MORE LITERARY TALISMANS

Literary talismans can be places rather than objects.  I can use a Blackwing pencil to emulate John Steinbeck, but I can also visit places Steinbeck wrote about.

I have been to Monterey, California, one of the most beautiful places on the planet, and to famed Cannery Row.  Cannery Row is much different than when Steinbeck wrote about it in his novel, but I still felt the place was special.

I got to visit the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas and the home where Steinbeck was born.  The home is now a restaurant.

I also got to visit Key West, Florida, where Ernest Hemingway lived and did some of his best work.  The Hemingway House has been converted into a museum and descendants of Hemingway's cats still live on the premises.

I hope I can visit John's Grill in San Francisco.  Dashiell Hammett used the restaurant as a setting in his novel The Maltese Falcon.

Another restaurant I would love to visit is Max Bloom's.  Famed mystery writer Raymond Chandler spent time writing there. A good cup of coffee and the ghost of Raymond Chandler sounds like a good way to spend an afternoon.