Secret Lives of Great Authors: What Your Teachers Never Told You About Famous Novelists, Poets, and Playwrights
by Robert Schnakenberg
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 30)
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 that I learned while reading the book and it seems that I have forgotten a lot of them. The overall impression that I got from this book is tha...more
I was going to come here and write all kinds of witty little things about all the secrets that I learned while reading the book and it seems that I have forgotten a lot of them. The overall impression that I got from this book is tha...more
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Read in August, 2008
This was fun. It was easy to pick up and put down, which made it good for carrying around in my purse for time-killing purposes. There were some authors that I already knew all the juicy bits about (Shakespeare and anyone named Bronte, for example), but it also brought up some authors who had barely registered in my brain before this (Carson McCullers, for one). If you asked me to tell you all the tidbits I learned from this, I'm sure I wouldn't be able to think of anything, but I am equally ...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommends it for:
English majors of any age
I couldn't stop reading this book when I picked it up browsing to see what it was. That's always a good sign.
The book is laid out in brief vingettes of famous authors from Balzac to Salinger, including a short essay, a few of their most famous titles and then multiple anecdotes about their insanity/drinking problem/germ phobia/marital problems/etc.
The illustrations, concise sections and conversational tone of the writing make the book eminently browsable. This is a great one to read ...more
The book is laid out in brief vingettes of famous authors from Balzac to Salinger, including a short essay, a few of their most famous titles and then multiple anecdotes about their insanity/drinking problem/germ phobia/marital problems/etc.
The illustrations, concise sections and conversational tone of the writing make the book eminently browsable. This is a great one to read ...more
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Read in April, 2008
This book is like Christmas and your birthday all rolled into one if you are a literary geek and/or trivia nerd. Since I'm both, this book filled me with endless delight.
It's a fascinating, weird, funny and sometimes salacious read, giving you little tidbits of info you might not know about some the greatest authors of all time. Where else will you be able to read about a dinner pary hosted by Carson McCullers in which Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe and Isak Dinesen were the attendees?
It's a fascinating, weird, funny and sometimes salacious read, giving you little tidbits of info you might not know about some the greatest authors of all time. Where else will you be able to read about a dinner pary hosted by Carson McCullers in which Arthur Miller, Marilyn Monroe and Isak Dinesen were the attendees?
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This was a fascinating book. While I had a hard time putting it down, I only gave it three stars for two reasons:
1) the cover is really unnecessary --it's very *National Enquirer* to capture the attention. I think the book degrades itself with the cover
2) the author offers no bibliography. How do we know what he is saying is true, or simply slander? There should have been SOME references.
1) the cover is really unnecessary --it's very *National Enquirer* to capture the attention. I think the book degrades itself with the cover
2) the author offers no bibliography. How do we know what he is saying is true, or simply slander? There should have been SOME references.
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Read in April, 2008
Fascinating! Lord Byron collected and cataloged the pubic hair of his conquests. Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman once shared a kiss. James Joyce was into kink. Virginia Woolf wrote while standing up. Filled with interesting and sometimes lurid facts about arguably the greatest authors in history, this book will keep your turning the pages until the very end. I highly recommend it!
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Hilarious writing, done up in a kind of "Ripley's Believe or Not" magazine fashion. Full of salacious details about the nutty writers we love and thought we knew. Example: When Edgar Allen Poe was 27, he married his 13 year old cousin (eww!) after--wait for it--a 3 year courtship!! (eww x 2!!).
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This is the perfect bathroom book. Each author section is a toilet-friendly four-to-five page episode which, unless you're some sort of literary historian, will contain at least one prurient fact (usually more) that you'd never heard before. Who knew Ayn Rand was a speed freak? Not I.
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Read in May, 2008
delicious fun for a literary junkie as myself.
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Not as juicy as I wanted it to be, but there were some good tidbits in there. Good book for killing time.
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fun collection of facts, quotes and trivia about some of the classic authors
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Read in August, 2008
Great trivia for all of us book nerds.
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Read in August, 2008
recommended to Rose Ann by:
a library patronrecommends it for: readers
funny
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