These animals can cause excruciating pain and even kill you!
English writer Beatrix Potter was best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as those in 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit' (1902). Her home, Hill Top, located near Hawkshead in Cumbria, features in several of her books.
English romantic poet William Wordsworth wrote much of his poetry, including 'Ode: Intimations of Immortality' (1807) in Dove Cottage, situated on the edge of Grasmere in the Lake District.
Russian playwright and short story writer Anton Chekhov began writing his play 'The Seagull' at Melikhovo, the country estate where he lived from 1892 to 1899. It's located about 64 km (40 mi) south of Moscow near the town of Chekhov, named in honor of the writer in 1954 and previously known as Lopasnya.
Charles Dickens lived at 48 Doughty Street in Holborn, London, from 1837 to 1839. It proved to be a very productive tenure, with the author completing 'The Pickwick Papers' (1836), and writing the whole of 'Oliver Twist' (1838) and 'Nicholas Nickleby' (1838–39).
Anne Frank perished at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, aged 15. But she left behind one of the world's best known books, which became known as 'The Diary of Anne Frank,' first published in 1947. It was written while she was hiding with her family in a secret annex in a house on Amsterdam's Prinsengracht.
Regarded as the greatest figure in Russian Romanticism, writer, poet and painter Mikhail Lermontov spent his childhood at Takhany, an estate located in the village of Lermontovo. He was buried within the grounds after his death in 1841.
One body of work defines Margaret Mitchell—'Gone with the Wind.' The American Civil War-era novel was first published in 1936 and won Mitchell the National Book Award for Most Distinguished Novel of 1936, and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1937. She wrote the book while living at 979 Crescent Avenue, in midtown Atlanta, Georgia.
Master of mystery and the macabre, Edgar Allen Poe lived at this unassuming property in Baltimore, Maryland, from about 1833 to 1835.
Widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist, William Shakespeare's birthplace is a restored 16th-century half-timbered house situated in Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon. Shakespeare only spent his childhood years here, but the property is often referred to as "a mecca for all lovers of literature."
Best known for the novels 'War and Peace' (1869) and 'Anna Karenina' (1877), Russian writer Leo Tolstoy is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. He wrote both novels at his mansion, Yasnaya Polyana. He is buried near the house.
'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' (1876) and its sequel, 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' (1884), are among the books written by Mark Twain at his home in Hartford, Connecticut. Known now as Mark Twain House, the property's odd-looking architecture has been described as "part steamboat, part medieval fortress, and part cuckoo clock."
Best known for 'The Call of the Wild' (1903) and 'White Fang' (1906), American novelist Jack London called home a modest cottage set on the slopes of Sonoma Mountain in California.
Robert Frost's farm in Derry, New Hampshire is where the American poet lived from 1900 to 1911, and where the majority of his poems collected in his first two books, 'A Boy's Will' (1913) and 'North of Boston' (1914), were written.
Danish author Karen Blixen's best-known work, 'Out of Africa' (1937), an account of her life while living in Kenya, was written after she had left Africa. But the house near Nairobi in which she lived still stands and features rooms designed in both the original decor and with props from the 1985 film starring Meryl Streep as Blixen.
Welsh poet and writer Dylan Thomas began writing 'Under Milk Wood' at the Boathouse, his home in Laugharne on the south coast of Carmarthenshire, Wales. Thomas in fact used a shed a little further along Cliff Road as his actual writing retreat.
Patrick White is to date the only Australian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was actually born in London but moved to Australia with his family when he was six months old. His home for 26 years was Highbury, a residence in the Sydney suburb of Centennial Park. While heritage listed, Highbury today is privately owned.
Rowan Oak in Oxford, Mississippi is where American writer and Nobel Prize laureate William Faulkner lived and worked. A unique feature of the interior is the outline of Faulkner's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel 'A Fable' (1954), penciled in graphite and red on the plaster wall of his study.
Victor Hugo is considered to be one of the greatest and best-known French writers. Especially noted for the novels 'The Hunchback of Notre-Dame' (1831) and 'Les Misérables' (1862), Hugo lived for 16 years, between 1832–1848, on fashionable Place des Vosges in Paris in what is now known as Maison de Victor Hugo.
Charlotte, together with sisters Emily and Anne, lived at Brontë Parsonage in Haworth, West Yorkshire. They spent most of their lives and wrote their most famous novels here. Charlotte Brontë penned 'Jane Eyre,' published in 1847, at the house.
British veterinary surgeon and writer James Herriot is known for his series of books about animals and their owners, many of which were adapted for film and television, including the 1975 film 'All Creatures Great and Small' and the hugely successful BBC television series of the same name, which ran for a total of 90 episodes. His home in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, features sets and items used in the production of the series.
Considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th-century Japan, Osamu Dazai lived in the Kanagi area of Goshogawara in Aomori Prefecture. After his death, his property was remodeled into a ryokan, with a small private memorial museum dedicated to the author.
famous Edith Wharton was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature, for 'The Age of Innocence,' published in 1920. She lived during the so-called Gilded Age, an era aptly symbolized by her opulent county house in Lenox, Massachusetts, known as The Mount.
Monk's House in Rodmell in East Sussex was home to English writer Virginia Woolf. The modernist author wrote 'Mrs Dalloway' (1925) and 'To the Lighthouse' (1927), among other novels, in a small wooden lodge on the grounds of the house. Pictured is her husband, Leonard Woolf, at the gate of the house.
Dr. Johnson's 'A Dictionary of the English Language' was published in 1755 and became the pre-eminent British dictionary for well over 150 years. He compiled the tome at Gough Square in the City of London, where he lived from 1748 to 1759.
American poet Emily Dickinson lived in Amherst, Massachusetts in what became known as the Dickinson Homestead from 1855 to 1886. The bulk of her poetry was found in a locked chest in her bedroom after her death; the complete works were first published in 1955.
The Jean Cocteau House was the residence of the French poet, artist, playwright, and filmmaker Jean Cocteau from 1947 to 1963. It's located about 50 km (31 mi) south of Paris in the village of Milly-la-Forêt.
'Sense and Sensibility,' 'Pride and Prejudice,' 'Mansfield Park,' and 'Emma' were all written in a large cottage at Chawton village in Hampshire, which Jane Austen called home for the last eight years of her life.
Ernest Hemingway's residence in Key West, Florida was his home from 1931 to 1939, although he retained the title to the property until he died. The short story classic 'The Snows of Kilimanjaro' (1936) and the novel 'To Have and Have Not' (1937) are among the works written here.
Some of the world's greatest novels and lines of verse were written by authors and poets who opted to work from home. Many of these properties are preserved as historic home museums, and serve as fascinating literary tourism destinations. Visitors are usually fans of the authors, and quite often find deep emotional, spiritual, or physical attachment to the writers just by being under the same roof where they once put pen to paper.
Click through the following gallery and read more about these influential wordsmiths and where they lived and worked.
A literary tour of writers' home museums
This is where great authors and poets lived and worked
TRAVEL Authors
Some of the world's greatest novels and lines of verse were written by authors and poets who opted to work from home. Many of these properties are preserved as historic home museums, and serve as fascinating literary tourism destinations. Visitors are usually fans of the authors, and quite often find deep emotional, spiritual, or physical attachment to the writers just by being under the same roof where they once put pen to paper.
Click through the following gallery and read more about these influential wordsmiths and where they lived and worked.