- On this episode of "American Stories: A Reading Road Trip," we are headed to the ocean state.

- Come along as we check out Rhode Island, and not just it's over 400 miles of coastline, beaches and seafood, but its deep-seated roots in literature, from the early colonial era, all the way to some of the most recognizable authors of today.

- Rhode Island is a haven for book lovers, with its rich history and intellectual scene.

You can visit the homes and towns of famous authors and immerse yourself in our literary culture.

- Join PBS books, the Library of Congress and the Library's Affiliated Centers for the Book on a literary adventure through Rhode Island.

(inspirational music) "Welcome to American Stories: A Reading Road Trip."

Hi, I'm Fred Nahhat alongside Lauren Smith from PBS Books.

- While the Library of Congress might be a pretty well-known name, what you might not know is that in each US state and six territories, the LOC has established a local Center for the Book in order to make the Library of Congress even more accessible to all Americans.

Each and every Center for the Book supports local literary events, reading programs, and community engagement, fostering a love of books and reading nationwide.

- So as America approaches its 250th birthday, PBS Books, the Library of Congress, and its Affiliated Centers for the Book are working together to bring you this new series, exploring the rich tapestry of literature across the country.

- I'm Lee Ann Potter, the Director of Professional Learning and Outreach Initiatives at the Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress is the congressional library and the National Library of the United States and the largest library in the world with more than 181 million items, from photographs to maps, from motion pictures to sound recordings, from newspapers, to manuscripts, and more.

Oh and yes, there are books, millions of them.

In this series, "American Stories: A Reading Road Trip," you will hear about many books and authors and poems and short stories and more, and how together they make up our nation's literary heritage.

As you do, I hope you will keep in mind that while they are all unique and come from different parts of our vast country, they all have something very important in common.

They all live in the collections of the Library of Congress.

You'll also hear about the Library's Affiliated Centers for the Book.

There is one in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

These centers promote reading, libraries, and literacy, and they celebrate and share their state or territories literary heritage through a variety of programs that you'll hear about in this very special series - Today, our first stop is in a state that's small in size, but boasts a rich and diverse literary landscape.

Our reading road trip kicks off in Rhode Island, - So get ready to meet some of Rhode Island's most notable authors and illustrators and hear how its geography, architecture, and people, have influenced their work.

We'll also take a deep dive into the history of the state, visit some of its most beloved libraries and explore its literary landmarks.

(soft guitar music) - Rhode Island is the smallest state in the union.

It is small, but it is mighty, not only when it comes to history, but especially literary history.

You have the ocean surrounding it and then you also have the essence of history.

You have architecture all around you from the 1600s even today.

And I think that that architecture and this vivid embrace of our arts and culture, which has been going on for 400 years really feeds a culture of creativity and writing.

- So the Center for the Book, we are a state affiliate of the center for the book in the Library of Congress.

Every state has a Center for the Book.

In Rhode Island, we're a small nonprofit organization and we live and breathe the mission of providing books and programs to libraries, schools, and other amazing organizations throughout our state.

And we're really just all about connecting people through books, building community through books.

- [Fred] The diverse landscape of Rhode Island, from its rocky coastlines to its historic cities, has inspired generations of authors.

- And this small state's rich, natural, and urban settings continue to stir the imaginations of writers today.

- I love Rhode Island because of the scale and that scale promotes a sense of community.

So you can go to any art opening or any literary event and chances are you're going to know someone or know someone that knows someone, an acquaintance.

And that sort of tight knit bond of all the creatives in the state is something that was so interesting and inspiring for me.

- I first came to Rhode Island for school.

I went to the Rhode Island School of Design and I decided to stay because it's just truly beautiful.

Whenever I just like walk down a street, for example, like Benefit Street, you can just see a lot of these really amazing old houses and these really great like designed doors and windows and whatnot.

And so it's looking at architecture like that, that when I'm crafting buildings in my own work, I can think about the stuff that I'm walking past every day and kind of take inspiration from that.

- When I go back to Rhode Island, I also, I must confess, I feel like I'm going home, but I think the most important thing to me about Rhode Island is the fact that it's, you're so connected to the past all the time, physically, the scale of buildings, the streets, you always feel like you're sort of walking in the past, but in the present.

And I love that connection, I love that link.

- It's this hidden gem.

It doesn't take itself too seriously.

It's incredibly diverse.

It's got great arts, and yet I feel like, you know, it doesn't like walk around like with its chest puffed up.

Like, look at me, I'm so great.

Instead, it kind of humbly just keeps doing what it does so well.

- It's a beautiful state, it's the ocean state.

So the proximity to the coastline is unbelievable.

It's a great place to get inspired creatively and it's just a lovely place to live.

(soft guitar music) - It's no surprise that so many writers have been inspired by Rhode Island, when you consider that its roots can be traced all the way back to the early colonial period.

The state was founded by a notable historical writer and minister, Roger Williams.

- I think if you're talking about literature in Rhode Island, you have to start with Roger Williams, 'cause he founded Rhode Island in 1636 after he was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colonies.

And he really wrote, I think one of the first books that we can talk about in Rhode Island, and that is, "A Key into Language of America," and it's the first English language study of indigenous language in North America.

Then we also look at what has happened since then, and we have a really unique, amazing museum in Rhode Island called The Tomaquag Museum, and its executive director Lauren Spears with a few other people updated and edited that first book of Roger Williams for historical accuracy and for nuance, - It documents the language and the living of the Narragansett peoples.

So words like moccasin or papoose or words that we know today, it's in the Roger Williams book from, I believe it's 1643.

It was still written at a time that people come with their own biases and and thoughts, and so she's updating it and, but also publishing it and making it more relevant to today.

- You can go to the John Hay Library at Brown University and see the original book that Roger Williams wrote, and then the other additions you can also visit.

But living in Rhode Island, you can start your journey in Providence at the John Hay Library, and then in less than an hour you can be at the Tomaquag Museum.

So you're getting both experiences, which is another really amazing thing about living in our state is that you can go for the length of the state in about an hour.

So you're really gonna take a lot in when you come.

- One of the things that's extraordinary is to be able to really see these original documents from the 1600s, really early Americana that make our country what it is today in this gorgeous Beaux Arts style library.

And in this library there are more than 50,000 rare books and over 16,000 manuscripts.

And I think as someone who loves rare books, this is definitely someplace I would stop and I would just kind of take in the history and definitely spend some time with these amazing objects which are inspirational to think about.

- [Fred] While the John Hay Library is a wonderful source of manuscripts that go back centuries, it's also home to the collected works of one of the nation's most prized poets.

- Michael Harper was our very first poet laureate, and really, I think was at Brown for maybe 40 years, and just a renowned poet, professor, and prominent figure in the Black arts movement and explored themes of African American history, identity, social justice in his really powerful poetry.

- And his poetry really sought to bridge the divide between racial, historical, and the personal past of all Americas, which I think especially, as we look back at Michael Harper, it's important to really consider the time he started making his art.

And also there's just a vast amount of his work actually held at the Library of Congress today, obviously at Brown.

But the Library of Congress has a lot too, and it's quite inspirational.

- [Fred] Providence is home to many historical literary treasures.

The Rhode Island School of Design and Museum, also known as RISD, has helped lay the foundation for some of literature's most well-known authors and illustrators.

- RISD is one of the first art and design schools in the country, and it really sort of, I think, is famous for its graduates and we have so many amazing authors and illustrators who have come through, Chris Van Allsburg, David Macauley, Oge Mora, Brian Selznick, Roz Chast, Grace Lin, I mean the list goes on.

So they also have a museum.

So if you're at the John Hay, you're just gonna be maybe 10 minute walk to the RISD Museum where you can take in a lot of that history.

When I think of, you know, lots of amazing creative minds coming together and brainstorming and playing off of each other, that's the Rhode Island School of Design.

People come to study at at RISD and then they stay and they make Rhode Island their home and it's really the foundation for some of the state's most important authors and illustrators.

- I would say that Rhode Island has really inspired my work, really predominantly from the community that I'm surrounded with.

I'd also say that I've always been really inspired by the architecture that you can see around Providence.

So many of my books utilize different like building urban landscapes, and so it's really wonderful being able to see all the brightly colored buildings and doors and cool designed windows that I can use as inspiration for the collages that I'm putting together.

(soft guitar music) - Another notable graduate of RISD as David Macaulay who made Rhode Island his home and continually drew inspiration from it for his work.

- His artistry is displayed across Rhode Island in a multi-piece mural installation created for the state's highway beautification program.

And two of these three murals can still be visited today, - This opportunity to create some murals for bridges and structures close to the highway, to Route 95, coming through Rhode Island.

It was part of a program where they really were attempting to define Rhode Island as this kind of artistic center, and you know, and that's very easy to justify.

The imagery I chose was initially elves and things of that nature.

Playful little characters peeking out from under the structures to sort of put a smile on your face as you're stuck in traffic.

- [Fred] And David's detailed books on architecture and how inventions work can be found in the children's and young adult sections of public libraries and bookstores throughout the US.

- David Macaulay, as a graduate of RISD and then taught at RISD and as did Chris Van Allsburg and their friends, and they were bringing authors and illustrators to RISD to speak to students.

And then Chris's wife, Lisa, along with David and Chris started talking about like, how can we create more access to these amazing authors and illustrators that we have coming through and open it up to the community.

The Rhode Island festival of Children's books and authors is really our most popular longest running festival.

So another reason to visit our state.

It always happens on the third Saturday in October and the leaves are changing and it's a 10 minute walk from Brown or from RISD and you'll be at a festival.

- [Lauren] Another incredible author with connections to RISD is Pulitzer Prize winning author Jhumpa Lahiri who taught creative writing there.

- Jhumpa Lahiri, yeah, I mean she moved to South Kingston when she was three or four and graduated from that high school.

She writes about the Indian immigrant experience.

She's won a Pulitzer.

I think for sure, she's one of our most famous Rhode Islanders.

- Her experience of very much feeling like an outsider and then finding their her way appears in "The Interpreter of Maladies."

And there, she delves into themes of immigration, isolation, this cultural disconnection.

And obviously it's a bunch of little stories put together, but I feel that there's no question that that, her Rhode Island experiences influenced her writing.

And so when you're looking for, let me come to Rhode Island and see the world that inspired Jhumpa Lahiri's book, you're gonna see what she experienced by going to Kingston.

- As we continue to explore Rhode Island, you can find even more on the history and stories behind the places authors and literary treasures in the extensive collections of the Library of Congress.

You can visit the Library of Congress in Washington DC, search online digital collections, or connect with your local Center for the Book.

Visit PBSbooks.org or loc.gov, to discover more.

(soft piano music) - Many states may stake a claim on Edgar Allen Poe, but Providence Rhode Island holds a special connection to this master of the macabre.

- What you have is obviously, as one tries to connect with Edgar Allen Poe as many states and many places do, you know, you do have locations like St. John's the cathedral, where we know that Edgar Allen Poe proposed to Sarah Whitman.

And then you also just are able to hear little stories as you walk around Providence and learn about Edgar Allan Poe went here and he did this and so I think as one wants to be inspired by the past and inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, going to Providence, Rhode Island and walking through the streets, you're going get that real sense of inspiration.

- I think that you can go to the Athenaeum, which is a beautiful old library right there on the east side of Providence and see a statue of a bust of Poe and some of the letters of their correspondence.

(soft music) - HP Lovecraft, the influential writer of horror, fantasy and weird fiction, spent much of his life in Providence.

Lovecraft is best known for his pioneering work in the creation of cosmic or love crafting horror where humanity faces forces far beyond understanding.

- His works have become cornerstones of modern horror literature.

Fans love his work for its deeply unsettling atmosphere and the way it taps into existential fear.

- I think he invented cosmic horror.

He's all about Providence, Rhode Island.

You can go on a literary tour.

I think there are a few of them where you can walk and see places he wrote about, inspiration, and also his grave, which has this headstone, and it says, "I am providence," on it.

So there's a lot of discussion about that, but so many people come.

There's so many Lovecraft fans and to take a walking tour and to kind of immerse yourself in all things HP Lovecraft, is what brings a lot of people to Providence.

- Part of the reason why Lovecraft, I think, was pulled to do so much work in Providence, dealt with his connection and admiration and inspiration of Edgar Allen Poe.

So you're kind of able to weave together a story and really it's all inspired by the place and space of Providence, Rhode Island.

- Avi also featured Rhode Island prominently in his works.

"Something Upstairs," was set in the very house where he wrote it, which led to subsequent historical thrillers for young adults, "The Man Who Was Poe", and "The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle."

- Avi is, I can still remember taking when I was a elementary school teacher taking my class on the Avi tour in the east side of Providence.

So he lived in Rhode Island for a while, in Providence, and a lot of his books take place in Providence.

And you can do the Something Upstairs tour with the historical society and it's really a special thing to do with kids.

- Rhode Island's literary legacy isn't just shaped by its historical giants.

Today's authors are weaving new stories that continue to make the ocean state a hub of creativity and inspiration.

- I live about 12 miles outside of Providence along the East Bay.

I'm in a small community called Barrington.

It's very close to Warren in Bristol, and there's something about that vicinity to the water that affects the quality of the light.

And that is such an inspiration in my books.

Living in a place like this, it's so nice to be able to go for walks and go for walks on the beach and I take breaks from the studio and then I go back and work in those ideas of lighting and the things that I've seen and taken photographs.

I work them directly back into the paintings.

- My first book, "Rising Dispatches from the New American Shore," is really an on the ground investigation of different coastal communities that are coming to terms with rising sea levels.

And the very first chapter in "Rising," takes place in Rhode Island and it's really about how sea level rise is transforming coastal marshlands in the Narragansett Bay.

As so many of us know in Rhode Island, we're losing beloved places to rising sea levels.

It's the ocean state, right?

So it's been central to my work ever since I moved here.

- I think there's nothing like either meeting an author, you know, at a book festival.

They're like rock stars and finding out their inspiration behind the book, or visiting where somebody lived to get you a sense of their place and their life.

There's just nothing like that hands-on, first person lived experience.

- There are plenty of those kinds of places.

But the important thing for me was to be able to walk out of my house to the studio through, you know, along a historic route, often connected in some way, shape or form, or shaped by its connection to the water, the river, the bay, inlets where once upon a time, you know, small cargo vessels docked and things were brought in and things were, you know, set out.

That, there's very, especially in Warren, very much a, a feeling of that sort of town on the harbor kind of thing or town as a harbor.

That to me is the most inspirational thing, the most welcoming thing about Rhode Island.

- For me, I write books about Latina luminaries, like Pura Belpré, the first Puerto Rican librarian to work in the New York Public Library.

And even though that book is set in New York, Rhode Island has a large and vibrant Latino community and a large and vibrant latino arts and literary community.

And one librarian that I know who works at the Pawtucket Library, she is a bilingual librarian.

And something that Pura Belpré did was she, she lit a story candle when she was going to do a story hour.

And I always say that Maria is walking in the path that Pura Belpré lit.

So when I interact with librarians in the state and I meet a lot of young bilingual, energetic librarians, that influences my work, obviously in that book.

And they're also sharing that book with their library community.

So I think that's a really strong connection.

(upbeat music) - We have so many beautiful libraries here.

So there's the Fleet Library, which is on RISD campus that has this really amazing like honeycomb architecture right off of Westminster.

There's the Providence Public Library downtown towards Kennedy Plaza, also has a really great structure, but my favorite library here in Rhode Island, is the Atheneum, that's off of Benefit Street.

It's a very old library.

I believe Edgar Allen Poe used to check out books there when he was seeing his lover.

He would take trips down to Rhode Island to see his lover before he passed.

And so it is just the most beautiful, beautiful library, with an amazing, amazing collection.

And anybody, like you can get a membership there, but you also, anybody in the public can come there and just take all the work in, pull a book off the shelf and it's just like, just gorgeous.

- I think my favorite library in Rhode Island, there's the Athenaeum in Providence.

That's, I mean, that is a jewel, that is an extraordinary place.

But in terms of libraries where I actually sat and worked, the Providence Public Library, as a student at RISD, when I had some spare time, I would wander up there and go to the art room and pull off books about drawing and, you know, and books about illustration actually.

And I believe, if I'm not mistaken, I believe there was a room that had some ship models in it.

And I remember looking at the ship models and I eventually did a book about the building of a ship, two books actually.

And, you know, indirectly they were probably inspired by those experiences tucked away in the deep recesses of my now aging brain.

- My favorite Rhode Island library is the library that is two blocks from my house, the Rochambeau Library.

I have a 4-year-old and he has spent probably 10 hours a week in that library.

They have amazing programming.

The librarians, the children's room librarians are phenomenal.

So I just, I adore that library.

- Some of my favorite libraries in Rhode Island are the downtown branch, certainly.

And then, of course, our local public library, Barrington Public Library, where the folks in there every single day are working so hard to get new titles out to their young readers.

Making a comfortable space.

Really, libraries all over Rhode Island are something that we need to treasure, preserve and support - The oldest library in Rhode Island and the oldest lending library in the United States is the Redwood Library in Athenaeum in Newport.

And it's a must see for people who are coming to our state.

- And it was founded in 1747.

It's still operating in its original building, which is extraordinary.

And it was established by Abraham Redwood and a group of prominent citizens of Newport and they really just wanted to promote knowledge and intellectual discussion.

So thinking back, that's also why you have all of these creatives and all of these writers, is that the cornerstone, the foundation of Rhode Island is really focused on learning, intellectual discovery and curiosity.

(soft music) - Many of the authors and locations that we have featured so far have had connections to Rhode Island's capital of Providence.

But just 35 miles south is Newport, another city, rich with literary connections.

- [Lauren] Readers can visit the historic summer home of renowned author Edith Wharton, and step into the elegant world that inspired her classic works like "The Age of Innocence" and "The House of Mirth."

- 2025 also marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of "The Great Gatsby."

While fans of F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 classic might not immediately connect this tale of Life on New York's Long Island with Newport, Rhode Island, the 1974 film adaptation used three different Newport mansions as locations for Jay Gatsby's house.

- One of the most important canonical books when I was growing up, and even today, is "The Great Gatsby."

And everyone, I think still even reads "The Great Gatsby," written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and the mansion that F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby" was first filmed in, in the seventies, is in Newport.

Also, Newport is a pretty amazing place to visit.

It has just breathtaking scenery, coastline, but also the Gilded Age mansions.

So you're gonna take a tour and you're gonna be where Edith Wharton was and Henry James and so many other authors.

And even this past summer, we had a professor from Providence College.

She wrote a book called, "The Wedding People."

It was a runaway bestseller, a Read with Jenna Book, and it all takes place in Newport.

So you can really take a literary tour in Newport as well.

- If our reading road trip has inspired you to learn more about the history and stories behind the places, authors, and literary treasures of Rhode Island, or maybe you wanna begin exploring the literary heritage within your own state or territory, the Library of Congress has an extensive collection that is free and accessible to the public.

You can visit the Library of Congress in Washington DC, search online digital collections, or connect with your local center for the book.

Visit PBSbooks.org or loc.gov, to discover more.

(upbeat music) - Here's a sneak peek at the exciting journey ahead on "America's stories: A Reading Road Trip."

(upbeat music) - The US Virgin Island is a very interesting and unique place.

The mission of the Virgin Islands Center for the Book is really trying to share the history of the local culture, the local storytelling of the Virgin Islands, because it's quite unique.

If someone was coming to the Virgin Islands, I would love for them to come during Carnival, because that to me embodies the culture of the community, whether it's the folklore, the dancing, the history of the community.

You also have authors like Tiphanie Yanique who has a very different perspective on Carnival and how she expresses it.

And that culture, the Virgin Island is just a rich culture, have amazing authors, great relationships with the, the bookstores, the libraries, the museums, really all in an effort to share our history.

(soft guitar music) - I think that one thing a non-resident of Washington state might not know about our literary heritage is the importance of Japanese American literature in our state, and particularly the literature of the resistance to wartime incarceration that happened in Washington state.

Also in Seattle, is the Panama Hotel and Tea House, which is on the National Historic Register.

And it's an important site in terms of both Japanese immigration and the history of wartime incarceration in Seattle.

And there is a bestselling book called, "The Hotel of Bitter and Sweet," by Jamie Ford.

And that location is important to that book.

Jess Walter is a novelist who lives in Spokane and is from Spokane and has novels set in Spokane.

There's even a wonderful tour you can take based on his book, "The Cold Millions," which won a Washington State Book award recently.

So I would definitely encourage visitors to visit Spokane.

They have a beautiful public library downtown.

The Jamestown S'Klallam Tribal Library is a beautiful new building near Sequim Washington.

There's an amazing exhibit hall inside of it that tells the story of the tribe's history.

Some of the things that have influenced the literature in our state include the landscapes.

The western side of our state is filled with mountains and ocean and rainforests.

The eastern side of our state has four distinct seasons and fruit orchards and giant rivers.

So those have all certainly seeped their way into our literature.

(upbeat music) - I think that one of the things you have to remember about Ohio is that we were the frontier at one time.

So we have a wide range of people from the state.

We have rural, urban, suburban.

We have a number of ethnic groups that have moved into the state.

So the diversity of the state, really, I think comes across in the literary heritage of the state.

Of course, we have Toni Morrison, who is from Lorain, Ohio.

We had Harriet Beecher Stowe, who has deep connections with Ohio and lived in the Cincinnati area.

Ohio has a connection with comic stretching back to the 1800s.

RF Outcault, who is arguably the creator of comic strip and newspapers.

He's from Ohio.

We are also the home of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster who were the creators of "Superman;" from Cleveland.

Langston Hughes has a, although he's more associated with the Harlem Renaissance, he grew up in Cleveland, went to high school and was influenced by one of the librarians at the Cleveland Public Library, as a matter of fact.

So we have that feather in our cap as well.

Lots of feathers in our cap.

One of the fun ones that we have in Ohio is that we have the "Nancy Drew" collection at the Toledo Lucas County Public Library since the first author of the "Nancy Drew" books is from Toledo.

And so we have a wonderful collection in that public library in the children's department there.

(inspirational music) - I know I've added a few new stops to my literary musty list.

What about you, Fred?

- Well, personally, I would love to visit one of the mansions where the Great Gatsby was filmed.

Now to our viewers, have you visited any of the amazing spots on Kate's featured author places to visit?

Let us know in the chat.

- And locals, please feel free to make some of your own suggestions for exciting spots that out of town book lovers can visit.

- If you're still looking for more literary treasures, or may not know where to begin, who better to turn to for advice than your local library?

- [Lauren] So many local institutions are available to help you get started on your own literary journey.

- For more information on the authors, the institutions, and the places featured in this episode, visit us at pbsbooks.org.

- And don't forget to like and subscribe, so you never miss an episode of PBS books.

And be sure to share this video with all your friends.

- Until next time.

- [Fred And Lauren] Happy reading.

(inspirational music) (soft piano music)