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The ties between Long Island and American literary giants like John Steinbeck and F. Scott Fitzgerald are well documented.
But they weren’t the only brilliant minds to spend time out here, especially in summer.
Just a teaser for this roundup:
Paul Simon was a camp counselor in Brookhaven Hamlet. Truman Capote would often entertain at his summer home in Sagaponack.
Albert Einsten would rent a small beach cottage in Cutchogue, where he actually co-signed the famous letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 that would lead to the Manhattan Project. But that’s not all. There’s E.B. White, Shel Silverstein, even Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan. Keep reading.
Giants of science
Einstein
Albert Einstein spent the summers of 1937, 1938 and 1939 at Nassau Point in Cutchogue, renting a small beach cottage just steps from Peconic Bay, according to the Southold Historical Museum.
He was often spotted sailing his little boat, though it was far from a season of pure leisure.
It was here, in August 1939, that Einstein co-signed the famous letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt that would lead to the Manhattan Project. “Two copies of the letter were actually created, the one sent to FDR now resides in the Roosevelt Presidential Papers at Hyde Park, N.Y., while the other version was sold by Christie’s in 2002 for $2.1 million dollars,” according to the historical society.
Tesla (not just summer)
Nikola Tesla stayed on the Island for several summers — and several years.
But something tells us he wasn’t hanging out at the beaches all day. The inventor carried out some of his most ambitious experiments at his Wardenclyffe laboratory in Shoreham, according to the Tesla Science Center.
Built in 1901, the site was intended for transatlantic wireless communication and wireless power transmission. While the project ultimately stalled, Tesla’s time in Shoreham remains a key chapter in the story of modern electricity and radio.
The long-neglected laboratory property was later rehabbed after ongoing fundraising efforts were made historically successful by internet cartoonist Matt Inman, creator of The Oatmal site. His spotlight on the movement to save the lab resulted in nearly $1.4 million in donations pouring in from Tesla enthusiasts around the globe, according to the Tesla Science Center website.
The center is currently hosting events, raising money and was just awarded a grant to help rebuild after a 2023 fire.
Literary retreats
On the South Shore, E. B. White — the beloved author of Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little — summered in Bellport, where he penned a poem about the village, as reported by Forbes.
Some 40 miles to the east in Sagaponack, Truman Capote spent long stretches at a modest house on the edge of the dunes, according to LitHub. It was here, in the quiet of the East End, that the eccentric author of Breakfast at Tiffany’s and In Cold Blood entertained friends, worked on his writing, and found the coastal solitude he craved away from Manhattan, according to several reports. The home is still standing.
In 1965, poet, songwriter, and illustrator Shel Silverstein — author of legendary children’s books such as The Giving Tree and Where The Sidewalk Ends, took on an unusual assignment from Playboy: to spend a week on Fire Island and document it. His illustrated travel piece captured the island’s high-camp energy and eclectic residents, according to the Pines History Project.
Frank O’Hara, the celebrated poet and key figure in the New York School, was drawn to the art-filled summers of Fire Island. His life was tragically cut short there in 1966 after he was struck by a Jeep, an event that forever tied his legacy to the barrier island, according to the Fire Island Pines Historical Society.
“O’Hara died at forty, struck by a passing jeep on a beach on Fire Island. It was a freak accident, but people have wanted to read it as the operation of fate,” the website reads.
Year-round writers
While Fitzgerald lived in Great Neck for about 18 months, California-born John Steinbeck, author of Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men and Cannery Row, was no short-timer on Long Island.
He lived in Sag Harbor the last 16 years of his life, until his death in 1968. And you can still visit his house. Steinbeck’s travelogue, Travels with Charley: In Search of America, also begins and ends at his Sag Harbor home.
Like Steinbeck, beat generation author Jack Kerouac, author of On the Road, The Town and the City, and The Dharma Bums, was also a full-time resident (not just a summer visitor) to Northport Village, where he lived on and off for six years.
And of course, our very own Walt Whitman was a native Long Islander.
Whitman’s birthplace is now a state historic site and museum.
Paul Simon, camp counselor
Even the “King of Corona” found his way onto eastern Long Island as a young man.
Long before Simon & Garfunkel graced concert stages, a young Paul Simon spent the summer of 1957 working as a waiter and guitar-playing counselor at Washington Lodge in Bellport — a formative experience, according to CEED LI, which now occupies the property.
“The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame archives house a letter that Simon wrote to his friend Artie Garfunkel while working at Camp Washington Lodge,” the CEED website further reads.
The above throwback photo posted on Facebook shows Simon channeling his inner Elvis while serving at the camp, giving us a rare glimpse into the early life of a music legend.
The Miracle Worker
Helen Keller also found refuge on the North Fork, spending the summer of 1936 at a home near Cedar Beach in Southold during her final weeks with Anne Sullivan, according to the Southold Historical Museum.
The house has become a touchstone for local history lovers, and its memory is kept alive through online tributes and efforts to preserve the property.
And check this out, in the Hey Long Island… Do you Remember….? Facebook group, member DeDe Bourne wrote that her grandfather not only owned the home, but rented it to the famous pair.
She even spilled some tea on Annie. “My mother’s family’s summer home in the 1930s. Cedar Beach, Southold. In 1936 my grandpa rented it to Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan, who my mother and aunt found intimidating,” she wrote.
Top: Albert Einstein (undated), Hellen Keller (1920) and Truman Capote (1959). Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
