Best Boston Literary Landmarks

Book lovers in Boston, local or visiting, can use this map for a self-guided literary walk through the city that earned the name the Athens of America. Most stops cluster around Copley Square, Beacon Hill, the Public Garden and Downtown Crossing, with a hop over to Harvard Square in Cambridge.

At the Boston Public Library, read under the green lamps of Bates Hall before sitting in the McKim courtyard. The Omni Parker House is where Dickens stayed and the Saturday Club of Emerson, Longfellow and Hawthorne met, and Boston cream pie was created there. Brattle Book Shop fills three floors with used and rare books, plus an open-air lot of bargain carts. The Poe statue shows him striding with a raven near his birthplace. Free library tours run most days, and visitors can book a tour of the Boston Athenaeum's upper reading rooms. Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters completes the route.