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New York City has long been America's literary capital, both in terms of writers associated with it and as the headquarters of the publishing business. But what city would you consider to be America's No. 2 literary capital, considering both its overall literary-historical heritage and its current literary activity?
LA is by no means a literary capital, as someone else said all the writers are involved in TV/movies. I would have definitely subbed in Seattle for LA.
No, I think Los Angeles belongs on the list. It has a pretty strong literary history. Not just film and TV, the immediate assumption. Perhaps that's natural. But if it's bookstores you're counting then maybe Seattle has a claim. OTOH I believe L.A. surpassed New York as the largest book buying market in the country back in the '80s. So it's I guess a question of different measurements combined: literary heritage, current literary scene, publishing houses, book market (bookstores, book fairs, etc., as well as Department of Commerce stats). I think that would be a fair way to approach it, and I don't know how cities would "rank" by these measures.
But given all the sales avenues, true hard data is really difficult to collect. E-books have really changed publishing. The good news is print is back! Sales have been consistently rising recently. I'm not sure why, but I'm happy for it. Maybe bookstores will be on the rebound too.
Institutions: The Library Company of Philadelphia (founded 1731 by Ben Franklin); Athenaeum of Philadelphia (1814); The American Philosophical Society (1743. Members have included Charles Darwin, Robert Frost, and Margaret Mead among others); The Rosenbach Museum and Library (rare books and manuscripts including works by Chaucer, Dickens and the handwritten manuscript of James Joyce's Ulysses. Also, over 200 letters of Abraham Lincoln); The Curtis Institute of Music (one of America's greatest music conservatories).
Born in Boston, lived for a while in Philadelphia, lived and died in Baltimore.
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