Mysterical-E

Reading for Smarties

THE WRITING LIFE
FOR READERS

“To read a writer is for me not merely to get an idea of what he says, but to go off with him and travel in his company.” - Andre Gide

With the above quote in mind, some readers have a lot of curiosity about their favorite writers. They like to know what they look like, where they live, how they dress, what they eat, all about their families, where they get their ideas, their typical work day, and on and on. Almost the same as movie-star fans. With perhaps a little less hysteria.

I own Behind the Mystery, listed below, and I wondered how many other books out their include multiple writers in each volume instead of individual biographies. For your favorite author biographies, simply search their names on-line in quotes with the word biography afterwards. I hesitate to recommend Wikipedia for this, but it will probably at least cite other references and tell you about any biographies available. You can also, of course, search in your library or favorite bookstores, both on-line and brick-and-mortar, for more information.

Here’s are the books I came up with that include several authors. I found it interesting to see what subject matter the writer used to bring these authors all into one volume. I know there must be many more, but I hope this sampling with give you enough to read for a long time.

Big Bookshelf Sunil Sethi in Conversation with 30 Famous Authors by Sunil Sethi. “Famous writers are often reticent about how and why they write, how their ideas and themes develop or how their characters and plots emerge. They can be equally reserved about their personal histories. But in the hands of seasoned journalist and skillful interviewer Sunil Sethi, presenter of Just Books, NDTVs long-running weekend literary show, they open up in unexpected and fascinating ways.”

Famous Authors (men) 1906 by E. F. (Edward Francis) Harkins. “William Dean Howells, Bret Harte, Mark Twain, "Lew" Wallace, George W. Cable, Henry James, Francis Richard Stockton, Joel Chandler Harris, S. Weir Mitchell, Robert Grant, F. Marion Crawford, James Lane Allen, Thomas Nelson Page, Richard Harding Davis, John Kendrick Bangs, Hamlin Garland, Paul Leicester Ford, Robert Neilson Stephens, Charles D. G. Roberts, Winston Churchill.”

Shakespeare's Tremor and Orwell's Cough: The Medical Lives of Famous Writers by John J. Ross. “The Bard meets House, M.D. in this fascinating untold story of the impact of disease on the lives and works of some the finest writers in the English language.”

Final Drafts: Suicides of World-Famous Authors by Mark Seinfelt. “Hart Crane, Ernest Hemingway, Jerzy Kosinski, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Virginia Woolf, Michael Dorris, Eugene Izzi, John Berryman, Ambrose Bierce, Harry Crosby, John Davidson, William Inge, Randall Jarrell, Arthur Koestler, T.E. Lawrence, Primo Levi, Jack London, Jay Anthony Lukas, Tom McHale, Yukio Mishima, Henry de Montherlant, Seth Morgan, George Sterling, Sara Teasdale, Ernst Toller, John Kennedy Toole, Sergey Yesenin, and many others” are included in this book.

How I Got Published: Famous Authors Tell You in Their Own Words by Ray White. “. . . features stories of success from major writers, and technical instruction on following the rules of writing and getting published.”

Literary Landmarks of New York: The Book Lover's Guide to the Homes and Haunts of World Famous Writers by Bill Morgan. “City and Company guide showcases the New York City homes and haunts of world-famous writers from Poe to Mailer, Millay to Kerouac, Wright to Millerin a richly anecdotal literary Baedeker illustrated with archival photos from the Museum of the City of New York.”

Ink Trails: Michigan's Famous and Forgotten Authors by David Dempsey and Jack Dempsey. “In this entertaining and well-researched book—the first of its kind—the secrets, legends, and myths surrounding some of Michigan’s literary luminaries are explored.”

Famous Authors Tell You About Their Beautiful, Loving, and Nutty Dogs by Jane Rockwell. “E.B. White, James Herriot, Ogden Nash, Jean Kerr, Albert Payson Terhune, Lord Byron, Eugene Field, James Thurber, Jack London, John Galsworthy.”

The Future of the Novel: Famous Authors On Their Methods by Meredith Starr. “Anthony M. Ludovici, Upton Sinclair, Alec Waugh, Max Pemberton, Gertrude Atherton, W. E. Norris, M. De Vere Stacpoole, and Hugh Walpole” and more.

Literary Shrines The Haunts of Some Famous American Authors by Theodore F. (Frelinghuysen) Wolfe. Be advised that I downloaded this into my Kindle because it was free, but unfortunately, the illustrations of the houses are not there! I guess you need to buy the print version for the images.

Between the Sheets: Nine 20th Century Women Writers and Their Famous Literary Partnerships by Leslie McDowell. “. . . fascinating look at the love lives of women writers, revealing how writers like Anais Nin, Simone de Beauvoir and Sylvia Plath were affected by their romantic liaisons.”

Father: Famous Writers Celebrate the Bond Between Father and Child by Claudia O'Keefe. “. . . a powerhouse collection of fiction, essays, and memoirs about fatherhood, written by such prize-winning writers as Annie Proulx and John Updike.” Included: Annie Proulx * John Updike * Calvin Trillin * Caroline Leavitt * Dean Koontz * Zhu Xiao Di * Jonathan Kellerman * Ana Veciana-Suarez * Frederick Dillen * Sandra Benítez * Sylvia Watanabe * Mickey Pearlman * Mary Morris * Jane Bernstein * David Forsmark * Martha Coventry * Jesse Kellerman * Claudia O'Keefe * Rochelle Jewell Shapiro * Jane Praeger * Dawn Raffel

Writers in Paris: Literary Lives in the City of Light by David Burke. “From natives such as Molière, Genet, and Anaïs Nin to expats like Henry Miller, Samuel Beckett, and Gertrude Stein, author David Burke follows hundreds of writers through Paris’ labyrinthine streets, inviting readers on his grand tour.” Burke “. . . explores the alleyways and haunts frequented by the world’s most storied writers. Burke focuses not only on their writing, but on their passions, ecstasies, obsessions, and betrayals. Equally appealing to Francophiles and serious readers, this engaging book includes maps and more than 100 evocative photographs.” I’m not sure how he gets all that into 256 pages, but I am tempted to buy the book to see.

Writing Women's Lives: An Anthology of Autobiographical Narratives by Twentieth-Century American Women Writers by Susan Cahill. Includes 50 different women writers’ “autobiographical narratives.”

A series called “Seeing Europe with Famous Authors” by Francis W. Halsey might interest you. Different authors in different European countries. These were originally published in the early 1900s.

Behind the Mystery by Stuart Kaminsky with photos by Laurie Roberts is a series of interviews with writers such as Sue Grafton, Elmore Leonard, Donald Westlake, Jonathan and Faye Kellerman, Martin Cruz Smith, Robert B. Parker, Lisa Scottoline, James Lee Burke, Tony Hillerman, Ann Rule, Mickey Spillane, Michael Connelly, Evan Hunter, Sara Paretsky, Joseph Wambaugh, Lawrence Block, John Jakes and more. Some interesting tidbits about the authors, some interesting pictures of them, their homes and their pets.

Not to be taken too seriously:

Secret Lives of Great Authors by Robert Schnakenberg. “With outrageous and uncensored profiles of everyone from William Shakespeare to Thomas Pynchon, Secret Lives of Great Authors tackles all the tough questions your high school teachers were afraid to ask . . .” Some reviewers took Mr. Schnakenberg to task for inaccuracies. I’m pretty sure this is a spoof.

THE LAUGH MAKERS: A Behind-the-Scenes Tribute to Bob Hope's Incredible Gag Writers by Robert L. Mills. Not sure how much you’ll learn about the other writers for Hope’s show, but this looks interesting.

Hemingway & Bailey’s Bartending Guide to Great American Writers by Mark Bailey (Author), Edward Hemingway (Illustrator and Ernest’s grandson). “In this entertaining homage to the golden age of the cocktail, illustrator Edward Hemingway and writer Mark Bailey present the best (and thirstiest) American writers, their favorite cocktails, true stories of their saucy escapades, and intoxicating excerpts from their literary works. It’s the perfect blend of classic cocktail recipes, literary history, and tales of the good old days of extravagant Martini lunches and delicious excess. . . . Forty-three classic American writers, forty-three authentic cocktail recipes, forty-three telling anecdotes about the high life, and forty-three samples of the best writing in literature.”

And to finish up, this one:

Page Fright: Foibles and Fetishes of Famous Writers by Harry Bruce. “A witty round-up of writers' habits that includes all the big names, such as Dickens, Flaubert, Tolstoy, Hemingway.”

“You're the same today as you'll be in five years except for the people you meet and the books you read.” - Charlie "Tremendous" Jones

Reading one of the above: Behind the Mystery by Stuart Kaminsky with photos by Laurie Roberts. Fascinating.