Milford's literary legacy

The Pike County Puzzle was a satirical newspaper created by Stephen Crane and a few friends in the summer of 1894, when they were camping at Camp Interlaken near Twin Lakes in Shohola, right before Crane's most famous work, "Red Badge of Courage," was published in 1895.
In the summer of 1934, "You Can't Go Home Again" author Thomas Wolfe lived and wrote at the Hotel Fauchère, so he could be close to his girlfriend in Dingmans Ferry.
Many science and speculative fiction writers — including Judith Merrill, Samuel Delany, Harlan Ellison, and Ursula LeGuin — lived or spent time in Milford. Kurt Vonnegut set scenes, writes about or references Milford in "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" and other of his books.
The annual Milford Writers Conference, an influential science fiction writers' gathering, was founded in the 1950s by writer Damon Knight and held for many years in Milford. It is now called the United Kingdom Milford SF Writers' Conference after science fiction writer James Blish moved it to Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire, England, in 1972.
More recently, Frank McCourt wrote "Angela's Ashes" while living in Milford in the 1990s. Siddhartha Mukherjee ("Emperor of All Maladies"), Colm Tóibín ("The Master," "Mothers and Sons," "The Empty Family"), Gloria Steinem ("On the Road"), Robin Morgan ("Sisterhood is Powerful," "The Demon Lover") have all dined at the hotel in recent years.
"Spartina" author John Casey lives in Milford part-time, and John Berendt, who wrote "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" and "The City of Falling Angels" is not only a frequent visitor, but he wrote about Milford in Travel + Leisure magazine.
I reflected on Milford's literary history this week, when I began reading "On Home Soil," the latest action/adventure/spy novel from David Lender. Like thriller-writer Harlan Coben, David frequently references Pike County in his books, and, to my delight, almost always mentions the cheeseburgers at Bar Louis. In his new book, "On Home Soil," the opening scene involves international "field operatives" (aka "spies"), and we get more than a cheeseburger mention; the opening scene is in Bar Louis (you can read part of the first chapter here: http://bit.ly/1WFSecv). After reading about spy intrigue in Bar Louis, it made me look more closely at our guests last night!
Best wishes for a great weekend. I'm debating whether it is too early to put out my tomatoes. We'll see.
P.S. If you are interested in helping organize a Milford book or Readers and Writers festival, send me a note (events@hotelfauchere.com) and let's get together and get something underway.
Sean Strub is co-owner of the Hotel Fauchère in Milford.