Synopses & Reviews
Strange-but-true tales of murderers, adulterers, drug addicts, and other literary legends.
With outrageous and uncensored profiles of everyone from William Shakespeare to Thomas Pynchon, Secret Lives of Great Authors tackles all the tough questions your high school teachers were afraid to ask: What’s the deal with Lewis Carroll and little girls? Is it true that J. D. Salinger drank his own urine? How many women—and men—did Lord Byron actually sleep with? And why was Ayn Rand such a big fan of Charlie’s Angels? Classic literature was never this much fun in school!
Synopsis
In the tradition of Quirk's bestselling
Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents (100,000+ copies in print), here are outrageous and uncensored profiles of the world's greatest writers, complete with hundreds of little-known, politically incorrect, and downright bizarre facts. Consider:
- Edgar Allan Poe was kicked out of West Point Military Academy.
- Louisa May Alcott was addicted to opium.
- W. B. Yeats paid surgeons to transplant monkey glands into his scrotum.
- J. R. R. Tolkien slept in his bathroom.
- Kurt Vonnegut managed a Saab dealership before hitting the big time.
With chapters on everyone from William Shakespeare to Thomas Pynchon, Secret Lives of Great Authors tackles all the tough questions your teachers were afraid to answer:
- What's the deal with Lewis Carroll and little girls?
- Is it true that J. D. Salinger drank his own urine?
- Why was Ayn Rand such a big fan of Charlie's Angels?
The classics were never this much fun in school!
Synopsis
Strange-but-true tales of murderers, adulterers, drug addicts, and other literary legends--including Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Shakespeare, and more With outrageous and uncensored profiles of everyone from William Shakespeare to Thomas Pynchon, Secret Lives of Great Authors tackles all the tough questions your high school teachers were afraid to ask: What's the deal with Lewis Carroll and little girls? Is it true that J. D. Salinger drank his own urine? How many women--and men--did Lord Byron actually sleep with? And why was Ayn Rand such a big fan of Charlie's Angels? Classic literature was never this much fun in school
Synopsis
In the tradition of Cormac O'Brien's bestselling Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents, Schnakenberg delivers uncensored profiles of the world's greatest writers, complete with hundreds of little-known, politically incorrect, and downright bizarre facts.
About the Author
Robert Schnakenberg is the author of several nonfiction books including Distory: A Treasury of Historical Insults. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.