Fun Facts Friday: L. Frank Baum
Fun Facts Friday , Latest Posts / May 15, 2015

Mr. Baum was an adamant supporter of women’s rights. His mother in law, Matilda Joslyn Gage, even wrote a book, History of Woman Suffrage (availble for free) with Susan B. Anthony, however it is said she did not like her son-in-law very much.

Fun Facts Friday: Robert Browning
Fun Facts Friday , Latest Posts / May 8, 2015

Robert Browning (8 May, 1812 – 12 December, 1889) was an English poet with a flair for the dramatic. Works by Robert Browning Browning was educated at home and lived many years under his parents’ roof while fostering a literary career. English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and playwright William Shakespeare were a major influence on Mr. Browning. When a collection of letters by Shelley was discovered, Browning wrote the preface. Later, it was discovered that the letters were fake and the collection never published; however, Browning’s preface remains an important piece due to its famous distinction between “objective” and “subjective” writers. Browning wrote poetry as dramatic monologues because his plays were poorly received and the drama was not suited for the theatre. Famous poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browning (“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways”) was his wife. During her life, she was the more famous of the two. Even though Mr. Browning was a citizen of the British Empire, he spent almost a quarter of his life in Italy, which was a large influence of his work. Browning ’s poem The Ring and the Book is made out of 20,000 lines. Robert Browning died on the day…

Fun Facts Friday: Joseph Heller
Fun Facts Friday , Latest Posts / May 1, 2015

Heller’s agent sold the unfinished manuscript of Catch-22 to Simon and Schuster. The publisher paid $750 and promised another $750 when the manuscript will be delivered 3 years later. Mr. Heller missed the deadline by 5 years or so.

Fun Facts Friday: Washington Irving
Fun Facts Friday , Latest Posts / April 3, 2015

In his book A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828) Washington Irving gave birth to the myth that people during Columbus’ time thought the Earth was flat and Columbus set out to prove them wrong. (Inventing the Flat Earth by Jeffrey Russell) In the 1490s people argues about the size of the Earth, not its shape, in fact in 1492, when Columbus set sail, the first globes were produces.

Fun Facts Friday: Maxim Gorky
Fun Facts Friday , Latest Posts / March 27, 2015

In 1906 Gorky went on a fund raising trip, on behalf of the Bolsheviks, to the United States. During the trip he wrote his novel The Mother when visiting the Adirondack Mountains. Gorky also created a scandal because he was traveling with actress Maria Andreyeva, his lover, instead of his wife. Despite feeling contempt for the bourgeois soul, Gorky came to admire the American spirit.

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