The John Updike Society has finalized a contract to purchase John Updike‘s home for $200,000.
Located in the Pennsylvania town of Shillington, Updike lived in the home for thirteen years as a child. John Updike Society president James Plath announced that the organization plans to make the house a historic site and convert it into an operational museum.
Here’s more from Reading Eagle: “Out of respect for the residential neighborhood, Plath said, he expects the historic site to be open only by appointment and not list regular hours. Plath said he has researched the operations of similar historic sites that were once authors’ homes, including the Carson McCullers Center for Writers and Musicians in Columbus, Ga., and the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum in Montgomery, Ala.”
Throughout the country, literary fans can visit a number of author homes that have been repurposed as museums.
In the New England region, visitors can tour the Hartford home of Mark Twain where he lived/worked from 1874 to 1891. In a remote Missouri town, fans of the Little House series can visit the estate of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Down in Florida, cat lovers can explore Ernest Hemingway‘s home which also houses about 50 polydactyl cats. Many of those cats are the descendants of Hemingway’s own pet named Snowball. (via Sarah Weinman)