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Writers Gone Wild: The Feuds, Frolics, and Follies of Literature's Great Adventurers, Drunkards, Lo vers, Iconoclasts, and Misanthropes
by
Bill Peschel (Goodreads Author)
Truth is stranger than fiction.
If you've imagined famous writers to be desk-bound drudges, think again. Writers Gone Wild rips back the (book) covers and reveals the seamy underside of the writing life.
Insightful, intriguing, and irresistibly addictive, Writers Gone Wild reveals such fascinating stories as:
* The night Dashiell Hammett hired a Chinese prostitute to b ...more
If you've imagined famous writers to be desk-bound drudges, think again. Writers Gone Wild rips back the (book) covers and reveals the seamy underside of the writing life.
Insightful, intriguing, and irresistibly addictive, Writers Gone Wild reveals such fascinating stories as:
* The night Dashiell Hammett hired a Chinese prostitute to b ...more
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This was a crazy book about what authors have done in their lives. Some was good, gunny, bad and pretty ugly. An interedting book to read all the short tell all stories.
I have been decking those halls and ringing those bells trying to get ready for Christmas so I haven't had a lot of spare time to read. This book is perfect. The short anecdotes about famous writers are in turn hilarious, amazing, sad, and a touch scary. Even great writers couldn't make up some of these episodes. One of my favorites was Virginia Woolf dressing up as an "Abyssinian potentate" and tricking the Royal Navy into giving her, and several friends, a VIP tour of a warship--complete with
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Everybody knows that skeletons of the past fill up an average person’s closet, usually up to the brim. When I got my hands on this gossipy compendium of anecdotes centering mostly on the foibles of a bunch of well-known, well-loved wordsmiths, I was given a peep through the keyholes of their closets. That’s when I realized that some people’s closets are not only choked with ghosts of yesterday, they also provide portals to places that are way crazier than Wonderland or Narnia.
But this is non-fic ...more
But this is non-fic ...more
An amusing work of some of histories greatest writers and their exploits. It doesn't have to be read from cover to cover, as each writer's story stands alone in chapters collecting that particular type of antic--whether it be drinking, affairs, war stories, etc. Incredible amount of research went into Peschel's work. Most writer's chronicled seem to be from the distant past, some from more recent history (1950s, 1960s) very few present day. Does this mean more current writers aren't as crazy? Ma
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One of the best "fun reads" I've ever picked up! A must-have for any literature lover (or hater).
I wish this book were as good as the title. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you want to read dish about your favorite drunken authors doing the craziest shit imaginable, please skip this title and go straight to A Drinking Companion by Kelly Boler. I'm afraid I've spoiled myself forever on authors' drunken antics by having read ADC first. Only Hunter Thompson continues to impress me post mortem with his lunacy. And I get the feeling that if I read more about Mailer, he'd surprise m
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I picked this up during my semester break because I was looking for something light and fun to counteract the stress from finishing my thesis. Typically I really enjoy books like this, and I really did enjoy it. But, there were some areas that caused me frustration when all I wanted was something light.
Generally I like to be able to sit down and read through a chapter or two without stopping but I didn't have that luxury with this book. Every other story I had to stop and Google someone mentione ...more
Generally I like to be able to sit down and read through a chapter or two without stopping but I didn't have that luxury with this book. Every other story I had to stop and Google someone mentione ...more
I'm a bit biased since I wrote the book, so even though it's not out until November, I'm happy to recommend it to all of my Goodreads friends who are interested in true, strange, sad and sometimes funny stories drawn from the lives of famous writers.
Malcolm Lowry's mysterious death. Boswell's lasciviousness. Simone de Beauvoir's relationship with Nelson Algren. Hemingway's pettiness. Fitzgerald's drunkenness. Joyce and Proust's only meeting. Jack London's secret to writing. Edith Wharton's snobbishness. Rimbaud's fiction and gun running. Mishima's dramatic death. HG Wells' numerous affairs. Plath's spicy seductress.
As you can tell from the list above, this is a book full of anecdotes about the greats of literature. Each anecdote is a page ...more
As you can tell from the list above, this is a book full of anecdotes about the greats of literature. Each anecdote is a page ...more
Malcolm Lowry's mysterious death. Boswell's lasciviousness. Simone de Beauvoir's relationship with Nelson Algren. Hemingway's pettiness. Fitzgerald's drunkenness. Joyce and Proust's only meeting. Jack London's secret to writing. Edith Wharton's snobbishness. Rimbaud's fiction and gun running. Mishima's dramatic death. HG Wells' numerous affairs. Plath's spicy seductress.
As you can tell from the list above, this is a book full of anecdotes about the greats of literature. Each anecdote is a page ...more
As you can tell from the list above, this is a book full of anecdotes about the greats of literature. Each anecdote is a page ...more
Pretty fun book about writers and they troubles they've gotten themselves into over the years. Each chapter covers a different sort of trouble, and I thought it was pretty interesting to see, for instance, how many writers have dealt with insanity, or violence, or have been thrown in jail for blasphemy or whatever. A lot of the writers included here are folks I've never read, and in some cases never even heard of, but even so, I found their stories interesting as well. I can see how this book co
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Okay so this book! THIS BOOK!. I thought it was a little rude and unrealistic at first but then I got the memo, the book was unabashedly the truth and then I couldn’t stop turning the pages.
How can these people get into so many exciting, shocking and awe-inspiring situations! I mean I knew writers were eccentric at times but I didn’t know some of them were completely bonkers!
Peschel has done an amazing job of collecting and writing these short anecdotes, mostly limiting each story to a maximum ...more
How can these people get into so many exciting, shocking and awe-inspiring situations! I mean I knew writers were eccentric at times but I didn’t know some of them were completely bonkers!
Peschel has done an amazing job of collecting and writing these short anecdotes, mostly limiting each story to a maximum ...more
I'm a literary geek and writers are weird people. Thanks to that combination, I found this book to be a lot of fun. Sex, drugs, egos, quirks, and full-blown neurosis are on display as Peschel takes you through some of the oddest moments in literary history. Some of the names are more obscure than others, and some writers show up often. But I had a lot of fun with it. If you are a literature fanboy, you could do worse. It's a quick, easy read, and is actually shorter than the page count if you do
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Better than I anticipated. A lot of the resources you can check out from your library rely chiefly on anecdotal stories. Peschel's inclusion of a robust and respectable bibliography means that you don't need to take the boulder of salt necessary for other books. This is a fascinating and quick read for anyone interested in the lives of writers without getting bogged down in talking about writing.
Loads of fun - a gossipy romp through the fights, love affairs, break-ups, drunken antics, and work-related idiocies of famous writers of the past (& a few present). You can easily read this in a couple of days & it's a riot! My favorites:
1. I continue to be justified in wanting nothing to do with Norman Mailer, based on the stories about him in this book.
2. Robert Burns answering a critic: "thou eunuch of language, thou Englishman!" (and more - he goes on in this line for about a para ...more
1. I continue to be justified in wanting nothing to do with Norman Mailer, based on the stories about him in this book.
2. Robert Burns answering a critic: "thou eunuch of language, thou Englishman!" (and more - he goes on in this line for about a para ...more
The wild side of the literary world. The fights, affairs, rivalries, loves, hatreds, drunkenness and debaucheries.
Not surprisingly, Hemingway and Mailer make multiple appearances in the book.
A fun read.
Not surprisingly, Hemingway and Mailer make multiple appearances in the book.
A fun read.
I love gossip, and make no mistake, this book is GOSSIP. Thing is, instead of discussing some trashed-out starlet latest sexcapades, Peschel smirks through behind-his-hands observations about all those authors* you had to read in high school.
I bet it would be so much easier to convince students to read Frankenstein if they knew that Mary Shelley kept her husband's heart after his friends cremated his body. Or that Ernest Hemingway and his son spent an afternoon shooting at buzzards after gettin ...more
I bet it would be so much easier to convince students to read Frankenstein if they knew that Mary Shelley kept her husband's heart after his friends cremated his body. Or that Ernest Hemingway and his son spent an afternoon shooting at buzzards after gettin ...more
In Writers Gone Wild, Bill Peschel really captured the essence of several literary greats in humorous well-written essay formats that are so easy to read. Mr. Peschel has done a terrific job of finding those little bits of faux pas that the famous or near famous literary figures have been involved in. While each piece is designed to stand alone and could be read in a few short minutes, I sat down and read half of the book before putting it down. This book is truly funny and the little known fact
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The stories are entertaining and well-researched but the writing is corny.
May 15, 2013
Keith
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
history-and-biography,
2013
A compendium of artistic excess, that is, anecdotes of famous authors fighting and drinking and screwing both themselves and many, many people of both sexes. Read of literary feuds ancient and modern. In the last chapter read of the often dramatic ways in which some authors departed this world. A tremendously entertaining volume of mostly one or two page stories. Hemingway and Faulkner are among the stars of the 20th century bad boys club. Oh, and John Milton's cadaver and Shelley's cremation -
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To call this an "on the toilet" book would be doing it a serious disservice. Contained within is a series of short (and shorter) essays on our heroes of so-called "world literature" demonstrating without doubt that they are just as flawed, greedy, silly, adventurous, selfish, and horny as you and I are. They are universally entertaining and sometimes disturbing. Take Jackie Susann's quote after learning that JFK had been shot "Why the fuck does this happen to me? This is gonna ruin my tour." JS
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If you have writers on a pedestal, this gossipy tell all will have you knocking them off, one by one.
I appreciated all of the research that went into writing this book. the bibliography is rather long on a book this short. It does a very good job of showing the humorous and often dysfunctional relationships of many historical authors. The author does reference his initial view that seemed to indicated he had writers on too high a pedistool before and liked that they were flawed which taints some of the writing.
I didn't read this start to finish; I more scanned the table of contents and went to a section that sounded interesting but I also skipped around a lot too. It was a fun read, for what I did read, kind of interesting (and unusual) facts and details about various authors "behind the mask". I wouldn't mind going back to read more of it at some point.
Light reading.
Light reading.
Writers Gone Wild is a brilliant collection of short anecdotes about writers and their odder moments. Funny, astonishing, and occasionally sad, this book lays bare parts of many famous writers' lives. Highly recommended, especially if you only have brief moments to read at one time.
This is a series of short stories about the beloved writers from years gone by. It is interesting to see what is available on an individual's life and how what appears to be quirkiness is really what makes writers like everyone else.
Got through the first half of the book okay, but had to force myself to read the last part. The whole book is loaded with interesting information, just best to take in small doses.
This book could have been a quarter of its thickness. The format is boring, and the vast majority of stories are actually not that scandalous. Good for waiting rooms, but not much else.
Seems like the author did a lot of googling and turned it into a book. I was a little surpised how often famous authors interacted (unpleasantly) with each other.
It was a fun look at the fact that some people that many of us consider brilliant and would hope that they were above the rest, are in fact, just people!
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I was born in a manger, but told to get out as someone had already reserved the creche, which hurt my ego a bit. Went to school to be a reporter but learned I hated asking questions of people with blood all over them, so switched to editing copy for newspapers. Also wrote bits for my website, but when I learned that didn't pay, took the stuff and turned it into my first book, "Writers Gone Wild."
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