Does it matter where one writes? Around the country, house museums related to famous writers are selling authors the ability to write in the same place as literary greats.

That [$300] rental fee is part of Arrowhead’s new program called Musing With Melville. If someone wants two hours, the museum charges $500, marketing it as an experience that “is sure to jumpstart your creative endeavor.”

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Arrowhead is not the first historic house museum to do this.

Ernest Hemingway’s house in Key West Florida charges $1,500 for two people to spend a few hours in the house, gardens and writing studio, after a tour. Mark Twain’s house in Hartford charges $50 to spend three hours in Twain’s library with other writers.

The Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst rents out the poet’s bedroom where she wrote. Brooke Steinhauser, the museum’s program director started the Studio Sessions, which also costs $300 for one hour.

It’s nice that these museums have found a way to keep their doors open. However, I can’t stop laughing at the idea of someone paying hundreds of dollars to work in such illustrious digs, only to find themselves completely and utterly blocked.