8 Literary Landmarks in the West

Take a road trip across the West, and you’ll encounter no shortage of obvious (and obviously famous) landmarks. There are natural landmarks like Arches National Park in Utah, human-made landmarks like the Hoover Dam in Nevada, or a bizarre combination of the two, like the Chandelier Drive-Thru Tree in California.

Literary landmarks may be a bit less flashy, at least on first glance—but for literature and poetry lovers, they’ll be just as rewarding. Some require trips down dusty dirt roads; others may be hiding in plain sight close to home. Whether it’s a gravestone, a famous bookstore, an old pub, or a city park, here are the most interesting places in the West to pay respects to your favorite writers. 

Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon, a.k.a. Jack London’s Rendezvous, Oakland, California

Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon was constructed from the bones of an old stern-wheel paddle steamer in the 1870s. Author Jack London was a regular, and legend has it that the sailors who frequented the waterfront pub were the inspiration for Wolf Larsen in London’s 1904 novel The Sea Wolf. The pub and its namesake, Johnny Heinold, were also featured in London’s 1913 autobiographical novel John Barleycorn. Today, you can grab a cocktail or a pint in the ramshackle saloon, which some call “Jack London’s Rendezvous” in an homage to the author in Oakland’s charming Jack London Square.

City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco

Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti co-founded City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco in 1953, and it quickly became a meeting place for authors, artists, and activists of the Beat Generation. It was a hub of experimentation, and two years after the bookstore opened, Ferlinghetti launched City Lights Publishing, which went on to publish Allen Ginsberg’s groundbreaking 1956 poem “Howl.”

Today City Lights Bookstore is open to the public at its unique, triangular storefront on the border of San Francisco’s Chinatown and North Beach neighborhoods. Open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, it’s a perfect spot to stroll into and get lost in a book after a red-sauce Italian dinner or dumplings nearby. While the main floor and basement hold books across many topics, including a focus on local authors, it’s the second-floor poetry room, up a narrow flight of stairs, that will transport you. Leave yourself more time to explore than you think you’ll need.

Powell’s City of Books, Portland

In 1971 Walter Powell opened a bookstore in Portland. So prolific was his growing collection of used books that he eventually relocated it to a former car dealership, which took up an entire city block. Today, the 68,000-square-foot Powell’s City of Books, the largest independent bookstore in the world, is open 365 days a year, and remains a perennially popular pilgrimage site for bibliophiles. You could spend a full day exploring the aisles here, or go in with a plan: Much like a library, there’s an online catalog to help browsers find books, and a map of the store outlining the location of each genre.

Hotel Sylvia, Nye Beach, Oregon

This old hotel, built at the turn of the 20th century, offers a unique literary experience. Hotel Sylvia is named after Sylvia Beach, the founder of the famous Parisian bookstore Shakespeare and Company. The three-story hotel features rooms named after authors, such as Agatha Christie, Maya Angelou, and C.S. Lewis, and also literary genres, like romance, drama, or mystery. Many of the rooms are dog-friendly, and the hotel features a library and breakfast café with an ocean view.

Raymond Carver’s Gravestone, Port Angeles, Washington

Writer Raymond Carver set most of his short stories in the Pacific Northwest, where he grew up, and in California, where he later lived. With his minimalist prose and quiet analyses of suburban living, Carver is considered one of the most important writers of the 20th century. He died in 1988 at age 50 and is buried in the town of Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington, where he spent the last 10 years of his life. His gravestone, a slab of black granite, is inscribed with his poems “Late Fragment” and “Gravy.” Today, literature lovers still visit to pay their respects, often leaving letters, flowers, or bottles of whiskey at the site. Ocean View Cemetery is open dawn to dusk, except on observed holidays.

Henry Miller Memorial Library, Big Sur, California

Painter Emil White, one of author Henry Miller’s best friends, turned this beautiful property off Highway 1 into a memorial upon Miller’s death. Founded in 1981, the Henry Miller Memorial Library is housed in White’s former house, which he built in the 1960s, and contains a substantial collection of Miller’s books, letters, manuscripts, and drafts. Today, the property features a nonprofit arts center, bookstore, and is a popular performance venue for local and big-name musicians; Patti Smith, Joanna Newsom, and Philip Glass have all played dreamy shows here amid the redwoods. The library is open five days a week, from 11 a.m to 5 p.m., and is closed on Monday and Tuesday.

Bless Me Ultima Park, Santa Rosa, New Mexico

It’s tough to think of a piece of New Mexican literature more widely read than Rudolfo Anaya’s 1972 coming-of-age novel Bless Me, Ultima. The story is rooted in the region’s Hispanic history, and the mystical portrayals of New Mexico folklore have made this tome famous in Anaya’s hometown of Santa Rosa. In 2008, the town dedicated the Bless Me Ultima Park to his legacy, complete with a life-size statue of Anaya and handwritten text from the book engraved on his notepad. Along a wall around the park, scenes from the story are engraved in detail, from the Pecos River to Route 66. 

D.H. Lawrence Ranch, Taos, New Mexico

A ranch in New Mexico isn’t where one would expect to find a memorial for the famous English author of such classics as Lady Chatterley’s Lover. D.H. Lawrence’s trip to New Mexico in 1922, however, made a big impression on the writer. He and his wife Frieda were gifted a small ranch by writer and arts patron Mabel Dodge Luhan. Although Lawrence spent less than a year there while he worked on the manuscript for The Plumed Serpent, the place held deep meaning for him: his widow shipped his ashes to the ranch after he died in 1930. Rumor has it that those ashes were mixed into cement and used to construct a shrine to Lawrence. Today, the D.H. Lawrence Ranch is open to the public, and visitors can see the small cabin where the Lawrences lived, a big pine tree he wrote about, and the memorial built after his death. Visiting hours are from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.