5 little-known facts about the weirdness of world famous writers

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Even great writers, no matter how many books they published, had their weaknesses and quirks. Someone had a strange hobby, someone led a double life, someone believed in miracles. In our review, world famous authors and their unknown weaknesses.

1. Bram Stoker is a conspiracy theorist

Bram Stoker became known all over the world for writing the novel "Dracula". But the Irish author not only wrote his immortal hit, but also several other novels that had nothing to do with blood, bats, or the undead.

One of his works is the book "Famous Impostors", published in 1910, which is dedicated to exposing fraudsters and hoaxes. For example, Stoker claimed that the real Queen Elizabeth fell ill and died at the age of 10 while vacationing in the countryside. At this time, the visit of her father, King Henry VIII, was expected and the governess fell into a panic. Instead of confessing, she ran to the nearby town of Beasley to find a replacement. She couldn't find a girl who looked like a princess, so the governess took a similar boy and dressed him in Elizabeth's clothes. When his father appeared, he did not suspect deception. From that moment on, instead of Elizabeth, an androgynous boy from Beasley grew up near the throne. This is allegedly confirmed by the fact that Elizabeth had a penchant for wigs, which masked baldness. In addition, she never married and refused doctors.

2. Charles Dickens and the corpses

Charles Dickens is known all over the world for his novels. At the same time, few people know about his rather strange inclinations. Wherever he slept, he always turned his bed so that his head was pointing north. He would also be heavily into mesmerism, a Victorian version of hypnosis, often practicing his skills on family and friends. But all these little quirks were no match for his morbid craving for dead bodies.

When Dickens did not write about hungry orphans or grumpy curmudgeons, he visited Paris morgue … In the 19th century, going to a morgue in Paris was like going to the cinema today. Bored Parisians went to admire the bodies of the killed, suicides and corpses fished out of the Seine. As the great writer himself stated, "" - wrote Dickens in his diary.

3. Mark Twain - inventor

In addition to being one of America's greatest novelists, Mark Twain was also a self-taught inventor who received at least two patents. Twain's first invention earned him $ 50,000. It was a new and improved album for pasting photographs and newspaper clippings. And the most important achievement Mark Twain there was an elastic belt with a clip that kept loose clothes from falling off the hangers. Now his invention is used as a fastener in bras.

4. Agatha Christie accidentally helped solve real crimes

Agatha Christie - the author of novels with mysterious crimes - killed people in her books, perhaps much more than any other author. Still, one of Christie's books in real life helped rescue at least three times. In the 1961 novel The White Horse, the killer used thallium sulfate, a nasty poison that causes shortness of breath, slurred speech, fainting, hair loss, and then death. Agatha Christie worked in a pharmacy at the end of the First World War and was well versed in the poisons that killers often used in her novels, which can be attributed to list of the scariest books … After reading this book, doctors were able to save several lives in real poisoning with this poison.

5. Arthur Conan Doyle believed in miracles

Although Sir Arthur Conan Doyle created the most logical character in all of literature - Sherlock Holmes, he was not the most rational person on the planet. After his son died in World War I, the author devoted his life to spiritualism and desperate attempts to make contact with the world of the dead. His best friend was the notorious Harry Houdini. They often argued about spiritualism, and each tried to prove their point.

Doyle often took Houdini to séances while the magician tried to convince the author that this was all nonsense. At the same time, Doyle declared to everyone that Houdini actually possessed magic. He even claimed that the magician could dematerialize and that is how he freed himself from all the chains, straitjackets and locked safes, despite the fact that Houdini himself stated that these were just tricks. Since Houdini was never able to convince his friend about spiritualism, they had a big fight and never made up for the rest of their lives.

In continuation of the writer's theme "verbal portraits", woven from quotes from great authors. Each portrait is composed of quotes taken from the most significant works of the authors selected by the artist.