This book was written by Dana Schwartz, I know her from being the voice on one of my favorite podcasts, Noble Blood. Others might know her as @GuyinYourMFA from twitter, where Dana pretends to be that dude that so many advanced English classes have - the chain smoking, coffee guzzling, self righteous, arrogant, pain in the ass who thinks he knows better than everyone including the teacher.
The book was written in the style of the Guy in Your MFA, which got a little old at times, but there was some legit good information in there!
- Maybe you have heard that when John Milton went blind he had his daughters read to him in Greek and Latin. That's true. What people don't know is that they didn't understand Greek or Latin. He just taught them how to read it. Which means they spent hours reading things outloud they didn't understand. Because Milton thought it was kinda a waste of time to educate them.
- Charles Dicken's family members gave him the nickname "Boz"
- On his wedding night Tolstoy gave his brand new wife a written accounting of every sexual encounter he'd had. Including impregnating a family serf with a child he never saw or supported
- A TON of Faulkner's titles came from Shakespeare (To Die, To Sleep - Hamlet, The Wild and Wasteful & Crispin Crispian - Henry V, Kill the Envious Moon - Romeo and Juliet
- Nabokov's rich Russian emigre father was killed by an English monarchist, kind of on accident
- JD Salinger met and became friends with Hemingway during WWII. JD also fought in D-Day AND the Battle of the Bulge.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you so much for your comment. I'd love to talk books with you!