Interactive Map of War Writers National Road Trip

This trip begins with the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Massachusetts, runs south to the Hemingway House in Key West, then west to the National Steinbeck Museum in California, then north through the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, on back to the Frederic Remington Museum in upstate New York.

War Writers Map

Click the interactive map and watch the place markers connect the stops. Click the markers to see the place names, addresses, and author links.

Starting in the Northeast:

  1. John F. Kennedy: World War II Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy (MA)
  2. James Fenimore Cooper: War of 1812 Midshipman in the U.S. Navy (NJ)
  3. National Civil War Museum (PA)

    Heading South:

  4. James Madison: Revolutionary War Colonel in the Virginia Militia (VA)
  5. Carl Sandburg: Spanish-American War Private in the U.S. Army (NC)
  6. Elmore Leonard: World War II Petty Officer Third Class in the U.S. Navy Seabees (SC)
  7. Juliette Gordon Low: World War I (the founder of Girl Scouts; Girl Scouts and Girl Guides helped the war effort, occasionally serving as spies) (GA)
    From Savannah, you can either head to the heart of Georgia to visit places connected to Navy veteran Jimmy Carter or continue on the same path south straight to Florida. Read about the Jimmy Carter possibilities in Atlanta and Plains here: Jimmy Carter Places.
  8. Stephen Crane: Spanish-American War and Greco-Turkish War correspondent (FL)
  9. Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, 1st woman from Miami to enlist in the Navy, Yeoman, 1st Class, WWI (FL)
  10. Ernest Hemingway: World War I ambulance driver and correspondent for the Greco-Turkish War, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II (FL)
  11. J.N. “Ding” Darling: World War II anti-Nazi editorial cartoonist (FL)
  12. F. Scott Fitzgerald: World War I Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army (AL)
  13. William Faulkner: World War I Royal Air Force Reserve Unit (MS)

    Heading West to the Northern Midwest:

  14. Ralph Ellison: World War II Merchant Marine (OK)
  15. Lew Wallace: Civil War Major General in the Union Army (NM)
  16. Ernie Pyle: World War II correspondent (NM)
  17. Louis Zamperini: World War II Captain and Bombadier in the U.S. Army (CA)
  18. Edgar Rice Burroughs: World War II’s oldest war correspondent (CA)
  19. John Steinbeck: World War II correspondent (CA)

    John Steinbeck Center, Salinas, CA

  20. Charles M. Schulz: World War II Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army (CA)
  21. Richard Hugo: World War II First Lieutenant and Bombadier in the U.S. Army (WA)
  22. Ernest Hemingway: World War I ambulance driver and correspondent for the Greco-Turkish War, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II (ID)
  23. Buffalo Bill Cody: Civil War Union Army Private (Chief of Scouts) (WY)
  24. Theodore Roosevelt: Spanish-American War Colonel in the U.S. Army and Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Navy (ND)
  25. Louis L’Amour: World War II Lieutenant in the U.S. Army (ND)
  26. August Wilson: Vietnam War U.S. Army cook (MN)
  27. J.R.R. Tolkien: World War I Lieutenant in the British Army (WI)
  28. Ernest Hemingway: World War I ambulance driver and correspondent for the Greco-Turkish War, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II (IL)
  29. Kurt Vonnegut: World War II Private and POW and Ambrose Bierce: Civil War First Lieutenant in the Union Army (IN)
  30. Louis Bromfield: World War I ambulance driver (OH)

From the Midwest Returning to the Northeast for the Final Stop of the National Loop:

Frederic Remington: Spanish-American War correspondent and illustrator (NY)

Willing to go the extra distance? Add these unusual stops:

  1. Julia Child‘s kitchen at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in DC: Child was a research assistant in the Central Intelligence Division of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II
  2. Homer Hickam, of West Virginia, known as the main character of the book Rocket Boys, which inspired the movie October Sky: Hickam was a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War — his childhood haunts are all over this hidden hamlet
  3. John Graves, who worked to preserve the Brazos River in Texas, was a Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps in World War II