# Real places with literary counterparts **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 1, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-places-with-literary-counterparts/692125 "2014-07-01T19:06:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-places-with-literary-counterparts/692125/1 "2014-07-01T19:06:05Z")
I’m gambling that this forum is the place for this sorta-Geography, sorta-Trivia, sorta-Literary, mostly-Game thing. The idea is to locate on the planet a real life place that may be better know from literature as a fictional place. Two examples to start the quest. 1. [Slough of Despond](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slough_of_Despond) is located > [@](#): > > Allusions in placenames[edit] > An area of wetlands in Canada located on the Bruce Trail near Big Bay, Ontario, north of Owen Sound is named for this fictional place. > A quarry site near Symington in South Ayrshire has the Slough Burn flowing through it and on Ordnance Survey maps is marked as the Slough of Despond. 1. [Dismal Swamp](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dismal_Swamp) (see link) and I’ve yet to locate the “literary” reference I thought I had heard before. Anybody? At least there’s the idea for other such things… ---
**Author:** ![civvi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@civvi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/civvi)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-places-with-literary-counterparts/692125/2 "2014-07-01T19:30:21Z")
Iirc The Emberverse series takes place around the Portland Regions ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-places-with-literary-counterparts/692125/3 "2014-07-01T19:32:54Z")
Well, William Faulkner made up Yoknapatawpha County, but almost everyone assumes it’s just a thinly disguised version of Mississippi’s real-life Lafayette County. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-places-with-literary-counterparts/692125/4 "2014-07-01T19:38:43Z")
Sinclair Lewis set Babbitt and some other novels in the fictional Midwestern city of Zenith in the fictional state of Winnewac… which most observers took to be Cincinnati, Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-places-with-literary-counterparts/692125/5 "2014-07-01T19:51:28Z")
[El Dorado](http://www.360eldorado.com/Government/CityofElDorado.html) – not the only one, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-places-with-literary-counterparts/692125/6 "2014-07-01T20:36:35Z")
A lot of H.P. Lovercraft’s geography seems to be based on real locations. Several sources report that the model for his fictional city of Innsmouth is the real town of Gloucester, with a real-life model for the Hall of Dagon still standing. It’s claimed that he based much of it on Newburyport, as well, although I think that Salem, MA served as a strong influence. The "Devil’s Hop-Yard from _The Dunwich Horror_ has been said to be inspired by Mystery Hill/America’s Stonehenge in North Salem, NH. One guy felt so strongly about it that he published a book identifying sites in the strory with real-life locations. S.T. Joshi says that Lovecraft didn’t visit the site until after he wrote the story, but admits that it might be inspired by similar megalithic sites like Gungywamp in Massachusetts, so Mystery Hill still ought to “feel” the same. I’ve long felt that The Blasted Heath from _The Colour Out of Space_ was inspired by The Desert of Maine. Some of the places that inspired _The Case of Charles Dexter Ward_ still exist. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/real-places-with-literary-counterparts/692125/7 "2014-07-01T21:22:01Z")
The town of New Quay in Wales seems to be the real life counterpart to the fictional Welsh village of Llareggub (which is “bugger all” spelled backwards) in Dylan Thomas’ play _ **Under Milk Wood.** _