Before leaving, my wife and I tried to prepare our sons.

We painted quotes from Dickinson’s poems on our pandemic rock garden.

My wife explained that the tour was a way to understand what was happening to the country now.

Two photos from a literary tour of New England, including a bust of Mark Twain, and case containing a first edition of novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin

From left: A bust of Mark Twain in the entry hall of his Hartford, Connecticut, home; a first edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, in Hartford.Allison Minto

“But the writers are all dead,” my son observed.

“Yes, but we still read their books.”

“So… Are the houses haunted?”

Emily Dickinson’s white housedress in the hall of her former home, now a museum

Emily Dickinson’s house dress stands in the hallway of her home in Amherst, Massachusetts.Allison Minto

It was too good an opportunity to pass up.

“Yes,” we told him.

“The houses are definitely haunted.”

Exterior of Orchard House, the home of Louisa May Alcott

Orchard House, the home of the progressive Alcott family in Concord, Massachusetts.Allison Minto

We turned off the computer.

When our youngest son asked why, I said something about history being complicated and messy.

My wife explained that the tour was a way to understand what was happening to the country now.

Two chairs sit in the garden at Edith Wharton’s former home, The Mount

The gardens Wharton designed at the Mount.Allison Minto

Some of the conflict in how we approach the past was on display at the Stowe and Twain homes.

Even from the outside, Stowe’s house felt familiar.

Her father, Lyman Beecher, and brother Henry Ward Beecher were prominent abolitionists.

Two photos from the home of Herman Melville in Massachusetts, including the view of Mt Greylock from his desk, and a copy of Moby Dick

From left: A copy of Moby-Dick and reproduced manuscript pages on Herman Melville’s desk; Mount Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts, as seen from Melville’s desk.Allison Minto

Stowe would outdo them all with the publication ofUncle Tom’s Cabinin 1852.

“Always obey your parents, when they are present” was a particular favorite.

Our youngest son asked me, “Who is George, and why does he say ‘Mr.

Detail of a reproduction of Emily Dickinson’s manuscript in her former home

A reproduction of Dickinson’s manuscript pages, on display in her bedroom.Allison Minto

“Or are you going to say it’s more complicated than that.”

And it’s more complicated than that.”

Unsurprisingly, Twain’s house has been immaculately preserved with original objects from the Clemens family.

I explained that the next morning we were going to visit Orchard House, the Alcotts’ family home.

“Will we see ghosts?”

“We’ll do our best,” I promised.

Unfortunately for my children, nothing about Orchard House suggested ghosts.

The two-story wooden manor, set back slightly from the road, looked like the quintessential country home.

“You see,” my wife told our sons.

“The house is better than haunted.

It’s so alive you don’t want to leave.”

“The house is better than haunted.

It’s so alive you don’t want to leave.”

Wharton lived there for 10 years, trapped in a loveless marriage.

The Mount is as much Wharton asThe Age of InnocenceorThe House of Mirth,her two most famous novels.

Like a novel, it was constructed by a singular artistic vision laboring to make something grand and sublime.

I asked my sons if they could see the whale yet.

This time they barely bothered to respond.

“There are no whales in the mountains,” my oldest son said.

“And what about ghosts?”

“And there’s no such thing as ghosts,” they said in unison.

“You’re both wrong,” I said.

The surrounding fields, adorned with towering pine trees, have an uninterrupted view of the Berkshire Mountains.

I asked my sons if they could see the whale yet.

This time they barely bothered to respond.

If they were disappointed at not seeing an actual whale, they kept it to themselves.

Is This the Most Beautiful Bookstore in the World?

Of all the homes we visited, Dickinson’s was closest to our hearts.

Dickinson’s home is sparsely furnisheda piano, a comically bad family portrait.

I searched for my favorite poem of hers,

For each ecstatic instant

We must an anguish pay…

But I knew better than to get hung up trying to find it.

“Look,” my wife said.

“There’s the ghost we’ve been searching for.”

An adjacent museum gives visitors the opportunity to explore Twain’s writings.

Doubles from $269.

The writer drew on it for the setting of Little Women.

Doubles from $209.

Doubles from $389.

The house is closed until March 2022, but is hosting a range of virtual events in 2021.

Doubles from $229.

Entrees $18$31.