After conducting a little research (i.e. ten minutes on Wikipedia), the Literary Man was able to cobble together this brief checklist of Famous Writers from Boston, which includes a few of his favorites. There are surprisingly few from Boston proper, but the list has been expanded to include those from the greater area surrounding Boston, well, okay, all of Massachusetts, really:
- Jack Keruoac (Lowell, MA)
- W.E.B. du Bois (Great Barrington, MA)
- Louisa May Alcott (Concord, MA)
- Jack Keruoac (Lowell, MA)
- Horatio Alger, Jr. (Chelsea, MA)
- Elizabeth Bishop (Worcester, MA)
- Emily Dickinson (Amherst, MA)
- e.e. cummings (Cambridge, MA)
- Dr. Seuss (Springfield, MA).
- Nathaniel Hawthorne (Salem, MA)
- Sylvia Plath (Boston, MA)
- Edgar Allan Poe (Boston, MA)
- Hank Thoreau (Concord, MA)
- Ralph Emerson (Boston, MA)
- Sebastian Junger (Belmont, MA)
- Tom Perrotta (Belmont, MA)
In summary, lots of 19th century peeps, but what’s up with Boston in the 20th and 21st centuries? Falling behind New York City, it seems like. . .