Getting into Dickens When was the last time you read Charles Dickens? Until a few months ago, I hadn’t read any of his work since we were forced to read Great Expectations in the seventh grade. Unlike most of my classmates, I mostly liked Great Expectations—but apparently not enough to give Dickens another go any time in the last decade. For no real reason, Dickens has always been one of those Authors I Should Read and never one I did. It’s also telling that the only factoid about Dickens that has ever really stuck in my mind is that he […]
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In the course of researching for Books on the Wall poster designs and various blog posts and infographics, we come across some pretty neat stuff. When we find some interesting facts about literature, we make a scribble in the Books on the Wall notepad, bookmark the link…and move on. Looking back on that notepad recently, though, we realized that we’ve collected quite a few random but really interesting facts about some of our favorite writers—including their lives, backgrounds, habits, and interests. To share the literary love, we compiled 10 of those facts into this brief infographic. Scroll down below the infographic […]
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Throughout our research for new poster designs and blog posts, we’ve occasionally stumbled across an author and thought, “Huh, didn’t realize she was from there!” One of our latest discoveries, for example, was JRR Tolkein. Did you know that Tolkein is from South Africa? We had no idea! We figured we can’t be the only ones who are unaware of certain authors’ backgrounds—so we thought we’d share some of our favorite Irish authors, some of whom we didn’t even know were Irish. For those who prefer text, the same information is presented below. 9 Authors You Didn’t Know Were Irish Oscar […]
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Authors Behind Bars What do Fyodor Dostoevsky, Miguel de Cervantes, Oscar Wilde, and Jack London have in common? Besides being among most famous authors in Western literature, each of these writers also served time in prison. Dostoevsky was imprisoned for participating in outlawed political activity, de Cervantes for questionable tax practices, Wilde for “gross indecency” (a legal term interpreted as condemnation of his homosexuality), London for “vagrancy,” and Thoreau for refusal to pay a poll tax. In one way or another, it is clear that many imprisoned authors were able to gain inspiration in spite of, or perhaps because of, their […]
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Have you ever read a book by a famous author (or a not-yet-famous one) and been able to instantly identify another author’s influence? All artists, including writers, are influenced by their peers and forebears, knowingly or not. We love the literary “circle of life” that results; in creating his or her own work, every author expresses something that connects with and inspires someone one else to create something new. Literary influences among 29 famous authors To explore this idea of literary influence, we chose a random assortment of 29 of our favorite famous authors and did some research into how they are […]
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We’ve all seen the supermarket flowers, the balloons, the heart-shaped chocolate boxes and giant overfluffed plush animals. Yep, it’s almost Valentine’s Day! We thought we’d celebrate the upcoming holiday with a fitting title from one of America’s most renowned short story writers, Raymond Carver’s “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love.” “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” Though the title makes this story sound like an obvious choice for Valentine’s Day, the reality of the text is a little more complex. The prose is clean and direct (like most of Carver’s work) and its setting and characters […]
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Chilean-American author and journalist Isabel Allende has written many popular novels, including The House of the Spirits, City of the Beasts and Eva Luna. Born in Peru, Allende’s father was the cousin of Salvador Allende, the Chilean president from 1970 to 1973. After a coup overthrew Allende and installed Augusto Pinochet as head of the military junta, Isabel Allende fled for her life to Venezuela, where she lived for 13 years. In Venezuela, Allende worked as a journalist for a prominent national newspaper. Allende’s most well-regarded novel is probably The House of the Spirits, which has been compared with Gabriel Garcia […]
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Today, celebrated American author Ernest Gaines turns 83. To celebrate, let’s take a look at Gaines’ life, his writing, and his many achievements and awards. Life of Ernest Gaines The oldest of 12 children, Ernest James Gaines was born on January 15, 1933, on a sugar plantation in rural Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. Gaines was raised primarily by his great-aunt Augusteen Jefferson on the same land where his ancestors were once held as slaves. From the age of 9, Gaines worked in the fields with his family, only attending school for half the year in a one-room schoolhouse at the local […]
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In the spirit of Christmas, today we’re delving into Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, one of the most beloved holiday stories of all time. For those who aren’t familiar with the prolific British author, we’ll also give a brief biography of Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Facts Title: A Christmas Carol Author: Charles Dickens Publication date and place: December 1843, London (Chapman & Hall) Word count: 28,944 Genre: Victorian literary fiction, morality tale Plot Summary One of Dickens’ shorter works, A Christmas Carol is divided into five chapters, or “staves” (meaning a song stanza). The novella follows Ebenezer […]
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One of our most beloved authors, Joseph Heller, passed away on this day 16 years ago. Heller was a brilliant satirist, a keen observer of human and societal absurdity, and a spinner of inimitable phrases and puns. Joseph Heller’s life Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1923. He graduated high school in 1941 and then joined the U.S. Army Air Corps shortly after the United States entered World War II. He trained as a B-25 bombadier, flying 60 missions out of Corsicana. After the war, Heller attended NYU for his undergraduate degree and Columbia University for his master’s degree […]
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