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PAGE B8 THE HARVARD CRIMSON DECEMBER 12, 2008 Of Historical Importance: Longfellow House—105 CharlesCharles RiverRiver School dean and founder of the case just not at Lamont. houses over 15,000 volumes of poetry for its portrayal of a middle-aged man’s 1 Brattle St. 3 JapaneseJapanese authorauthor HHarukiaruki MurakamiMurakami method of teaching Christopher Lang- and has hosted such poetic luminar- obsessive love affair with the sexually TheThe LongfellowLongfellow HouseHouse waswas notnot onlyonly hashas spentspent somesome timetime iinn thethe CCambridgeambridge dell, class of 1850. Although Jacobs spent Woodberry Poetry Room— ies as e.e. cummings, Marianne Moore, precocious 12-year-old “nymphet” Lo- home to famous 19th-century poet area—teaching at Tufts University, writ- her last years in Washington, D.C., she is 6 Lamont Third Floor (formerly Conrad Aiken, T.S. Eliot, Robert Low- lita, and was banned in both England Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; it also ing “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle,” and buried in the Mount Auburn Cemetery. in Widener) ell, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferling- and France soon after. Nabokov was no served as General George Washington’s running along the banks of the Charles. IItt is oftenoften said that in suchsuch storiedstoried plac-plac- hetti, Mary Oliver, Donald Hall, Robert stranger to Cambridge, having lived in an base of operations during the siege of Running is an essential part of Murukami’s LamontLamont LibraryLibrary es of learning as Harvard, the voices of Creeley, Charles Olson, Seamus Heaney, apartment at 8 Craigie Circle for six years Boston. It has played host to such emi- life—a panacea to the toxic toll that writing 5 KaavyaKaavya ViswanathanViswanathan ’08 split herher scholars, writers, and thinkers long past Frank Bidart, Robert Pinsky, and Da- while a lecturer in Russian and Compar- nent literary fi gures as Charles Dickens takes on him. In his new memoir, “What I timetime freshmanfreshman yearyear bbetweenetween ststudyingudying echo through the halls. But in a small vid Ferry. The original owners, Adrian ative Literature at Wellesley College and and Nathaniel Hawthorne and accu- Talk About When I Talk About Running,” and writing her novel, “How Opal Mehta golden-lit room tucked away on the Gambet and Gordon Cairnie, started the a lepidoptery curator at the Museum of mulated a wide range of decorations, he describes how the Charles, like all water, Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life” in third fl oor of Lamont Library, this is ac- shop in 1927; it was bought by poet and Comparative Zoology at Harvard in the furniture, and books from Longfellow’s has a strange attraction to novelists, roller Lamont Library. She received a two-book tually the reality. The Woodberry Poetry Wellesley College professor of philoso- 1940s. travels. skaters, and Harvard girls with bouncy po- deal from Little, Brown and Company, Room—a cozy alcove for word lovers, phy Ifeanyi Menkiti in 2006. The shop nytails alike. reportedly worth 500,000 dollars, for the fi lled with books of poetry, and adorned has been an important force in the world William Dean Howells William James House—95 story of Opal Mehta’s desperate quest to by a bulletin board of student-submitted of poetry since its inception, and Creeley 9 House—37 Concord Ave. 2 Irving St. HarrietHarriet JJacobsacobs HHouse—17ouse—17 SStorytory get into Harvard. While Opal’s prefrosh quotes—is most celebrated for its unique once said of it: “Poetry is our fi nal hu- AAuthoruthor and litliteraryerary crcriticitic WWilliamilliam DDeanean JustJust downdown the roadroad fromfrom the Ameri-Ameri- 4 St.St. hosts never take her to Lamont, perhaps archive of spoken word poetry, playable man language and resource. The Grolier Howells lived with his family at this can Academy of Arts and Sciences sits HarrietHarriet JJacobsacobs publishedpublished an autobiogra-autobiogra- she stole a glimpse of the undergraduate on provided record players. Some of Poetry Book Shop is where it still lives— house, designed by his wife, from 1873 psychologist and philosopher William phy of her experience in bondage, “Inci- library from across the street while visit- the room’s most illustrious voices: T.S. still talks, still makes the only sense that to 1878. Howells enjoyed the company of James’s former abode. He took the house dents in the Life of a Slave Girl,” in 1861. ing Mr. Bartley’s Burger Cottage and the Eliot, class of 1900 (whose 1931 fi rst- ever matters.” such guests as Mark Twain, Henry James, in 1889, the same year he was appointed To appeal to white women, “Incidents” Hong Kong. After the April 2006 release ever-recorded reading inaugurated the Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wad- to an endowed chair and the year be- focuses on the lengths Jacobs goes to of “Opal,” The Crimson reported that collection), W.H. Auden, Robert Frost, Vladimir Nabokov House—16 sworth Longfellow in this Cambridge fore he published his monumental work spurn the sexual advances of her master Viswanathan’s writing bore striking sim- and D.H. Lawrence. After serenading 8 Chauncey St. home. Known for his realist novels, in- “Principles in Psychology” (although he and save her children. In 1870, Jacobs es- ilarities to several books, including Me- yourself, don’t forget to sign the room’s RRussian-Americanussian-American novelistnovelist VlaVladimirdimir cluding “A Modern Instance” and “The had been working on it for 11 years prior tablished a boardinghouse for Harvard gan F. McCafferty’s “Sloppy Firsts” and guestbook, joining visitors from across Nabokov moved to the Continental Rise of Silas Lapham,” Howells strived to to moving in). James owned the house students and faculty, which began at 10 “Second Helpings,” Meg Cabot’s “The the nation—and Seamus Heaney, its fi rst Hotel Apartments on 16 Chauncey St. portray truth, accuracy, and an objective until his death in 1910 and worked there Trowbridge St. before relocating to 127 Princess Diaries,” and Salman Rushdie’s signee. after the American publication of his fa- view of the world through his literature. on his posthumously published “Some Mt. Auburn St. Her boarders included “Haroun and the Sea of Stories.” “Opal” mously controversial “Lolita.” The novel, He also wrote critical essays on Henrik Problems in Philosophy.” not only Cornelia Willis, who bought was pulled from bookstores, but it’s still Grolier Poetry Book Shop now heralded as one of the greatest in Ibsen, Émile Zola, and other contempo- Jacobs’s freedom, but also Harvard Law available on Harvard Library shelves— 7 TThehe GGrolierrolier PoetryPoetry BookBook ShopShop contemporary literature, drew criticism rary literary fi gures. 9 2 G 1 Harvard Coop E 8 D 4 6 5 Globetrotter Harvard Book Store A 7 C Schoenhof’s B Revolution Lame Duck F 3 A LITERARY MAP OF CAMBRIDGE Of Fictional Importance: LarzLarz AndersonAnderson Bridge:Bridge: but the well-begotten yet misbehaved hero a backdrop for the burgeoning romance be- unlikely to advertise, however, is that of the through the Yard and stops in front of ReligiousReligious SymbologySymbology Building—Building— A QuentinQuentin Compson,Compson, WilliamWilliam of his second novel, “The Beautiful and tween protagonist Gogol and his New York infamous (and fi ctional) Necronomicon. Lamont. “Suddenly, I wanted to set down G ’The’The DaDa VinciVinci Code’Code’ Faulkner’sFaulkner’s broodingbrooding andand suicidalsuicidal ggeniusenius Damned,” went to Harvard. Although he City girlfriend, Ruth. (The scene is sadly An icon in numerous stories by fantasy- my suitcase and pick up a rock and heave IfIf RobertRobert Langdon,Langdon, professorprofessor ofof thethe ffauxaux from “The Sound and the Fury,” threw was at fi rst “oblivious to the social system,” cut out of the less-acclaimed movie.) Pam- horror author H.P. Lovecraft, the contents it right through the glass,” he says. Wisely, subject “religious symbology” and the pro- himself into the Charles River, and a plaque in his four years here he eventually “became plona’s seclusion and air of European high of the Necronomicon remain a mystery to he chooses not to. tagonist of Dan Brown’s bestseller “The Da on the eastern railing of the Larz Anderson an exquisite dandy” and “found in senior culture draws the following of many aspir- this day. Legend has it that it was originally Vinci Code,” actually taught at Harvard, Bridge now commemorates the life and year that he had acquired a position in his ing writers, who feel obliged to mention the penned in the sixth century BC by a half- Bench on the Charles he’d doubtless do so in the fi ctional Reli- death of one of the author’s most memo- class. He learned that he was looked upon café in their memoirs. mad worshipper of the demon god Cthulu F WhileWhile the benchesbenches alongalong the gious Symbology Building. Of course, the rable characters. Stuck on a brick wall as a rather romantic fi gure, a scholar, a re- on the Arabian Peninsula. Greek and Latin CharlesCharles maymay seemseem nondescript,nondescript, thetheyy in mild-mannered iconography expert would close to the Weld Boathouse, the plaque cluse, a tower of erudition.” Membership in WidenerWidener LibraryLibrary translations have changed hands secretly fact possess mystical capabilities for tran- also likely face questions regarding his de- reads: “Quentin Compson. Drowned in the Hasty Pudding Club soon followed this D TheThe mostmost fastidiousfastidious amongamong tthehe for centuries, and there’s little doubt that— scending time and place, as evidenced in votion to his teaching duties, given the time the odour of honeysuckle. 1891-1910.” The recognition, and some time later, years of visitorsvisitors toto HarvardHarvard SquareSquare shouldn’tshouldn’t missmiss whether it contains spells to raise demons, the Jorge Luis Borges short story “The he spends abroad solving murders, uncov- bridge is fl anked on either side by twin dirt dissipation and heartache.

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