ABSTRACT
“The heart’s field” is Eudora Welty’s image for the meaning of place in fiction. Anne Lundin muses on the storied landscape of literature, particularly the geography of her favorite books of childhood. The essay invites the reader to reflect on the places of childhood and their connection to our own stories as well as fiction. Landscape is viewed as always dual: the one outside the self, the other within. Places are linked intertextually as the product of identity, ideology, narrative tradition, and the imagination. Children’s books are the site of adult re-creation of an earlier geography. Some of the works discussed include folktales, Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, The Laura Ingalls Wilder series, Beatrix Potter’s Hill Top and Lake Country, Wind in the Willows, The Secret Garden, and Charlotte’s Web. In an age when many despair the fate of the book or library, the power of place remains as the text of a book enters the text of a life. [Article copies available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail address: <getinfo@haworthpressinc.com> Website: <https://www.haworthpressinc.com>]
