Secret Lives of Great Authors: What Your Teachers Never Told You About…

fun collection of facts, quotes and trivia about some of the classic authors ( )

After a brief bio and explanation of why an author became famous, or even, iconic, their chapter is broken up into smaller sections of juicy gossip involving serious character flaws, kinks, scandals or just the unearthing of little-known facts. Who knew that Oscar Wilde's teeth were black due to mercury treatment, that H.G. Wells met and liked Stalin or that Tolkien was known around Oxford for trying to force other cars off the road? And Agatha Christie's father was American, which is something I'd never heard before, and the whole mess with Hemingway's favorite son is bizarre.

If you tend to like The People's Almanac type books, as I do, because they lead you to authors and give good backstories, you'll probably like this one. Added bonus are the drawings of each author, usually doing something anti-social such as Alcott cuddling a bottle of laudanum. ( )

I approached Robert Schnakenberg’s Secret Lives of Authors with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. Its cover, which mimics the garish covers of tabloids, advertises the foibles of the great authors in question. For instance, it shows Ernest Hemingway attacking a critic and Louisa May Alcott caressing a bottle of opium. However, to Schnakenberg’s credit, he does not leave the reader thinking that Alcott was a druggie or that Hemingway attacked random people. Instead, he is able to concisely give the contextual information necessary for us to make sense of the authors’ more eccentric behavior...

To read my full review, go here: http://apparentlynotderanged.blogspot.com/2008/05/book-review-secret-lives-of-gr... ( )

There are some truly amazing facts in this book, of which my personal favourite was the revelation that Mark Twain once gave a speech to an audience that included Queen Elizabeth I.

Pretty impressive, given that she died more than 200 years before he was born. ( )

Secret Lives of Great Authors is the kind of book that you should read in the company of others. It’s filled with odd bits of trivia that you want to share with someone the instant you read them, and without sharing the trivia seems to fly right out of your head.

I was going to come here and write all kinds of witty little things about all the secrets. . .

http://www.iwilldare.com/2008/05/22/things-i-learned-reading-the-secret-lives-of... ( )