50 Fascinating Facts about Famous Writers
Ever wondered what it takes to be a great writer?
Turns out it’s more than just the ability to revisit the same sentence 15 times whilst surviving on 3 hours of sleep. If our literary greats are anything to go by, a sprinkling of unorthodoxy may, in fact, be the key to success.
Here we have 50 unusual and extraordinary facts about some of the world’s best-loved authors, proving that eccentricity definitely comes hand-in-hand with creative genius.
Charles Dickens had a passion for hypnosis. The author of classics like Oliver Twist attended a number of lectures on the practice of mesmerism. Which might explain why you zoned out from page 6 – 279 of Bleak House.
Dickens also gave himself a number of unusual nicknames, including ‘The Sparkler of Albion,’ ‘The Inimitable,’ ‘Revolver’ and ‘Resurrectionist.’
The Great Expectations author loved his pet raven, Grip, so much that when it died, he had it stuffed and mounted in his study.
Dickens suffered from obsessive-compulsive behavior, combed his hair 20 times a day and, when staying in hotels, would immediately rearrange all the furniture.
J.D. Salinger, most famous for A Catcher in the Rye, apparently drank his own urine and spoke in tongues, according to a memoir written by his daughter.
Franz Kafka enjoyed visiting nudist camps but was known as ‘The Man in the Swimming Trunks’ as he refused to go fully nude. Something to hide Mr. Kafka or just feeling shy?
Ernest Hemingway was a professional bullfighter; he also pioneered his own signature brand of rum.
Tennessee Williams worked as a caretaker on a chicken ranch.
Lewis Carroll once stayed up all night creating the anagram of British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone: ‘Wild agitator, means well.’ Which probably won’t surprise you if you’ve ever read the super trippy Alice in Wonderland.
Carroll also had a very bad stammer but was vocally fluent when he spoke with children.
Our favorite romantic hipster poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was the literary world’s first celebrity vegan. He even wrote his own pamphlets promoting the benefits of what was at the time considered a radical, predominantly bourgeoisie diet.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer author Mark Twain nearly drowned 9 times as a child, before learning how to swim.
Thank goodness he survived, however, since he was the brains behind an early version the bra strap.
Prior to his career as a successful author, Salman Rushdie wrote copy for the famous advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather, where he was nicknamed ‘Salmon Fishcake.’ He penned a number of successful campaigns including UK Milk Board’s Fresh Cream Cake tagline, ‘Naughty but Nice’ and ‘Irresistibubble’ for Aero Chocolate.
Agatha Christie ate apples in the bath for creative inspiration.
She tried her best to take up smoking and was really upset when she couldn’t develop the habit.
Christie disappeared for 11 days in 1926 and a rumor circulated that she may have been abducted by aliens. She is now believed to have suffered out-of-body amnesia brought on by stress.
Daniel Defoe wrote two sequels to Robinson Crusoe: The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe and Serious Reflections During the Life & Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe: With His Vision of the Angelic World.
J. R. R. Tolkien went to parties dressed as a polar bear, liked to chase his neighbor down the street dressed as an Anglo-Saxon warrior, and was known for sometimes offering shopkeepers his false teeth as payment.
Lolita author Vladimir Nabokov wrote his novels on index cards.
Lord Byron had a pet bear. Dogs were forbidden from his dorm room at Cambridge, so after he was ordered to send his beloved pet home, he adopted a bear instead and walked it around campus on a leash. After graduating, Byron would travel around with an entourage of animals which included 10 horses, 3 monkeys, 3 peacocks, 8 dogs, 5 cats, 1 crane, 1 falcon, 1 eagle and 1 crow.
Edgar Allan Poe married his 13-year-old cousin when he was 26.
Poe often wrote with his Siamese cat on his shoulder.
He rarely left his house without a brace of pistols and his dog, a Great Dane called Bounce.
Famous author James Joyce’s last words were reportedly, ‘Does nobody understand?’ (A reference to the 730 page Ulysses, perhaps?)
John Steinbeck’s dog ate his first manuscript of Of Mice and Men.
Enid Blyton hated children. The famous children’s author was described by her own daughter as having ‘not a trace of maternal instinct.’
Roald Dahl was a taste-tester for Cadbury’s chocolate. Which no doubt inspired his famous creation, Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Proof that eating chocolate may, in fact, change your life. You’re welcome.
Dahl was buried with some strange objects. Specifically: chocolate, red wine, HB pencils, a power saw and his pool cues. Just a regular Saturday night for some of us!
Truman Capote was majorly superstitious. He never started or finished a piece of writing on a Friday. And if the number of his hotel room was 13, he’d insist on moving to a different one.
Nathaniel Hawthorne helped found a transcendental commune in Boston. He eventually left as the required manual labor left blisters on his hands, making it difficult for him to write.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle believed in fairies. He spent $1 million promoting the Cottingley Fairy photos and wrote the book The Coming of the Fairies in 1921 on their authenticity.
According to Google Analytics, Alexander Pope has the most popular poetic quote of all time: “To err is human; to forgive, divine.” So next time you see this cryptic post-breakup message on someone’s social media, you’ll know where it came from.
Walt Whitman didn’t believe Shakespeare was the real writer behind his plays.
Bram Stoker claimed his literary pal, Walt Whitman, was the inspiration for his undead villain, ‘Count Dracula.’ We all have that one friend, don’t we?
Washington Irving, author of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle (the man who went to sleep for 20 years), was an insomniac.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings author Maya Angelou had her own line of Hallmark greeting cards.
Angelou was also San Francisco’s first ever black streetcar conductor.
Before her gig as a driver, she also worked as a professional dancer in a variety of clubs during her youth.
Famed orator and political theorist Edmund Burke had difficulties with public speaking. In fact, Burke’s public speeches at the House of Commons were so boring that many MPs left the building once he stood up.
Hans Christian Andersen brought an emergency coil of rope to hotels in case of a fire.
French novelist Victor Hugo, famous for Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, wrote in the nude when suffering from writer’s block. He’d often ask his servants to remove his clothes and return them only when he’d finished writing for the day. Meanwhile, we have some better suggestions for how to overcome writer’s block.
Hugo was known for his love of the ladies. He reportedly bedded hundreds of women in his lifetime and even ‘courted’ a 22-year-old at the ripe old age of 70.
Robert Louis Stevenson had wooden teeth.
Dr. Seuss aka Theodore Geisel wasn’t actually a doctor. He also invented the term ‘nerd.’
English Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge coined the terms selfless, psychosomatic, bipolar and bisexual, as well as the phrase, suspension of disbelief.
And here are just a few of the many phrases invented by none other than William Shakespeare: dead as a doornail, in a pickle, wear your heart on your sleeve, star-crossed lovers, off with his head.
Shakespeare died on his own birthday.
A 15th-century clay pipe was found near his garden in Stratford with traces of marijuana, cocaine and myristic acid.
Some of Shakespeare’s plays have been translated into Klingon, a language used by a fictional extraterrestrial humanoid warrior species.
So there it is, friends. No more sleepless nights wondering why the world in which you live is so different to everyone else’s. Clearly, you’re in good company.
Happy writing!
Abi Yitshaki, UX Writer at Wix
