Interesting Maze Runner facts: James Dashner’s a-mazing series of dystopian novels
1. Although some fans have made comparisons between The Maze Runner and other recent young adult dystopian novels, the idea for the series came to its author some ten years ago. Many readers and moviegoers have noted the superficial similarities between The Maze Runner (Maze Runner Series)
The most significant events in the history of books on the 1st of October
What significant events in history occurred on October 1st? In the world of literature and books, the 1st of October saw the birth of an early Gothic novelist and the death of a classic American children’s author…
1760: William Beckford, author of Vathek, is born. Beckford wrote the bestselling Gothic novel Vathek in French in 1782, and left an the English translation up to someone else (it would be translated by a vicar four years later). Beckford, from a wealthy family of sugar plantation owners, was tutored in music by none other than Mozart. His family estate was at Fonthill, where Beckford had the famous Fonthill Abbey built.
Interesting Truman Capote facts: concerning his life, his work, and his links with other writers
1. Truman Capote inspired the character of Dill in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. We’ve discussed Harper Lee and the genesis of her classic 1960 novel in a previous post, and one of the nice author-meet-author facts about the book is the fact that the character of Dill Harris in Lee’s novel was based on Harper Lee’s own neighbour and best friend growing up – Truman Capote. Capote, who had been born Truman Streckfus Persons in 1924, changed his name to Truman Capote in 1935, after his stepfather, Joseph Capote.
Interesting facts about the Lew Wallace book Ben-Hur, and its subsequent life on film
1. It was the bestselling American novel of the nineteenth century. Lew Wallace’s novel Ben-Hur (1880) even outsold that other runaway bestseller, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852). And this was despite slow sales: in the first seven months it didn’t even shift 3,000 copies. The novel’s protagonist, Judah Ben-Hur (a figure invented by Wallace, and not someone who is known in history), is a Jewish nobleman and prince who is taken slave by the Romans (fitted up on a false charge of attempted murder, when a piece of his roof accidentally dropped on the Roman parade passing his house) and becomes a charioteer in the Roman games.
100 fun facts about writers and their fascinating lives
On Twitter we recently reached the 100,000 followers milestone. (Hurrah! And do follow us @InterestingLit if you’re also a tweeter.) To celebrate the occasion, we’ve gathered together one hundred of our favourite facts about famous authors. We hope you enjoy them! Where there’s a link on an author’s name, we’ve linked to our post about that particular author. If you enjoy the following literary trivia, we recommend our book crammed full of 3,000 years of interesting bookish facts, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History
Virginia Woolf was the granddaughter of novelist William Makepeace Thackeray.
Aldous Huxley was the great-nephew of Matthew Arnold.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, lived next door to Mark Twain.
Evelyn Waugh’s first wife’s name was Evelyn. They were known as ‘He-Evelyn’ and ‘She-Evelyn’.