Life is too busy of late thus I find myself without time to sling a few words at you or even to update my web site. We're already five days into October and the task of web site update weighs heavy on my mind. Must get it done asap. So I'm going to excerpt an article I wrote a few years ago about book-related trivia.
I’m a trivia collector. I have file folders bursting with amusing items about authors, writing, and books. Of course, this means I occasionally (once a year!) must clean out the clutter. This process takes a while since I find myself reading and chuckling as I go along.
Some of these are so good they don’t deserve to be buried in a file folder or trashed so I thought I’d share some.
In the last seven years of his life, Thomas Hardy took no baths. (Yuk! I imagine everyone wanted him FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD!)
John Grisham received twenty-eight rejections for A TIME TO KILL.
Jonathan Swift went a full year without speaking to anyone.
David Cornwell is the real name of spy novelist John Le Carre.
Lord Byron set his hair in curlers at night.
Mary Higgins Clark had her first short story rejected forty times. (Of course that means there were at least forty markets for short fiction then!)
Charles Dickens detested being called Grandpa.
William Golding received twenty-one rejections for LORD OF THE FLIES.
Frank is the real first name of Mickey Spillane.
Pearl Buck received 14 rejections on THE GOOD EARTH.
George Bernard Shaw had his first five novels rejected.
Teodor Josef Konrad Korzeniowski is the real name of Joseph Conrad, author of HEART OF DARKNESS among others.
L. M. Olenhewitz is Jules Verne.
Marguerite Johnson is Maya Angelou.
Then there is the admiration authors have for other authors.
Harold Robbins on Ernest Hemingway: “Hemingway is a jerk.”
Tolstoy on Nietzsche: “Nietzsche was stupid and abnormal.”
Truman Capote had less than admiration for just about everyone so I won’t single out an individual for his caustic comments. Instead, I'll finish with what Kurt Vonnegut said: “I’d rather have written CHEERS than anything I’ve written.”
Got an interesting fact related to books? Send it to me via email, and I’ll add it to my collection.
I’m a trivia collector. I have file folders bursting with amusing items about authors, writing, and books. Of course, this means I occasionally (once a year!) must clean out the clutter. This process takes a while since I find myself reading and chuckling as I go along.
Some of these are so good they don’t deserve to be buried in a file folder or trashed so I thought I’d share some.
In the last seven years of his life, Thomas Hardy took no baths. (Yuk! I imagine everyone wanted him FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD!)
John Grisham received twenty-eight rejections for A TIME TO KILL.
Jonathan Swift went a full year without speaking to anyone.
David Cornwell is the real name of spy novelist John Le Carre.
Lord Byron set his hair in curlers at night.
Mary Higgins Clark had her first short story rejected forty times. (Of course that means there were at least forty markets for short fiction then!)
Charles Dickens detested being called Grandpa.
William Golding received twenty-one rejections for LORD OF THE FLIES.
Frank is the real first name of Mickey Spillane.
Pearl Buck received 14 rejections on THE GOOD EARTH.
George Bernard Shaw had his first five novels rejected.
Teodor Josef Konrad Korzeniowski is the real name of Joseph Conrad, author of HEART OF DARKNESS among others.
L. M. Olenhewitz is Jules Verne.
Marguerite Johnson is Maya Angelou.
Then there is the admiration authors have for other authors.
Harold Robbins on Ernest Hemingway: “Hemingway is a jerk.”
Tolstoy on Nietzsche: “Nietzsche was stupid and abnormal.”
Truman Capote had less than admiration for just about everyone so I won’t single out an individual for his caustic comments. Instead, I'll finish with what Kurt Vonnegut said: “I’d rather have written CHEERS than anything I’ve written.”
Got an interesting fact related to books? Send it to me via email, and I’ll add it to my collection.
Great post! esp. the line about Cheers...
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