Camden, New Jersey is the center of the Delaware Valley: home to colleges and universities, courthouses and concert halls, a world-class aquarium and a minor league baseball team. But dig under the surface of the city and you’ll find the story of American industry – Campbell’s Soup thrived here, as did RCA Victor, the New York Shipbuilding Company, and countless other manufacturing concerns. Their legacy lives in Camden’s cityscape and architecture.
This reviving city was a fascinating place for writers when Walt Whitman lived here; perhaps, today, it’s even more so.
Camden is also a single subway stop from Philadelphia, which offers everything a writer could want in a city – independent bookstores, first rate museums, major universities, arts, cultural events, festivals, and great restaurants – but still manages to be the least expensive city on the Northeast corridor. This is a city where a writer can happily afford to write. Or, if you prefer, live in a lively, affordable town in South Jersey like Collingswood or Haddonfield –also ten to fifteen minutes by train or car from campus.