Use of imaginary, historical, and actual maps in literature how British and Irish authors created imaginary worlds to tell their stories (Defoe, Swift, Wordsworth, Kipling, Joyce, Tolkien, etc.) - Wyatt, John (Edwin Mellen, 2013)
In this text, the author highlights unrecorded discoveries about how maps and literature are associated. Not only do maps give us a tool by which to understand a physical reality as it actually exists, but maps can support the realm of literary fiction - such as Tolkien's Middle Earth, or Stevenson's Treasure Island. There are also maps that try to catch a certain historical moment like an urban space at a particular time period, or a rural environment. While maps had historically guided travel, in literature they provide an escape mechanism that transports the audience to an unfamiliar place