy both travel and literature, then chances are you’d enjoy the opportunity to craft a road trip that took in the homes, towns and sights of some of your favorite authors. In May, I outlined such a road trip through literary New England that meandered through the towns of ten authors, from Mark Twain to Henry David Thoreau to Robert Frost. Now it’s time to explore a similar journey, this one on the West Coast.
Here is a road trip through literary California that will take you to the homes of six authors, from John Steinbeck to Jack London, while also delving into the life and times of the San Francisco Beats. Along the way you’ll get to sample some stunning scenery, as well, including the Big Sur coast and the wine region of Sonoma County.
These sites are all within a six hour drive, but since you’ll want to actually visit and enjoy each of the locations, it will probably take at least four days to make the full journey. Let’s start on the dramatic sweep of California coastline that stretches from Big Sur to Monterey.
The literary inspiration of Big Sur and Carmel
Henry Miller was a controversial author and some of his most noted works, such as Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn, were once banned in the United States. But he was one of the more famous American writers of the mid-20th century and found a great deal of inspiration from the 18 years that he lived at Big Sur, from 1944 to 1962. The Henry Miller Library, a cultural center that promotes Miller’s work, is an apt place to begin this journey.
While you’re in the area, you might also want to meditate on the landscape that led Jack Kerouac to write the novel Big Sur after his visits to the region. Or you actually can meditate at the famous Esalen Institute, where Hunter S. Thompson worked as a security guard before launching his writing career.
Then drive an hour north, along the stunning Pacific Coast Highway, to Carmel by the Sea. It was here that the American poet Robinson Jeffers wrote most of his major works, and where he built Tor House on a promontory overlooking the sea. He hosted such luminaries as Charles Lindbergh, Charlie Chaplin, Sinclair Lewis and Langston Hughes in his home. You can tour the house and see the terrain that inspired his poetry.
John Steinbeck’s Salinas
If you can tear yourself away from the beauty of Carmel, the town of Salinas is only 40 minutes away. This is the hometown of the Nobel Prize-winning author John Steinbeck, who wrote such enduring masterpieces as The Grapes of Wrath. At the National Steinbeck Center, you’ll learn about the author and his work. Nearby is the Steinbeck birthplace, as well as his gravesite in Garden of Memories Cemetery. If you really want to experience Steinbeck country, you can also tour a variety of sites in Salinas, Monterey and Pacific Grove that are depicted in such works as Tortilla Flat and Cannery Row.
The San Francisco Beats
It’s time to leave the central coast and head north two hours to San Francisco. One of the country’s most enticing cities, you’ll likely want to plot some extra time just to enjoy the urban delights of the City by the Bay. But for our literary tour, the action is in the North Beach neighborhood. Known as San Francisco’s Little Italy, this was the literary heart of the Beat Generation that gained fame in the 1950s. Thus, it’s an appropriate home for the Beat Museum and its exhibits dedicated to Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and others. Kerouac’s novel On the Road and Ginsberg’s poem Howl are perhaps the two most famous examples of Beatnik writing.
At one time, the center of much of this literary ferment was the nearby City Lights Bookstore, which was founded by the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Today, it’s one of the most famous independent bookstores in the country and you can browse its shelves while musing about the authors who once hung out there. After leaving the bookstore, check out Jack Kerouac Alley, where there are engraved poems on the walkway.
National Historic Sites: Eugene O’Neill and John Muir
There isn’t much in the way of a connection between Eugene O’Neill and John Muir. O’Neill was a Nobel prize winning playwright who is known for The Iceman Cometh and Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Muir, on the other hand, wrote mostly about nature and conservation issues. The founder of the Sierra Club is considered the father of national park system and the modern environmental movement. Both of these men, however, had homes east of San Francisco that are now National Historic Sites.
At the Eugene O’Neill National Historic Site, in Danville, visitors can tour the writer’s Tao House and explore the 13-acre grounds. Twice a year, plays are also performed in a barn on the site. The John Muir National Historic Site is in Martinez. There are guided tours of the house, a short film about Muir’s life, and walking trails in nearby fruit orchards. If you want to explore some of the nature that Muir was so passionate about, you can also visit the redwood forests of Muir Woods National Monument, just north of San Francisco.
Jack London’s Sonoma County
The final stop on our tour is in the Sonoma County region of northern California that Jack London called home. At the turn of the 20th century, London gained fame with adventure-themed novels, such as The Call of the Wild. Although he was born in San Francisco, London was happiest at a ranch he bought in Glen Ellen. A cottage in which he wrote many of his works, and where he died in 1916, now houses exhibits about London’s life and writing. London’s gravesite is nearby, and walking trails wind through the grounds, which are maintained by the state of California as Jack London State Historic Park.
Sonoma County is part of California’s most famous wine region and there are more than 250 wineries in the area. So once you’ve completed your literary road trip through California, you might want to spend another day enjoying the area’s natural beauty and perhaps sampling a wine or two.
Map and directions
Here is a map of this road trip. If you click on the “Literary California” link, it will take you to a larger map and more detailed information about the journey.
View Literary California road trip in a larger map
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Comments
Yay! I'm so glad you plotted this out! We were recently passed --at night-- the Mark Twain cabin (near Angel's Camp in Calaveras County) where he was born, and I was vowing to make it back next year during business hours. More fun inspirations here!
The National Steinbeck Center in Salinas hosts three experiences in one. The John Steinbeck Exhibition Hall has dozens of gallery exhibits related to the life and works of John Steinbeck including film clips, interactives and great historic artifacts. The Rabobank Agriculture Museum shares the history of the Salinas Valley (known as the Salad Bowl of the World) conceptually "From field to fork". There are also art exhibitions that relate to John Steinbeck, the cultures of Salinas and stories of the human condition.
See you soon!
This is such helpful information. I've been up and down this coast so many times, and really haven't done the literature side of things...sidetracked by the wine, I guess. This is a great article to revisit next time I'm there. Thanks!
Pauline - National History & Landmarks Examiner
I really enjoyed reading this GREAT article, Bob!
(BTW, @Shelly: Twain was born in Missouri. He lived in the Calaveras cabin for a few months when gathering info to write "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.")
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