As we prepare for Thanksgiving this week, many of us are planning to entertain family and friends from out of town. We gather ideas of local places to take our visitors, we regale them with our favorite tales about Haverhill, and we boast about our hometown celebrities.
World famous poet John Greenleaf Whittier was born here! We have Bob Montana with Archie Comics and Haverhill as the origin of Riverdale! Bestselling author Andre Dubus III, and his father Andre Dubus, both lived in and wrote about Haverhill!
In fact, there are many, many more authors who are from Haverhill, or have strong ties to the city. John Bellairs, author of The House with a Clock in its Walls, lived here and taught at Merrimack College. Several Haverhill scientists, researchers, and doctors published academic papers going back to the 1800s. Poet Frances Cole Lee won first prize from the National Literacy Guild in 1945 for her poem “Sing of Peace.”
In Special Collections, we have an extensive collection of works by Haverhill authors. We have been working to reorganize, rehouse, and make these titles more accessible. If you are interested in a Haverhill author, poet, or writer, stop by Special Collections to read their work!
More Special Collections information is always available in our corner of the HPL website: https://haverhillpl.org/special-collections/