10 interesting facts from the life of writers

Celebrities don’t know what a quiet life is. The paparazzi are ready to do anything to get compromising photos, and the details of the personal life of the stars are not discussed only by the lazy. But it wasn’t always like that.

A couple of centuries ago, when many of our favorite writers lived, there was no “yellow” press and the Internet. Popular personalities at that time could do anything, cameras had not yet been invented either.

In this article we will talk about the most interesting facts from the life of writers. Here are collected phobias, oddities, ridiculous actions that you can hardly find in official biographies. Perhaps these facts will help you understand this or that work of a certain author or shed light on some events from his life. Let’s start.

10 Chekhov worked on his works in full dress

«In a person, everything should be fine … “. This Chekhov’s phrase has long been winged. Anton Pavlovich took his appearance and creativity seriously. He could not write if something in his appearance was not right. He put on the best suit, was going to meet the muse, as if on a date. Otherwise, inspiration did not visit him.

Chekhov had a huge weakness for beautiful clothes. A letter to his friend Dmitry Savelyev has survived to this day, where the writer thanked him for the donated frock coat. A creative person can’t just say, “Thank you.” Chekhov wished Savelyev that the frock coat would marry and that he would have many little children – frock coats.

9. Tolkien wrote The Hobbit exclusively for his children

John Ronald Reuel is a professor at the University of Oxford. He had a family: a wife, three sons and a daughter. It is difficult to say when Tolkien first took up The Hobbit, it happened around the end of the 20s of the last century.

He often told his children fairy tales of his own composition. “Winter reading” was the most favorite hobby in the family. Tolkien gathered the whole family around the fireplace and began a new fantastic story. Some of them were so long that sometimes John got confused and forgot the details. That is why he decided to record The Hobbit. It was not a book: scraps of text, abstract.

It wasn’t until 1938 that The Hobbit saw the light of day. Tolkien did not plan to publish the book, it happened. Publishers became interested in her, they made him a lucrative offer. Now the Hobbit has a lot of fans.

8. Rowling received many rejections and for a long time could not publish “Harry Potter”

The Harry Potter series is one of the most popular in the world. The cycle is considered a literary bestseller, it has been translated into 80 languages. All this might not have happened if Joan had been a little less stubborn.

She went around 14 publishing houses, none of them agreed to publish her book. They motivated the refusal by the fact that the novel is intended for teenage boys, and they will not be interested in a work written by a woman..

The English publishing house Bloomsbury decided to take a chance and released a trial edition. After the resounding success, Rowling was bombarded with offers. Joan did not change publishers, so she wiped her nose at everyone who refused to believe in her.

7. Fleming was fond of ornithology

The author of the James Bond novels was a bright personality. His contemporaries claim that he wanted to perpetuate his name, to create a pale copy of himself.

Yang decided to write a book about a spy, agent 007. At that time, he was fond of ornithology, his faithful assistant in the study of birds was the book of James Bond. This is a famous ornithologist, specialized in the Caribbean fauna. Fleming liked the name very much, he considered it nondescript, short, unromantic. After writing the novel, Fleming sent it to a bird researcher with the note: “To the real James Bond…”.

6. Pushkin received a bronze statue as a dowry for his wife

Afanasy Abramovich – the father of Natalia Goncharova was a very rich man. He maintained a linen factory, which was famous throughout the country. In 1775 Catherine II even visited him. Goncharov was so impressed by this event that he commissioned a bronze statue of her. It was ready when Paul I ascended the throne.

The affairs of Afanasy Abramovich fell into decay. He did not know where to put the statue, honoring Catherine was dangerous. He did not think of anything better than to give the monument as a dowry. Pushkin was not happy with such a gift. “Copper Granny” gave him a lot of trouble. He offered it to the mint, but this proposal did not interest them. After Pushkin’s death, the Barda foundry bought the statue.

5. Carroll invented the nyctograf

Lewis Carroll created his own form of shorthand. His invention nyctograf was a cardboard with cells. In each cell, he wrote words using symbols (dashes and dots). This invention was of great practical use.

The writer had many ideas, usually in the dark, when he was already in bed. I didn’t want to get up, but the niktograf was always at hand. “Alice in Staren Wonders” he also wrote with the help of this invention.

4. Gogol was terrified that he would be buried alive.

Gogol had a phobia: he was very afraid that he would be buried alive. In 1839, the writer began to have health problems. He went to Rome, where he contracted malaria. After that, he often lost consciousness, seizures began. These are all symptoms of malarial encephalitis.

He expressed his concerns in letters to his sister Lisa. He wrote that he could not get warm and sometimes it seemed to him that those around him would not understand that he was sick, and not dead. Now it is not known what actually happened to the writer. After death, many terrible legends were created.

After 79 years, his remains were reburied. After opening the coffin, they found that the skull of Nikolai Vasilyevich was turned to one side. There was a version that he came to his senses in the grave, but died from lack of air. Soon she was criticized. The situation was explained by the fact that the rotten boards of the coffin sank on her head, under their weight she changed position.

3. Tolstoy lost at cards the main building of Yasnaya Polyana

This fact is not so simple. Tolstoy really loved to play cards and often had debts. But would he have dared to lose the family estate in which he was born?

In fact, the main building of Yasnaya Polyana was sold to a neighboring landowner. Lev Nikolayevich wanted to spend the money for good purposes, namely, the publication of a magazine for the military. The government did not support this idea, the authorities banned the publication of the magazine.

Lev Nikolaevich did not know how to manage finances and simply distributed all card debts. That is we can say that he lost Yasnaya Polyana in cards.

2. Capek coined the term “robot”

Karel Capek – author of the play “Rossum’s Universal Robots”. He wanted to write aboutartificial people, but didn’t know what to call them. There is an opinion that he coined the word “robot”. With the light hand of Karel, it entered into speech, and it is still used.

Later, Čapek admitted that his brother Josef suggested this name to him. Karel for a long time could not decide what to call “artificial workers“. The only idea that came to his mind “work”, but this word seemed to him too pedantic. Resourceful Josef advised him to name such people “robots”, which in Czech means “forced labor».

1. Dumas “introduced” the French to barbecue

Alexandre Dumas was not only a talented writer, but also a good cook. He regarded writing books as a source of income, but cooking was for him an outlet, a hobby.

Dumas also loved to travel. He lived in Russia for more than a year, visited Georgia. The barbecue made a big impression on him. In Georgia, lamb was used for its preparation, fried on ramrods from a rifle. As soon as Dumas returned to his homeland, to Paris, he first opened his barbecue and introduced the French to this delicious dish..