Books Trivia | 100 facts & trivia about famous authors (part 1)

F. Scott Fitzerald said that what people are ashamed of usually makes a good story. Ans those people included in the following article knew a lot of them since they are considered some of the most famous writers in the world!

There are a lot of writers in the world, but some are simply better and more famous than the others. Therefore sometimes they are considered classical! But how many things do we know about them? Well right here we are about to dive deep into their lives.

1. Oscar Wilde’s full name was Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde.
2. Oscar Wilde’s father was really famous. More specifically Sir William was one of Ireland’s most prominent surgeons in both ophthalmology and otology.
3. Wilde’s mother, Jane Wilde, was a well-known Irish poet and a fervent Irish nationalist.
4. She wrote poems under the pseudonym “Speranza” in support of Ireland’s 1848 uprising.
5. From 1871 to 1874, Oscar Wilde studied at Trinity College, sharing a room with his older brother, Willie.
6. In Trinity College, he met Arthur Palmer and the Irish critic and poet Edward Dowden.
7. Oscar Wilde really admired his tutor, J.P. Mahaffy.
8. Mahaffy inspired Wilde’s interest in Greek literature.
9. When Oscar Wilde was asked to describe him, he described him as the man who taught him “how to love Greek things”.
10. That is until Wilde’s scandal and trial ruined his reputation, whereupon Mahaffy dismissed him as “the only blot in [his] tutorship.”
11. Oscar Wilde also had three half-siblings.
12. They were his father’s children from a relationship out of wedlock.
13. Oscar Wilde only penned one novel in his entire writing career and that was The Picture of Dorian Gray
14. His wife’s name was Constance and they never got divorced.
15. She visited Oscar Wilde when he was in prison late in his life to deliver the news of his mother’s death.
16. Despite the fact that they had never formally divorced, she changed her surname and that of her sons from Wilde to Holland to save the children from the scandal.
17. Wilde’s sister, Isola, tragically died of meningitis at the age of nine, and he wrote a poem about her.
18. The first truly passionate relationship in Wilde’s life that we know of began in 1891 when he met Alfred Douglas.
19. Douglas took advantage of Wilde for his money and success.
20. Douglas became sick with influenza. Wilde patiently looked after him in his illness, but Douglas refused to return the favor when Wilde fell ill with the same condition.
21. Instead, Douglas got a room at the Grand Hotel and sent Wilde a bill for the room on his 40th birthday.
22. Wilde once lectured his sons on what would happen to bad boys who made their mamas cry, only for them to ask him what happened to papas who made mamas cry.
23. He was fascinated by Catholicism.
24. But his father strongly disapproved of it.
25. During the 2nd year of his marriage with Constance Oscar Wilde met a 17-year-old Canadian living in England named Robbie Ross.
26. They were in a relationship and they stayed in touch till the very end.
27. One line which he is alleged to have said—“Be yourself, everyone else is already taken”—has no historical evidence to back the claim that he said it.
28. The jury was unable to make up their minds on whether Wilde was guilty or not.
29. He studied Greek for nine years.
30. He was also fluent in German, French, and Spanish, aside from his delightful mastery of the English language.
31. Strangely, though, despite his mother’s patriotism, Wilde couldn’t actually speak a word of Gaelic.
32. Edgar Allan Poe in Boston in 1809.
33. His parents were both actors who were performing in Shakespeare’s King Lear the year he was born.
34. There is speculation that he was named for the play’s Earl of Gloucester’s son, Edgar.
35. He was America’s first professional writer.
36. And a starving artist…
37. His brother, William Henry Leonard Poe, was also a poet.
38. His sister Rosalie Poe was a teacher of penmanship.
39. Both of his parents died before he became 4.
40. Poe dreamt of being a writer like his boyhood hero, the British poet Lord Byron.
41. The father who adopted him wanted Edgar to become a businessman.
42. He had written enough poems to write a book by the age of 13.
43. His headmaster advised his father not to publish them though.
44. Edgar had tensions with his foster father.
45. Also, he didn’t give him enough money to study, but he studied anyway.
46. He published his first book by the age of 18!
47. He married his teen cousin.
48. More specifically he married his first cousin, Virginia Clemm.
49. She was 13 and he was 27.
50. In 1849, Poe went missing for five days and was found “worse for the wear” and delirious in Baltimore.
51. He was taken to the hospital where he died soon.
52. He died after the age of 40.
53. No autopsy was performed.
54. The cause of death was listed as a vague “congestion of the brain” and he was buried two days later.
55. His exact date birth remains a mystery!
57. During his lifetime, William Shakespeare wrote around 37 plays for the theatre and over 150 poems!
58. No one can say the exact number, because some of his work may have been lost over time – and some may have been written with the help of other people.
59. He was one of eight children born.
60. His father John Shakespeare was a well-to-do glove-maker and leatherworker.
61. His mother, Mary Arden, was an heiress from a wealthy family.
62. In 1582, William married a farmer’s daughter called Anne Hathaway.
63. They had three children together – a daughter called Susanna, and twins, Judith and Hamnet.
64. Come 1585, the mysterious William Shakespeare disappeared from records for around seven years!
65. Historians often refer to this part of the writer’s life as ‘the lost years‘…
66. In 1592 he suddenly turned up in London as an actor and playwright.
67. His jealous rivals, known as the ‘University Wits’, criticized and made fun of his work.
68. One writer, named Robert Greene, referred to him as ‘an upstart crow’!
69. He was part of a theatre company called Lord Chamberlain’s Men.
70. The theater company regularly performed at a place called ‘The Theatre’.
71. After a dispute with the landlord, they took the building apart, rebuilt it across the river, and named it the Globe.
72. All of his plays could be divided into three categories: tragedy, comedy, and history.
73. His plays made him very rich and famous.
74. So much so, that by 1598, William owned houses in London and Stratford-up-Avon.
75. Shakespeare’s plays had the royal seal of approval.
76. Both Queen Elizabeth I  and James VI of Scotland and I of England would often hire Shakespeare’s company to come and perform at the royal court.
77. At Shakespeare’s era, there were no female actors (women’s parts were played by men!), and audiences could be very crowded.
78. Towards the end of his life, William lived quietly back in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon.
79. He died on 23 April 1616, aged 52, after falling ill.
80. It’s believed he may have died on his birthday, but without an official birth record, no one can be sure!
81. T.S. Eliott wasn’t a professional writer/poet. He was writing poetry during his spare time.
82. Throughout his life, Eliot supported himself by working as a teacher, banker, and editor.
83. But this was not something he didn’t like. In fact, he chose it!
84. In 1939, Eliot published a book of poetry, Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats.
85. It’s one of the longest-running Broadway shows ever.
86. In 2019, it even became a movie musical, but it didn’t receive quite positive reviews.
87. Eliot wrote poems and plays partly on a typewriter and partly with pencil and paper.
88. But no matter what method he used, he tried to always keep a three-hour writing limit.
89. He considered “Four Quartets,” a set of four poems that explored philosophy and spirituality, to be his best writing.
90. Out of the four, the last is his favorite.
91. Eliot wrote comedian Groucho Marx a fan letter in 1961.
92. Marx replied, gave Eliot a photo of himself, and started a correspondence with the poet.
93. They met in real life in 1964, when Eliot hosted Marx and his wife for dinner at his London home.
94. In 1921, Eliot took a few months off from his banking job after a nervous breakdown.
95. During this time, he finished writing “The Waste Land,” which his friend and fellow poet Ezra Pound edited.
96. Also, Ezra Pound tries to crowdfund Eliot’s writing.
97. Writing in… French helped him overcome the writer’s block!
98. In the early 1910s, Eliot wrote a poem called “The Triumph of Bulls**t.”
99. The Oxford English Dictionary credits the poem with being the first time the curse word ever appeared in print.
100. His first marriage was a bad one and there is even a movie about it!