Irvin S. Cobb (23 June, 1876 – 11 March, 1944) was a prolific American humorist, columnist and author.

A recurring theme in her books were the effects of alcoholism on families.

Richard Adams (9 May, 1920 – 24 December, 2016) was a novelist from England who is known for his novel Watership Down. Books by Richard Adams* 1) Mr. Adams studied modern history in Worcester College, Oxford. 2) During World War II he was posted to the Royal Army Service Corps. 3) Mr. Adams was a career British Civil Servant. 4) Watership Down (1972) is one of the bestselling children’s books of all times. 5) An animated film of Watership Down was released in 1978. The them topped the UK charts for six weeks and was sung by Art Garfunkel. 6) The novel won Mr. Adams the Carnegie medal and the Guardian children’s prize. 7) Mr. Adams was head of the RSCSP (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) from 1980–82. 8) Other books by the author such as The Plague Dogs explored animal rights. 9) Netflix and the BBC are producing a new animated TV mini-series of Watership Down. 10) Mr. Adams lived most of his life within 10 miles of his birthplace. Books by Richard Adams* Zohar — Man of la Book *Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account

A few days ago I reviewed The Man with the Golden Gun by Ian Fleming. It was not my favorite Bond novel (or film), but reading it was still a lot of fun – and isn’t that what it’s all about? For this post I researched the novel, and movie, a bit for a few fun facts to make your Friday go a bit faster. 1) The novel was published eight months after the death of Ian Fleming. 2) Fleming was unhappy with the book, but his copy editor thought it was viable for publication. 3) It seemed that Fleming was right, and the novel was not yet “ready for publication”, the reviewers kept their reviews polite, despite giving the novel a poor reception. 4) In the beginning of the novel, James Bond is presumed to be dead. 5) In 1965 the novel was serialized by the Daily Express and Playboy. 6) In 1966 an adaptation of the novel was published in the Daily Express in comic strip form. 7) The novel was made into a film in 1974, loosely based on the storyline Fleming drew out. 8) Christopher Lee, British actor, author, singer and lifelong badass, played the villain….

Paul Erdman (19 May, 1932 – 23 April, 2007) was a financial and business writer. He was known for writing novels based on historical facts and complex financial intrigues. Books by Paul Erdman* 1) The author earned a PhD in economics and was a former Lutheran seminarian. 2) He was the first American to establish a private bank in Switzerland. 3) The bank collapsed because of unauthorized speculation in cocoa and silver futures. 4) Mr. Erdman started to write in a Swiss jail where he was serving time for his role in the collapse of a bank he ran. 5) The jail Mr. Erdman was until he was charged was a 17th century dungeon in Basel, complete room services and wines. 6) He is credited with popularizing financial fiction (affectionately called fi-fi). 7) The reason he wrote a novel was because the dungeon did not have a research library. 8) One of the inmates occupying the dungeon with Mr. Erdman was a French safecracker. Mr. Erdman traded wine for knowledge on safecracking and that became the first chapter in his book. 9) From a business perspective, Mr. Erdman considered his time in jail as a positive. 10) Mr. Erdman’s novels…

The Doubleday editor who met with the author didn’t care for his idea of a non-fiction book about pirates, but loved the man eating shark terrorizing a community pitch. It is said that Mr. Benchley wrote a page in the Doubleday offices and immediately got an advance check.

Terry Pratchett (28 April, 1948 – 12 March, 2015) was an English fantasy author known for his comical work and his series of 41 novels, Discworld. Books by Terry Pratchett* 1) Mr. Pratchett sold more than 85 million books worldwide, his stories have been translated to 37 languages. 2) As a kid, Mr. Pratchett wanted to be an astronomer. 3) In the 1990s, Mr. Pratchett was the best-selling author in the UK. 4) He was knighted for services to literature in 2009. Later that year, Mr. Pratchett made himself a sword which contained pieces of some pieces of meteoric iron (thunderbolt iron) which has a special place in magic. 5) Lyn Purves married the author in 1968. The couple had a daughter, Rhianna Pratchett, who is also a writer. 6) The author loved to wear larger, black fedora hats. 7) Mr. Pratchett was one of the first writers to embrace computers and used the Internet routinely to communicate with his fans. 8) The author loved to pay video games, especially Half-Life 2, Oblivion, the first Tomb Raider, and Thief. He collaborated in the creating of several game adaptations of his books. 9) Mr. Pratchett was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in…

Twenty One, April is the birthday of author Charlotte Brontë who was born in 1816. While I did not care much for Jane Eyre , I did appreciate its literary qualities. Check out my Fun Facts Friday on Charlotte’s sister, Emily. Books by Charlotte Brontë 1 ) Charlotte Brontë was the only one of her sisters to live past the ripe old age of 31. 2 ) The author’s most famous work, Jane Eyre, was originally published in 1847 under the nom-de-plume Currer Bell. 3 ) After Jane Eyre was published, the Brontë family suffered three tragedies in eight months. In September 1848 the family’s only son, Branwell, died, Emily died in December of 1848 and Anne died in May 1849. Charlotte stopped writing for a while but continued her second novel, Shirley, after Anne’s death as a way of dealing with her grief. 4 ) As a way of gaining attention to her Shirley, Charlotte sent copies leading authors of the time including Elizabeth Gaskell. 5 ) Charlotte’s third book, Villette, was the last one published in her lifetime. As her previous novels, the book has some autobiographical aspects. The novel was acknowledged as having sophisticated writing, but criticized for…

According to Michael Lang “Toynbee was perhaps the world’s most read, translated, and discussed living scholar.”

Poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a good friend of Mr. Wordsworth for many years. The two poets had a falling out due to Coleridge’s opium addiction.