The Book Inside You: Local Literary History

BOSTON (CBS) - "Little Women" is considered by many to be a literary classic.

Fans of the novel, which was written in 1868 and adapted for both film and stage, flock to author Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House in Concord from all over the world.

Maryanne Gorely traveled from Bristol, Connecticut to check it out.

"I think she was someone who had a lot of thought to her. I think she was kind. I think she was generous. I think she was basically someone who had a big heart," she told WBZ NewsRadio 1030.

Read More: "The Book Inside You" Series

Fifteen miles away, Beat Generation fans flock to Lowell, the birthplace of "On the Road" author Jack Kerouac.

"He liked kinda knocking down all the traditions, the mores of the fifties," said Jack Herlihy, the curator of the Boott Cotton Mills Museum.

The museum has Kerouac's backpack and other items he took with him on his travels.

Herlihy said Kerouac's true talent was spontaneous prose.,

"You kinda just let this free thought process just roll. He had this real keen intellect for the written word," he told WBZ.

In Boston, a literary mecca for centuries, the Boston City Council approved a literary district in 2014, the first of its kind in the country.

It is centered largely in the Back Bay, where there are walking tours, book festivals, poetry slams and writing workshops.

Larry Lindner is the Executive Director of the Boston Literary District.

"Not only does Boston have a rich and storied literary history, but we have an incredibly rich, engaged, vibrant literary present," he told WBZ.

In fact, the country's leading creative writing center, Grub Street, sits along Boston Common.

"I don't think the printed word is dead. There are lots of dedicated and committed and excited readers out there," Linder said.

Lindner, a New York Times best selling author, says there are committed and excited writers as well.

"Why do I write? I can't not write. I write because I have no choice. I write because I need to express myself."

Listen to Part Five Of "The Book Inside You"