I’d really try to get him to consider schools in PA. He may think that going away to a school an hour or two away is not really going away, but it is. The main difference between a school an hour or two away and one 4 hours away is that he’d come home 5 times a year instead of 3, and you might visit him a couple of times more often.
Pennsylvania probably has a better assortment of liberal arts colleges than any other state. Swarthmore and Haverford are probably out of reach (and Bryn Mawr is not possible, of course), but other PA schools include Bucknell, Lafayette, Franklin & Marshall, Gettysburg, Dickinson, Muhlenberg, Allegheny, Ursinus, and Juniata. F&M has a Writers House with writing programs. At Ursinus, he can submit a writing sample to try for a $33,000 a year scholarship and the right to spend freshman year in the single dorm room that J. D. Salinger spent his one semester of college in.
I’m pretty sure at least one of those colleges above would be a low reach or a solid match for him, and would be good in writing and/or history.