Friday, August 27, 2010

DID YOU KNOW?!?! part 3!

More fun facts about our favorite authors!

Frances Hodgson Burnett (A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy)
  • Frances left her home in England as a child to move to rural Tennessee. Talk about culture shock.
  • One of Burnett's houses had 22 rooms in it - each one dominated by a single color. Her bedroom was entirely pink.
  • She also had an extensive dollhouse collection, and one of these dollhouses (remember, this is the early 20th century) had a working shower.
  • Burnett based the character Little Lord Fauntleroy on her son Vivian. I repeat - her SON "Vivian."
Jack London (The Call of the Wild, White Fang)
  • At age 13, London was already working 14 hours a day in a cannery. He quickly fell into bad company, and by the time he was 18, he was already in jail for vagrancy.
  • When London was first starting out as a writer, the rejection slips he received piled five feet high.
  • At age 29, London was the highest-paid and widely read author in America. He was unsuccessful at striking gold...until he started writing about the Klondike gold rush.
  • London and his second wife Charmain Kittredge called each other "Mate-Woman" and "Mate-Man." Blech.
Carl Sandburg ("Chicago," "Fog," The Rootabaga Stories)
  • At just 14 years old, Sandburg was already in jail for swimming nude in a city pond.
  • Sandburg married a woman named Lilian Steichen, but throughout her marriage he kept referring to her as "Paula." Of his wife, Sandburg said that she was "the kind of woman I would be if I were a woman." Ohhh-kay.
  • Sandburg had a vast collection of folk music, and his favorite song was "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum."
  • His final house, Connemara in North Carolina, featured a library of 14,000 books.
E.B. White (Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, The Trumpet of the Swan)
  • The E.B. stands for Elwyn Brooks, but after college, everyone called him "Andy."
  • His wife, Katharine Angell, was 7 years older than he was and also was his boss. His idea of a compliment was to tell her, "You smell like pencil shavings."
  • White found that he could only concentrate on his writing on rainy days.
  • If E.B. White was to give you a present, it would most likely be a copy of Thoreau's Walden. That was his favorite book, and he carried a copy of it with him wherever he went. He also gave away hundreds of copies as gifts.
  • Considering his novel Charlotte's Web, it's not surprising that White wasn't afraid of spiders. Once he let hundreds of them hatch and build webs atop his dresser. Research, perhaps?
William Faulkner (The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Light in August)
  • Faulkner was not the best student. It is true that he received less than admirable marks in grammar and language (strange for a future author), but he did not, as legend has it, fail English. He never graduated high school, but he was allowed to attend Ole Miss as a WWI veteran.
  • Faulkner's 3rd novel, Sartoris, became the first of 15 stories set in Yoknapatawpha County
  • His famous Nobel acceptance speech - which many people lauded as one of the most eloquent statements of faith in humanity - was most likely delivered while drunk.
  • Despite his status as one of the greatest American writers, the New York Times' obituary of Faulkner was less than kind, remarking on his "obsession with murder, rape, incest, suicide, greed, and general depravity."

10 shout-outs!:

Melissa (i swim for oceans) said...

A dollhouse with a working shower? That's crazy! haha I think the facts about Faulkner are my favourite :)

Allie said...

I love these posts. :) It seems that all writers are just a tad quirky.

The Insouciant Sophisticate said...

I've really enjoyed this series;
Fun fact: the actress Vivien Leigh was originally named Vivian, I believe because her father wanted a boy, but she changed that and her last name when she began acting.

Christina T said...

Lots of interesting facts! I would have loved a dollhouse with a working shower when I was a little girl. The Secret Garden was one of my favorite childhood books. So was Charlotte's Web. My mom reads Charlotte's Web to her kindergarten students every year and she likes spiders because they eat insects that attack her plants (she is also fond of the praying mantis). She would probably have liked E.B. White. I can't stand spiders or insects but I liked Charlotte :)

Thanks for sharing all of these interesting tidbits!

Anonymous said...

Ah, I've got to read Fulkner for my English class!

Menagerie Soaps said...

What interesting facts, I love it. A working shower - what a lucky little girl! I love the photo of Faulkner.

Anonymous said...

lmao i had no idea!!

Monica said...

BAHAHA! Mate-Woman and Mate-Man. That's the best thing EVER! Although the E.B. spider hatching thing creeped me out! I'm terrified of most bugs and I feel if I kill them all of their bug friends will attack me out of revenge! >.< These are really cool!

And, if you want to use the Top 100 YA list go right ahead cause I just took it from the site! I love seeing what everyone has read on it!

Anonymous said...

Wow, this is really interesting! Do more!

Tales of Whimsy said...

A pink room? How lovely!

 
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