Loading...
56th out of 266 books
—
8 voters
My rating:
add to my books
Secret Lives of Great Authors: What Your Teachers Never Told You About Famous Novelists, Poets, and Playwrights
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. Sa...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. Sa...more
Paperback, 304 pages
Published
February 1st 2008
by Quirk Books
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
558)
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 ...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 ...more
Тъй като в своите почти 300 страници побира кратка биография и любопитни случки за над 40 хора на перото, не може да се очаква някаква задълбоченост и изчерпателност. "Жълта" по съществото си, тази книга обаче е написана изключително добронамерено и с приятно чувство за хумор и въпреки че се рекламира като разкриваща мръсни тайни и скандални подробности, тя по-скоро изброявя странностите и чудатостите на бележити автори, с което ги прави да изглеждат по-човешки и определено постига едн...more
view 1 comment
Entertaining and highly educational. If you've ever thought to yourself, "hey, I wonder how many famous authors had really freaky sex lives?" (answer: a lot) then this is the book for you.
Here's some other useful tidbits of information I learned from this book, all of which I'll be sure to bring up in every English class I ever take from now on:
-Lord Byron kept snippets of his girlfriends' pubic hair in envelopes. And he had a lot of girlfriends (250 in Venice in one...more
Here's some other useful tidbits of information I learned from this book, all of which I'll be sure to bring up in every English class I ever take from now on:
-Lord Byron kept snippets of his girlfriends' pubic hair in envelopes. And he had a lot of girlfriends (250 in Venice in one...more
I picked this up the other day & I've been enjoying it ever since. The layout of each chapter being a different author or set of authors is nice, since it makes for a good bathroom book or a nice book to read before you go to sleep. I'm not sure if all of the facts are true (as said by one of the other reviewers), but they make for good reading.
My only complaint is that the book is set up very strangely. The book's pages are rather thick & stiff, which puts me at constant fear of th...more
My only complaint is that the book is set up very strangely. The book's pages are rather thick & stiff, which puts me at constant fear of th...more
"Тайният живот на великите автори" е една забавна книжка с много добри комиксови илюстрации. Върши страхотна работа за запълване на свободното време - казва по нещо ново и естествено повтаря вече казани неща. Авторът не е известен в България, но като че ли не е такъв и в чужбина. Естествено това няма никакво значение, защото книгата не претендира нито да е много сериозна, нито съвсем достоверна и все пак е поднесена отчасти във формата на енциклопедия, но с чувство за хумор. Още на http://chetecut.blogspot.com/2010/09/blo...
The snarky tone is a bit off-putting--don't read the section titles, in particular! The Jack Kerouac entry is a long list of bad riffs on "On the Road"--the best being "On the Right" about Kerouac's conservative leanings. However, I was searching for inaccuracies, and the only one I could find was the misnaming of Otto Plath as a respected etymologist rather than an entomologist (he was an expert on bees).
Some authors I wish this had covered: Vladimir Nabokov,...more
Some authors I wish this had covered: Vladimir Nabokov,...more
If you're a literary nerd, this book is definitely for you. Beware, though, because if you already like to do research about authors like myself, there will be things in here that you already know. Having said that, there are also things that I've never heard of before. It's such a quick read where you can read one author's story, put the book down and then pick it up again later. Insightful and humorous, it reminded me that my favorite authors have flaws (some of which are BIG!), but it just ma...more
Още корицата крещи с таблоидност, но реших да се пробвам: мръсните и странни тайни на около 30 велики писатели - Оскар Уайлд, Джойс, Силвия Плат, Кафка, Сартр, Айн Ранд, Торо, Уитман, Луис Карол, Емили Дикенс, Керуак, Бъроуз, Вирджиния Улф, Хемингуей, Дикенс, Едгар Алън По... Кой си пиел урината, кой тайно бил гей, кой носел женски гащички, кой взимал наркотици... А трябваше да бъде забавно...
Livros como este provam que o culto às celebridades pode não estar totalmente reduzido àquele grupo de pessoas com o QI abaixo da temperatura ambiente. Neste caso, a fofoca torna-se interessante por ser reveladora de conteúdos literários brilhantes. Embora escandalosos, perturbadores, bizarros, traumáticos.
Dos filhos ilegítimos de Shakespeare à concupiscência de Lord Byron; do glutão Balzac ao gótico Allan Poe; das excênctricas irmãs Brontë ao nacionalista Walt Whitman, tudo o que v...more
Dos filhos ilegítimos de Shakespeare à concupiscência de Lord Byron; do glutão Balzac ao gótico Allan Poe; das excênctricas irmãs Brontë ao nacionalista Walt Whitman, tudo o que v...more
delicious fun for a literary junkie as myself.
I don't recommend reading this book straight through. It's interesting if taken in bits and pieces (one or two stories at a time, then go to something else), but if you read it all at once, all of the drug abuse/rampant alcoholism/promiscuity/madness/all of the above starts to run together into a big mess, and the authors are actually pretty hard to tell apart. In fact, the oddest authors in this book are the tiny handful who don't have a history of any of the above - I wondered if those few w...more
Madeleine
rated it
I've been needing something light and entertaining, and this proved to be a nearly perfect break from the long-term (but so far still worth it!) undertaking that is "Gravity's Rainbow." My dwindling sanity was grateful for a quick and easy read that didn't require running to the internet every fifteen lines to decode another reference to obscure '40s pop culture.
"Secret Lives" gets major points for illuminating the less savory and just plain weird personality quirk...more
"Secret Lives" gets major points for illuminating the less savory and just plain weird personality quirk...more
I love this book. Who knew that Papa Hemingway wore frilly underpants? Or that Louisa May Alcott was a druggie? Bob Schnakenberg gives us all the dirt in "Secret Lives." This book has it all: drugs, sex, cross-dressing, violence, urine drinking—-you name it. Schnakenberg, a friend, as well as a very funny fellow, was even kind enough to give me a shout out on the copyright page, thereby earning my eternal loyalty.
This is a book that is right up my literary alley. This collection of vignettes about famous authors is just the type of trivia that one loves to drag out at parties... "Hey, did you know that Kafka used to love to go to the nude spa, but then never would take his clothes off?" or "Man, that Lord Byron was sure a Man-whore!" Hilarious and educational reading here...
Awesome reference books for readers who are nosy enough to want to know about the genius behind some of the best literary works in history. Of course, their histories might be a bit skewed by the opinion of the author but all history books are skewed. I picked it up on clearance at HPB. Not a bad deal.
This book is awesome. its super interesting and you'll be so surprised by what you've read. its strange how almost all these authors were either creeps, perverts, addicts, criminals,homosexuals, or all of the above. its a very good read and it digs into the facts behind the stories and their lives
Normally I don't review books I didn't finish, but this one I will. It's a quick read, one of those books that you can pick up, read a section and put it back down. It's humorous and insightful. But most importantly, it reminds you that our favorite authors were flawed people too.
ситурно е достоверна. Причина? Защото, ,,тайният" им живот не е толкова шокиращ... Освен Уилям Бъроуз!!!! Поздрав!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pfd3OtPQ... - Бъроуз и Кобейн...
I'm adding this guy to my list of favorite authors. What a book for English majors!
We revere these men and women but forget that they were human before becoming
heavyweight authors. What better way to remember that than by sharing juicy gossip.
We revere these men and women but forget that they were human before becoming
heavyweight authors. What better way to remember that than by sharing juicy gossip.
Great tabloid-esque look at the weirder side of the authors we know and love. Plus, you get to feel studious and cultured, as you read all of the great trashy facts - like how JD Salinger drank his own pee. Good stuff!
Ross
added it
Another library patron had taken it upon him/herself to correct numerous innacuracies in this text with pencil, so keep that in your back pocket. Fun fact: Virginia Woolf wrote standing up, and everyone died of TB.
A fun and fascinating read. This is juicy stuff and not for those easily offended. It made me want to reread some books from my past with a new perspective. A list of references would have been nice, but really this book is all about entertainment.
Disgusting and full of mistakes. Many facts get distorted here. If you like that kind of gossipy books (as I admittedly do) try and find something better. This books is not worth its money.
A very amusing reading, but not always so 'naughty' as I expected.
I already knew more nasty things about someone...
That's why it gets 4 instead of 5
I already knew more nasty things about someone...
That's why it gets 4 instead of 5
This is like a tabloid about great authors. Hilarious and informative and encouraging if you are a writer who thinks he's eccentric... I think it's all true (?).
3 to 5 pages per author; brief bio followed by strange facts. did you know gertrude stein supported hitler? one more reason she sucks.
I finished this just in time for the holiday parties. Tired of boring your friends with the same old random facts? If yes, then this is the book for you. Where else would you learn that Kurt Vonnegut managed a Saab dealership? Or that Henry David Thoreau invented raisin bread? How about that James Joyce liked women with a little junk in the trunk?
In all seriousness this was a blast to read. It's basically mini bios and "secret" facts about famous authors. Some funny, some strang...more
In all seriousness this was a blast to read. It's basically mini bios and "secret" facts about famous authors. Some funny, some strang...more
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
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 gr...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 gr...more
Hilarious and obscure facts about world famous authors. With pictures. Highly recommended!
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers Also Enjoyed
Robert Schnakenberg, also known as Nguyen van Foch, is the author of more than a dozen books, including Sci-Fi Baby Names, Secret Lives of Great Authors, and The Encyclopedia Shatnerica (an A-to-Z reference about the life and career of William Shatner). Christopher Walken A-to-Z, a similarly formatted book about the actor Christopher Walken, was published in October of 2008. In May of 2008, Schnak...more
More about Robert Schnakenberg...
Share This Book
1 trivia question
More quizzes & trivia...
