Yeah dead famous people! Emily Dickinson lived in Amherst, and her homestead is a big attraction. I've been cliche and visited her grave when I've had writer's block. Some of the townies have taken to dubbing my spring/fall-weather statue character "The Ghost Of Emily," though that's off, because Emily's known for staying housebound and wearing nothing but white. Ah well.
Robert Frost was born here and lived here, as was poet Robert Francis, and Noah Webster [as in, Webster's dictionary]. Uma Thurman [whom I worship for her portrayal of The Bride] was born and raised in Amherst, as was Augusten Burroughs, author of Running With Scissors ["the Finch's" house is in NoHo, his mom and dad lived in Amherst, and his father was a professor at UMass]. We also currently have James Tate, a famous contemporary poet, who is also a professor at my university, and, the extremely well-known Martin Espada who has been dubbed "the Pablo Neruda of North America" for his work, and teaches at my university, and will be my professor for the second time this coming semester [I took a seminar on Neruda with him last semester, and this semester it's a course called Poetry Of The Political Imagination]... I am very, very lucky to be able to work with a figure such as himself. Also, he adores me. Katherine for the win.
Ironically, "Amherst" is named after Lord Jeffrey Amherst, who committed the first conscious act of germ warfare on this continent: he purposely gave diseased blankets to the natives, in order to wipe them out. It feels like all the super-liberal hyper-conscious activists which rule this area now are subconsciously trying to have their actions balance that fact.