T.S. Eliot loved Groucho Marx and even wrote him a fan letter and kept his picture on the wall. The two met for a disastrous dinner – Marx wanted to talk poetry, Eliot wanted to talk movies.

Arthur Rackham (19 September, 1867 – 6 September, 1939) was an English book illustrator whose work is still sought out today. In an era which was called the “golden age” of illustrations, Rackham was one of the most prolific and known illustrators. Instead of “fun facts”, I thought I’d share some of Mr. Rackham’s wonderful work.

The protagonist of The English Patient, Hana, is the daughter of the protagonist from an earlier novel Mr. Onadaatje wrote called the In the Skin of the Lion.

The end of the original scroll is a ragged edge where Kerouac wrote “Ate by Patchkee, a dog”, so no one really knows the original ending.

Oliver Wendell Holmes (29 August, 1809 – 7 October, 1894) was a Cambridge, MA native known for his poetry and essays.

Ray Bradbury didn’t like computers or eBooks, believing that the Internet was “distracting”. However his stance softened when his agent explained to him that “a new contract wouldn’t be possible without ebook rights”.

Sir Walter Scott – a poet, historian, and biographer born in Scotland, often considered both the inventor and the best practitioner of the historical novel

In 1958 Mr. Aldiss was voted as Most Promising New Author at the Word Science Fiction Convention.

Herman Melville (1 August, 1819 – 28 September, 1891) was an American writer and poet, and writer of short stories. Melville is best known for his whaling novel Moby-Dick , published in 1851.

Elias Canetti (25 July, 1905 – 14 August, 1994) was a novelist, non-fiction writer, memoirist and playwright. Mr. Elias was born in Bulgaria, but is known as a Swiss and British novelist. Image from russianroulettehitscannes.wordpress.com Books by Elias Canetti The ancestors of Mr. Canetti were Sephardi Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492. Canetti came from Cañete, named after Cañete, Cuenca, a village in Spain Mr. Canetti wrote in German In 1981 Mr. Canetti won the Nobel Prize in Literature “for writings marked by a broad outlook, a wealth of ideas and artistic power”. Mr. Canetti studied Chemistry at the University of Vienna. He graduated in 1929 but never worked as a chemist. As a student, Mr. Canetti witnessed the July Revolt of 1927 (a.k.a. the Vienna Palace of Justice fire). The riot left a deep impression on the future writer, especially the burning of books. Canetti married Venetiana Taubner-Calderon in 1934, she was his muse and literary assistant. He was open to relationships with other women. Canetti immigrated to England, in 1938, devoting his time to research on mass psychology and the allure of fascism. Even though he was a British citizen, Mr. Mr. Canetti lived mostly in…