Synopses & Reviews
The captivating stories behind fifty of the greatest authors and their most famous literary creations Before Who the Hell is Pansy O?Hara ?, there had never been a single volume that explored the backstories of so many of the greatest books in the English language. A work sure to captivate all lovers of language and literature, it reveals in short, pithy chapters, the lives, loves, motivations, and quirky, fascinating details involving fifty of the best-loved books of the Western world.
? When stacked up, the original manuscript of Gone With the Wind stood taller than Margaret Mitchell, its 4' 9 1/2" author
? Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, was part of the Allied team that cracked the Nazi?s Enigma code
? Leo Tolstoy?s wife copied War and Peace by hand . . . seven times
From The Great Gatsby to Harper Lee, from Jaws to J. K . Rowling, Who the Hell Is Pansy O?Hara? offers an entertaining and informative journey through the minds of writers and the life experiences that took these amazing works from notion to novel.
Synopsis
A work sure to captivate lovers of language and literature, this volume reveals in short, pithy chapters, the lives, loves, motivations, and fascinating details involving 50 of the best-loved books of the Western world.
Synopsis
From Harper Lee to Harry Potter, "The Great Gatsby" to "Jaws," short, pithy chapters explore 50 of the greatest authors and their most famous literary creations.
Synopsis
What happened off the page was often a lot spicier than what was written on it...
Why did Norman Mailer stab his second wife at a party? Who was Edith Whartons secret transatlantic lover? What motivated Anaïs Nin to become a bigamist?
Writers Between the Covers rips the sheets off these and other real-life love stories of the literatisome with fairy tale endings and others that resulted in break-ups, breakdowns, and brawls. Among the writers laid bare are Agatha Christie, who sparked the largest-ever manhunt in England as her marriage fell apart; Arthur Miller, whose jaw-dropping pairing with Marilyn Monroe proved that opposites attract, at least initially; and T.S. Eliot, who slept in a deckchair on his disastrous honeymoon.
From the best break-up letters to the stormiest love triangles to the boldest cougars and cradle-robbers, this fun and accessible volumepacked with lists, quizzes and in-depth exposésreveals literary historys most titillating loves, lusts, and longings.
About the Author
Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon have worked at Penguin, Random House, HarperCollins, Simon and Schuster, Macmillan, and Hyperion. Rendon lives in London; Schmidt is a committed peripatetic, currently traveling the U.S. by RV.