The Mammoth Book of Literary Anecdotes
The Mammoth Book of Literary Anecdotes is an illuminating study of the out-of-hours literary activities of giants such as Agatha Christie, Thomas Hardy, Raymond Chandler, Ernest Hemingway, Anthony Trollope and William Shakespeare, and it includes a huge variety of material – dramatic, poignant, romantic, erotic and frequently amusing.
Among over 300 entries ranging from the 16th century to the present day: the true story behind Agatha Christie’s 11-day disappearance as uncovered by Jared Cade; and a real-life mystery solved by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; the first meeting of James Boswell and Dr Johnson; the very different meeting of Anais Nin and Tropic of Cancer author Henry miller; an account of how Elizabethan playwright Ben Jonson escaped the gallows after killing a man in a duel; and how Mark Twain tricked his way out of fighting one at all.
In this simply unmissable anthology, Philip Gooden relates hundreds of anecdotes and quotes that tell us a few of the things writers have found more attractive than slaving away over their typewriters or quill pens. As Anthony Burgess said, “Given the choice between two discoveries – that of an unknown play by Shakespeare and that of one of Will’s laundry lists – we would all plump for the dirty washing every time.”
Other books by Jared Cade
The Elusive Dietrich
Blue Mountains Tragedy
Where Silence Prays
Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days
Murder on London Underground
Murder in Pelham Wood
Nightmare in St. Martin’s Lane
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