Boston

After Jim Clayburn died, the protagonist of “All Souls’,” Sara Clayburn, was expected by her family to give up her estate Whitegates and “[…] move either to New York or Boston […].”[1]

Boston is the capital of the U.S. state Massachusetts. It is located on Massachusetts Bay, a bay on the Atlantic Ocean, in the northeast of the United States.[2] The population of the city is 645,966 (2013).[3] As New England’s largest city, Boston covers an area of 119 square kilometers (48 square miles). Consequently, it is seen as its spiritual capital. Historically, Boston is considered the progenitor of the American Revolution.[4] The most famous historic event was the Boston Tea Party in 1773, a protest against the British Tea Act, which is generally regarded as having precipitated the American Revolution.[5] Today the city is an international center of higher education and medicine as there are many colleges and universities in the surrounding area, called Greater Boston.[6]

Map of the U.S. highlighting the Greater Boston area:

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_the_USA_highlighting_Greater_Boston.gif (accessed March 26, 2015).

[1] Edith Wharton, “All Souls’,” in: The Demanding Dead – More Stories of Terror and the Supernatural, ed. Peter Haining (London: Peter Owen Publishers, 2007), 184.

[2] Thomas Henry O’Connor, Boston, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/74844/Boston (accessed March 26, 2015).

[3] U.S. Census Bureau, Boston City, Massachusetts, http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/25/2507000.html (accessed March 26, 2015).

[4] O’Connor, Boston, (accessed March 26, 2015).

[5] Discover New England, New England Living History Museum, http://www.discovernewengland.org/about-new-england-usa/new-england-usa-quick-facts/ (accessed March 21, 2015).

[6] Scott Kirsner, Boston is #1…But will we hold on to the top spot?, http://www.boston.com/business/technology/innoeco/2010/07/boston_is_1but_will_we_hold_on.html (accessed March 26, 2015).