Fun Fact About Your Favorite Authors

Here is a complilation of fun facts about literature taken from the website "Literature Fun Facts" (http://www.bestfunfacts.com/literature.html):

Jane Austen

Jealousy

July 1814, when Sir Walter Scott’s first novel Waverly was published, Jane Austen was a bit jealous. She wrote the following in a letter to her niece:

“Walter Scott has no business to write novels, especially good ones.—It is not fair.—He has fame and profit enough as a poet, and should not be taking the bread out of other people’s mouths.—I do not like him, and do not mean to like Waverly if I can help it—but fear I must.”

Ironically, today Jane Austen is a much more popular author than her contemporary Sir Walter Scott.

Geoffrey Chaucer

The pilgrim Chaucer on his way to Canterbury

Most Expensive Book

The news of an original copy of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales made it to the Guinness Book of World Records in 1998. The original copies of Canterbury Tales were printed in 1477 by William Caxton, the first printer to introduce the printing press in England. Only one of these first copies is still in private hands and was sold in an auction on July 8, 1998, for £4,621,500, making it the most expensive book ever sold.

Fat Monks and the Sin of Gluttony

Chaucer’s Monk in the Canterbury Tales was described in the Prologue as “a lord ful fat and in good point” (line 200). A new study finds that Chaucer’s description of the Monk as a person who loves to eat and is overweight is accurate. A 2004 study by archaeologists at University College London found that monks during medieval days were actually gluttons. Archaeologists studied one hundred monk skeletons at 3 abbeys dating from the medieval period. The bones were thick; joint problems from obesity were evident; and there were signs of arthritis—all of these proved that monks were actually overweight, as portrayed in paintings and literature of medieval times. Another study estimates that some monks consumed about 6,000 calories a day. Eating was a physical pleasure monks could enjoy!

Poets' Corner

Chaucer was the first poet to be buried in Westminster Abbey—initiating the Poets’ Corner. Today there are 29 poets buried and 55 poets commemorated in the Poets’ Corner.

Daniel Defoe (Foe)

The famous author of Robinson Crusoe changed his name in 1703 from Foe to Defoe. He believed that Defoe is “more socially and upward sounding” than Foe is.

Benjamin Franklin

Achievements

Writer, politician, scientist, Benjamin Franklin’s accomplishments were numerous. His great literary works are Poor Richard’s Almanack, Father Abraham's Sermon or The Way to Wealth, and Autobiography. Besides his literary and political accomplishments, the following are several more of his achievements:

• He proved that lightening is electricity.
• He invented the lightning rod.
• He invented a special cast iron stove—the Franklin stove.
• He invented a special rocking chair.
• He invented a carriage odometer.
• He discovered the gulf stream, or ocean current.
• He invented the bifocals, which cost in 1785 around $100, just about how much they cost today.
• He invented a glass harmonica.
• He founded a fire department.
• He founded the first lending public library (with a book lending system similar to our modern public libraries’ system).
• He founded the first fire insurance company.
• He helped to open a hospital.
• He helped to create the first efficient postal system in America.
• He helped found the University of Pennsylvania.

Proverbs

Franklin was famous for his proverbs, mostly published in Poor Richard’s Almanack. The following are a few of his proverbs:

• To find out a girl’s faults, praise her to her girl friends.
• If Jack is in love, he is no judge of Jill’s beauty.
• Kill no more pigeons than you can eat.
• To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.
• Plough deep while sluggards sleep.
• Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it is.
• Genius without education is like silver in the mine.
• A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.
• Never confuse motion with action.
• Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.
• If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect.
• Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain, and most fools do. 

J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter

Harry Potter sold about 400 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 65 languages.

Though before the book's popularity, Joanne Rowling had some difficulty finding a publisher that believed her book could amount to anything. Finally Bloomsburry Press agreed to publish the first edition of Harry Potter, but only printed 500 copies for the first edition for fear of them not selling. Also the publisher requested that the author would not use her first name (Joanne) but rather her initials to make it less obvious that the author is a woman assuming that the book's main audience young boys would not want to read a wizard book written by a woman. Since Joanne Rowling did not have a middle name, she chose K for Kathleen.

 

Harry Potter, First Edition

Those who bought a first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stonecould could make a fortune today! Harry Potter's first edition copies are worth thousands.

• A hardback first edition copy was sold for £10,575 at a Sotheby's auction in 2002.
• Another soft cover first edition copy was sold at the Dallas Auction House for $19,120.
• In August 2005, AbeBooks.com sold a first edition for £20,000.
• Another anonymous bidder paid $40,326 for a first edition at Christie’s auction house in London.

William Shakespeare

For 2004, the US defense budgeted $1 million to bring productions of William Shakespeare’s Othello to several military bases.

All of Shakespeare’s plays (Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies) were first published in a volume called First Folio in 1623 (seven years after his death). In 1685, the Fourth Folio was printed. With fewer than 80 copies left today of the Fourth Folio, one copy was up for sale by Argosy Book Store, New York, a few years ago for $185,000.

Go to Bible to learn about a possible subliminal message that Shakespeare inserted in the King James translation of the English Bible. 

Mark Twain

Mark Twain was the first notable American author who placed black and white Americans on the same social rank—Huckleberry Finn and Jim.

“All modern literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. If you read it, you must stop where Jim is stolen from the boys. That’s the real end. The rest is just cheating.” Ernest Hemingway

Mark Twain’s Sayings

• Honesty is the best policy—when there is money in it.
• The serpent should have been forbidden, not the apple—because they would have eaten the serpent.
• Habit is not to be thrown out of the window, but it is to be coaxed down the stairs, one step at a time.
• I never smoke more than one cigar–*pause*—at a time.
• Everyone is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.
• There are two times in a man’s life when he should not speculate—when he can’t afford it and when he can.
• The secret source of humor itself is not joy, but sorrow.
• Everything in human is pathetic.
• I have seen slower and lazier people [than Mark Twain], but they were dead.
• Clothes make the man; naked people have little or no influence in society.
• Don’t go to sleep; so many people die there. 

For more information, please visit http://www.bestfunfacts.com/literature.html

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