Read all the Random facts or look to find your favorite authors.
Douglas Adams spoke out about being atheist. He died of a heart attack at the age of 49.
James Agee wrote the script for the movie, "The African Queen." He died of a heart attack on May 16, 1955 while in a taxi cab. He was 45.
Susan Witting Albert wrote some of the Nancy Drew books under the name Carolyn Keene.
Louisa May Alcott was a feminist. She lost a younger sister. She never married or had children. She died in 1888 at the age of 55, two days after her father.
Sherman Alexie was born a hydrocephalic. At six months old he had brain surgery. At first the outlook was grim but he would recover, although suffer from seizures throughout his life.
Isabel Allende's daughter Paula died at the age of 29 from the disease porphyria. She wrote a memoir called, "Paula".
Hans Christian Andersen had dyslexia. Rumor has it he once stayed with Charles Dickens for five weeks. Dickens thought he was such a bore he was never invited to stay again. Although he wrote tales for children Andersen never married or children.
Sherwood Anderson died in 1941 from a puncture in his intestines after accidentally swallowing a toothpick in his martini.
V.C. Andrew's name was Virginia Cleo Andrews. Due to a tragic accident on a flight of stairs as a teenager she spent most of her life in a wheelchair. She never married or had children.
Isaac Asimov contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion received during a heart bypass operation in 1983. He died in 1992.
Amelia Atwater-Rhodes was 15 when her first book was published.
Jane Austen was out of eight children. All her books were published anonymously because she was a woman. She never married or had children. She died at age 41 from supposedly Addison's disease.
AVI's real name is Edward Irving Wortis.
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James Baldwin was close friends with singer, Nina Simone and Martin Luther King Jr.
Clive Barker directed the film, "Hellraiser."
J.M. Barrie was out of ten children. His 13 year old brother died in an ice skating accident. His fellow writer friends were Robert Louis Stevenson, George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells and Thomas Hardy. Barrie founded a cricket team with his friends Arthur Conan Doyle, Wells, and Jerome K. Jerome. He would tell stories to Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret. Barrie became very close friends with a widow who had five sons. Her kids referred to him as "Uncle James." These children were who he based Michael, John, Peter and the lost Boys on from "Peter Pan". Two of the boys died at a young age. George in combat during WWI and Michael in a swimming accident. The dog character Nana was based on Barrie's Saint Bernard, Porthos. He would share guardianship of the boys after their mother died from cancer at the age of 43. He never had children of his own.
L. Frank Baum wrote 13 sequels to the "Wizard of Oz."
In 1938 Samuel Beckett was stabbed in the chest by a pimp and almost died. James Joyce came to visit him in the hospital. That year he met the love of his life, Suzanne. They would die 50 years later; six months apart from each other.
Saul Bellow's mother died when he was 17. He was married five times, once to Mathematician Alexandra Tulcea. He was 84 years old when he had his last child (his fourth and only girl) with his fifth wife.
Stan and Jan Berenstain were married 59 years before Stan died in 2005. Jan died in 2012.
William Peter Blatty was married four times and had seven children from three wives.
The Bronte sisters were out of six siblings. Only the father lived to an older age. The mother and children all died before 40. Some suspect that the drinking water by their house was contaminated. Anne Bronte died at 29, Emily at 30, both from tuberculosis. Charlotte Bronte became ill from dehydration and exhaustion from morning sickness. She and her unborn child died when she was 38.
Anita Brookner was the first woman to hold the honor of Slade Professorship of Fine Arts at Cambridge University. She won the Booker Prize. She was an only child. She never married or had children. She died at 87 in England.
Margaret Wise Brown died from a blood clot after surgery to remove her appendex in 1952 at 42 years old. At the time she was engaged to a "Rockefeller". Having no children of her own Brown left royalties to all her books including "Goodnight Moon" and "The Runaway Bunny" to a young boy who was the son of a neighbor. $$
Rita Mae Brown is the former girlfriend of tennis player Martina Navratilova.
Jean de Brunhoff, the author of "Babar the Elephant" died at age 37 in 1937 from tuberculous.
Pearl S. Buck was one of seven siblings of which only three lived to adulthood. She born in West Virginia but a large portion of her life was lived in China through missionary work. She was fluent in Chinese. Her first daughter, Carol, born in 1920, was disabled and lived in an instituion. She adopted a second daughter in 1925. She won the 1932 Pulitzer Prize for her novel "The Good Earth." In 1934 Buck left China for the last time thinking she would always go back, however in 1949 the Communist Revolution began in China and after writing books against it Buck was banned from China. Her brother Edgar, died at age 54 in 1936 from a stroke. In 1938 Buck was the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1949 Buck co-founded Welcome House, Inc. an adoption agency for children from Asian countries. In 1960 Buck's second husband died. Buck died of lung cancer on March 6, 1973 at age 80.
Charles Bukowski was born in Germany as Heinrich Karl Bukowski. Before gaining fame as a writer he worked for the U.S. Postal Service. He was known for his womanizing, alcoholism, gambling addiction, big nose and bad skin. His girlfriend Jane Cooney Baker was a heavy drinker like him. She drank herself to death in 1962. She was around 52. Bukowski was traumatized by her death. She later became one of his biggest muses for his writing. He was very fond of cats. He wanted to live till he was 80 in the year 2000 but died from leukemia on March 9, 1994. He left behind a daughter Marina, from a previous relationship and a wife, Linda. On his tombstone are the words "don't try".
Anthony Burgess lost both his mother and sister in the 1918 flu pandemic.
Poet Robert Burns had one child with his mother's servant and then nine children with his wife. Only four of his ten children survived into adulthood.
William S. Burroughs shared an apartment with Jack Kerouac in 1944, where they both frequently used heroin. Burroughs would be addicted to the drug for over 50 years. He was bi-sexual. In 1951, Burroughs accidentally shot and killed his wife while playing a drinking game while drunk. Since this happened in Mexico he fled to America where the charges were dropped. Their son then went to live with grandparents. William Jr. would die before his father from liver failure at the age of 33. Burroughs was friends with musician Kurt Cobain.
Lord Byron's full name was George Gordon Byron. He was born with a clubbed foot which made him mentally and physically miserable. His step-mother referred to him as the "Lame Brat". He died from poor health and fever on April 19, 1824. He was 36 years old.
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Albert Camus died in a car accident. He was 46.
Truman Capote was born Truman Streckfus Persons, but after his mother got remarried they changed his name to Truman Garcia Capote. He was best friends with Harper Lee and was the inspiration for the character Dill in her novel, "To Kill A Mockingbird." He was only 5'3" and was openly gay in an unaccepting time. He claimed he had slept with actor, Errol Flynn. He also had a never ending rivalry with writer Gore Vidal. He was known to be a not so friendly guy.
Orson Scott Card lost a daughter at birth and a son at 17 who had cerebral palsy.
Eric Carle lived to be 91 years old, dying on May 23, 2021.
Caleb Carr's father was beat writer Lucien Carr. Lucien killed a man named David Kammerer in 1944. Fellow writers William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac helped him dispose of any evidence. Carr later confessed. He was charged with manslaughter and served two years.
Lewis Carroll invented the word "jabberwocky" which according to Webster's means gibberish.
Willa Cather first name was actually Wilella. She was the oldest of seven children. She was the second woman to receive the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for "One of Ours". For 39 years she had a domestic partner named Edith Lewis, whom she left everything to in her will.
After Michael Chabon's first novel "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," was published he was listed in Newsweek as one of the country's new gay writers. It came as quite a shock to him and his then wife. He later married writer Ayelet Waldman, in 1993.
Raymond Chandler survived the 1918 influenza pandemic. He suffered from depression and alcoholism his whole adult life.
Anton Chekhov died from tuberculosis on July 15, 1904. He was 44 years old.
Agatha Christie was made a Dame in 1971. Her first marriage was quite an unhappy one. When her husband asked for a divorce to be with another woman Christie disappeared for over a week causing a huge search party and making the papers.
Mary Higgins Clark life was riddled with sadness and death. She was born on Christmas Eve in 1927. When she was 12 her father died leaving the family very poor. Clark lost her brother, Joseph, in 1944 to spinal meningitis. She married in 1949 and had five children. In 1964 her husband died from a heart attack. Upon hearing this his mother dropped dead. In one moment Clark lost her husband and mother-in-law. Before she could reach fame, her mother Nora, died in 1969. In the early 1970s her other brother John, died. Leaving her with no immediate family. Her career finally took off with the 1975 publication of her first suspense novel "Where Are the Children?" In 1996, she married again and he passed in 2018. She lived to be 92, dying in January 2020. Her daughter Patricia, died 11 months later.
Sir Arthur C. Clarke was knighted in 1998.
As a child Beverly Cleary survived smallpox. She was married to her husband for 64 years until his death in 2004. She lived to be 104 years old dying on March 25, 2021.
J.M. Coetzee lost his 23 year old son when he fell off a balcony.
Wilkie Collins' younger brother married Charles Dickens' daughter. Collins suffered from arthritis and became heavily addicted to opium to ease the pain. He was using so much he hardly remembered writing much of "The Moonstone." He never married.
Laurie Colwin died unexpectedly from a heart attack on October 24, 1992. She was only 48 years old.
Joseph Conrad was born Jozef Korzeniowski. He tired to kill himself at the age of 21 by shooting himself in the chest but he lived. Later in life he refused the offer of a British knighthood.
Pat Conroy's wife is writer Cassandra King.
William Cooper the author of "Behold a Pale Horse," was a double amputee above the knee. He spoke out against the government after serving in Vietnam. He was speaking out about September 11th around the time of his death. Cops came to his house where there was a shoot out. Cooper was shot and killed. He was 58 years old.
Patricia Cornwell was in the foster care system growing up. She has suffered from anorexia and depression. She is bi-sexual. After a hard night of drinking with Demi Moore, Cornwell crashed her car and was sent to a treatment center.
Stephen Crane died of tuberculosis. He was 28.
Michael Crichton was married five times. He died from cancer on November 4, 2008. He was 66.
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Roald Dahl was 6'6". He married Academy Award winning actress Patricia Neal. He had 5 children with her. One child suffered brain damage when a taxicab hit his stroller and another child died at age 7 from measles. He is the grandfather of model Sophie Dahl who is the main character in his book "The BFG."
Paula Danziger died from a heart attack at the age of 59. She never married or had children.
Amanda Davis died in a plane crash with her mother and father on their way to a book signing. She was 32. She was friends with writers Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snickett), Dave Eggers, Michael Chabon and his wife, Ayelet Waldman. Chabon wrote an afterward for her final book, "Wonder When You'll Miss Me."
Barbara Delinsky was born Ruth Greenberg.
Children's author of the "Llama, Llama" series Anna Dewdney died on September 3, 2016 at age 50 from brain cancer.
Philip K. Dick married five times. Died of heart failure on March 2, 1982. He was only 53 years old.
Charles Dicken's father spent time in a debtor's prison. He had a pet raven named Grip which he had stuffed after he died and now sits in a museum in Philadelphia. He had 10 children. An infant daughter died at eight months. His son Walter died at age 22 from an aortic aneurysm. His son Francis died of a heart attack at age 42. His son Sydney died at 25. Dicken's survived a railroad train crash in 1865. Not one of Charles Dickens' writings have ever gone out of print. He died from a stroke at age 58.
Despite always writing about love Emily Dickinson never married and died of kidney disease at the age of 55.
Joan Didion lost her husband, writer John Gregory Dunne from a heart attack in 2003 and then her only child, a daughter from pancreatitis in 2005. These tragic losses influenced her to write the book, "The Year of Magical Thinking," which went on to win the National Book Award.
Isak Dinesen's real name was Karen Blixen. Her husband cheated on her within a year of their marriage and gave her a life threatening case of syphilis which eventually lead to problems causing her death.
E.L. stands for Edgar Lawrence Doctorow.
Ivan Doig's mother died on his sixth birthday.
John Dos Passos' first wife Katharine died at age 55 in an automobile accident.
Fydor Dostoevsky had epilepsy. He was exiled to Siberia for 4 years. He also was a compulsive gambler.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle actually killed off Sherlock Holmes early on by throwing him off a waterfall, but due to public out cry by fans he had to bring the character back. He was knighted in 1902. His son Arthur Jr. died from the Spanish influenza in 1918. He was friends for a short time with Harry Houdini.
Roddy Doyle is an atheist.
Margaret Drabble's older sister is writer A.S. Byatt.
Andre Dubus Sr. was hit by a car in 1986 and lost the use of both his legs. He would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He suffered from depression and relied on the help of his friends Kurt Vonnegut and John Updike. The movie "In the Bedroom," was based on his story. He is the father of author Andre Dubus III, who wrote "The House of Sand & Fog," which was also made into a movie.
Andre Dubus III is James Lee Burke's cousin.
French born Alexandre DuMas was banned from Russia for a number of years because of his writings. And Surprise...he was black...one of the earliest and most well-known black writers. In 2002 after more than 130 years after his death DuMas was lifted from his grave in a small French Cemetery and given a proper funeral and burial in a more prestigious plot.
Daphne du Maurier had many of her novels made into movies including "Rebecca," "The Birds," and "Don't Look Now."
In 1989 Lois Duncan's 18 year old daughter was shot and killed in her car. The case has never been solved.
True crime writer and investigator Dominick Dunne was the older brother of writer John Gregory Dunne, who was Joan Didion's husband. Dominick was the father of actor and director Griffin Dunne. His daughter Dominique Dunne (who starred in "Poltergeist,") was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. She was 22.
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Dave Egger lost both his parents to cancer within a month of each other. He would later write a memoir about it. In 2000 his sister claimed he used her journals to help write, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius." She spoke out saying she deserved some compensation. Egger refused. She would then kill herself in 2002.
George Eliot was actually a woman whose real name was Mary Ann Evans. Manuscripts were taken more seriously and were more likely to get published if written by a man.
T.S. Eliot's wife Vivien died in a mental hospital in 1947. In the 10 years she was there he never went to visit her once. He then would marry a woman almost 40 years younger than him.
Bret Easton Ellis' boyfriend died tragically at the age of 30 of a heart attack. This sent him into a deep depression for almost two years. He later emerged with the novel, "Lunar Park," which is dedicated to him.
Ralph Ellison was named after poet Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was close friends with author Richard Wright.
When he was ten years old James Ellroy's mother was murdered. He then became homeless and drank heavily. After doing time in jail he straightened out.
Ralph Waldo Emerson married his young 18 year old wife Ellen, in 1829. Two years later she was dead from tuberculosis. Rumor has it he was very broken up after her death and visited her grave everyday, even sometimes opening the coffin to see if she was really was in fact dead. He would later become an atheist. Emerson was friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau. He was often booed at for making speeches against slavery.
Nora Ephron was nominated for three Academy Awards for her screenplays for "Silkwood", "When Harry Met Sally," and "Sleepless in Seattle." Writer Amy Ephron is her younger sister. She was once married to writer Carl Bernstein, which led her to knowing who "Deep Throat" was 30 years before he was publicly revealed. She was an intern in the White House for J.F.K.
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On April 30, 1966, two days after "Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me" was published, its author Richard Farina was killed in a motorcycle accident. It was his only novel. At the time he was married to Joan Baez's sister, Mimi. He was 29 years old.
Howard Fast was imprisoned for three months in 1950 for not disclosing the names of people the government thought were Communists. He also was Erica Jong's father-in-law. His book "Spartacus," was made into the famous 1960s film.
Edna Ferber never married or had children. She left all of her estate to female relatives, mostly her niece Janet Fox. Many of her books were made into movies. She won the 1925 Pulitzer Prize in fiction for "So Big". As Joseph Pulitzer was Jewish himself, Ferber became the first Jewish writer to win the award in fiction. She died of stomach cancer at 82.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti's father died from a heart attack before he was born. Shortly after his mother was committed to a mental hospital. After that he went to live with a French aunt and eventually lived with his rich foster parents in Bronxville, NY. He was a renowned poet and publisher. He died in 2021 at the age of 101.
Joy Fielding's real name is Joy Tepperman.
Louise Fitzhugh was bi-sexual. She wrote a book about two teenage girls falling in love but after her death the story was lost and never published. She died at the age of 46 from a brain aneurysm.
The "F" in F. Scott Fitzgerald stands for Francis. He was named after Francis Scott Key (who wrote the National Anthem). He had two sisters that died before his birth. He was friends with Hemingway, who disliked his wife. He called her "insane". His wife Zelda was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1930. She would later die in 1948 (eight years after him) in a fire that broke out in the asylum she was committed to. He died from a heart attack at age 44. He had a grandson Tim, that committed suicide at 27.
Fannie Flagg makes a cameo appearance in the movie of her book, "Fried Green Tomatoes." Flagg's real name is Patricia Neal, but she changed it due to the name already being used by the famous actress. She has dyslexia. She is a lesbian, who was at one time the partner of author Rita Mae Brown.
Gustave Flaubert had epilepsy. He never married.
Ford Madox Ford's real name was Joseph Hueffer.
E.M. stands for Edward Morgan Forster.
Paula Fox gave up a daughter from a teen pregnancy. Later Fox found out her daughter is singer Courtney Love's mother.
Dick Francis was a jockey.
Jonathan Franzen's book "The Corrections" was selected for Oprah's book club, but was later pulled after Franzen said he didn't want her logo on his cover.
Don Freeman who's famous for "Corduroy" got his start by doing the illustrations for Saroyan's "Human Comedy."
Nicci French is actually a pseudonym for journalists Nicci Gerrard and Sean French.
Kinky Friedman's real name is Richard.
Robert Frost's father died in 1885 when he was 11. Depression ran throughout his family. In 1920 he had his sister committed to a mental hospital. Frost married in 1895 and had six children. His first son died from cholera as a child, another son committed suicide at the age of 38, a daughter died after childbirth, an infant died after birth, and a daughter was committed to a mental hospital in 1947. Frost's wife died from heart failure in 1938. He died in 1963.
Alexandra Fuller's 21 year old son, Charles died from a seizure in his sleep on July 8, 2018.
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Wanda Gág won the Newberry Award for her picture book "Millions of Cats". It was one of the few picture books to do so. "Million of Cats" was published 1928. It is the oldest American picture book still in print. Gag was a chain smoker and died of lung cancer at the age of 53 in 1946.
Neil Gaiman was best friends with writer Terry Pratchett. He also is close friends with singer Tori Amos who mentioned him in the songs "Space Dog" and "Carbon". He believes in having an "open marriage".
Jack Gantos was once in jail for a year and a half after he was caught by the F.B.I trying to smuggle hash into New York City.
John Gardner's younger brother was killed in a farming equipment accident. Gardner was driving the machine at the time of fatal accident. He carried guilt for his brother's death for the rest his life. John himself would die in a motorcycle accident at the age of 49. He is buried next to his brother.
Dr. Seuss' real name is Theodor Geisel. Seuss was his mother's maiden name. He presented his first book, "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street" to over 40 publishing houses before it was published. Seuss' first wife Helen Palmer Geisel, committed suicide. He never had any children.
Kaye Gibbons suffers from bipolar disorder. She writes her books during her "manic" phases. Having not written a book since 2005 due to her drug addiction. On November 2, 2008, Gibbons was arrested on prescription drug fraud charges. She was caught trying to fill a fraudulent prescription to the pain killer hydrocodone. Still waiting on her next book... I miss her genius.
Khalil Gibran died from tuberculous at the age of 48. He had lost a brother and sister to the same illness.
Elizabeth Gilbert's sister is novelist Catherine Gilbert Murdock. Gilbert grew up on a Christmas tree farm.
After falling into a depression Nikolai Gogol burnt his last unfinished book, then starved himself to
death. He was 42 years old.
Donald Goines became addicted to heroin while serving in the Korean War. To support his habit when he came home he committed multiple crimes. While serving a jail sentence he began to write novels. When he was released he wrote books at an alarming rate in order to pay for drugs. He wrote some books in less than a month. In 1974, at the age of 37 Goines, along with his wife were found shot to death in their house. The murders remain unsolved.
Kenneth Grahame's son threw himself in front of a train two days before his 20th birthday.
Lucy Grealy had jaw cancer as a child and was left with a disfigured face. Her brother suffers from schizophrenia. She was close friends with Ann Patchett who wrote a memoir about her called "Truth and Beauty". She overdosed on painkillers in 2002. She was 39.
Graham Greene suffered from bipolar disorder.
John Gunther's daughter, Judy, died as an infant in 1929. His son, Johnny, died from a glioblastoma, brain tumor on June 30, 1947. He was 17 years old. He wrote the book "Death Be Not Proud" in his memory. Gunther died from liver cancer in 1970. His second wife, Jane P. Gunther died May 22, 2020 at the age of 103.
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Mark Haddon is a vegetarian and an atheist.
David Halberstam was killed in a car crash in April 2007.
Pete Hamill suffered with alcoholism for many years before beating the disease.
Lorraine Hansberry died from cancer at the age of 34.
Stephen Hawking had a Ph.D. from Cambridge. He was in college when he found out he had ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease.) When diagnosed he was told he would have two years to live. He had three children and had been married twice. He was completely paralyzed but could speak through a computer that reacts to his eyes. It was also used to open doors in his house. He received a new and updated computer every two years which was donated by Intel. He was British and he laughed at the fact that the computer had an American accent. He died from ALS on March 14, 2018 at 76.
Nathaniel Hawthorne's last name was spelled Hathorne but rumor has it he added the "w" after he found out an ancestor was one of the judges on the Salem Witch Trial. Hawthorne was close friends with our 14th president Franklin Pierce and writers Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Hawthorne had 3 children, one daughter had mental issues, his son did time in jail for embezzlement, and his other daughter became a nun. He died of cancer at 59.
Robert Heinlein invented the words "grok" and "waldo" which are in Webster's dictionary. He thought of the idea of the waterbed.
In 1981 Joseph Heller was stricken with a rare disease that left him temporarily paralyzed. It took him three years to make a full recovery. Then in 1984, he divorced his wife of 35 years to marry the nurse who helped him recover.
Ernest Hemingway was close friends with Sherwood Anderson and Gertrude Stein. Stein is godmother to Hemingway's son Jack. Hemingway was close friends with F. Scott Fitzgerald at first but as time went by they became competitors. In 1928 Hemingway's father shot himself. Hemingway endured countless injuries throughout his life. He lived through 2 plane crashes and a car accident. He won both the Pulitzer and Noble Prize in Literature. He was married four times and had a transgender son, who went by Gloria. He suffered from bipolar disorder. Hemingway followed in the footsteps of his father and committed suicide in 1961. After him two more siblings committed suicide and his granddaughter, actress Margaux Hemingway.
O. Henry's real name was William Sydney Porter.
Frank Herbert had a son who died from AIDS in 1993.
James Herriot's real name was James Alfred Wight.
Jack Higgins' real name is Harry Patterson.
S.E. stands for Susan Eloise Hinton.
Alice Hoffman is a survivor of breast cancer.
James Howe's wife helped him write "Bunnicula." Shortly after it was published she died from cancer and he announced he was gay.
Poet, Ted Hughes' first wife writer, Sylvia Plath killed herself by carbon monoxide poisoning on February 11, 1963. She was depressed over the break-up of their marriage due to Hughes multiple affairs. They were married for seven years and had two children. She was 30 years old. On March 23, 1969 Hughes lover, Assia Wevill killed herself using the same method and for the same reasons. Along with herself, she also killed their daughter four year old daughter, Alexandra. His son Nicholas, hung himself in 2009.
Victor Hugo had five children, all but one died before him. Some of their deaths are unknown but one son died at birth, one daughter drowned and his only child to out live him was his daughter who was in an insane asylum.
Zora Neale Hurston died in 1960 and was buried in an unmarked grave. 13 years later writer Alice Walker searched out her grave and gave her a proper tombstone.
Aldous Huxley used the drug LSD, even on his death bed. He was close friends with D. H. Lawrence and Ray Bradbury. He died the same day as John F. Kennedy and C.S. Lewis.
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John Irving was born John Blunt Jr. He was sexually abused at age 11 by an older woman. He won an Academy Award for best adapted screenplay for "The Cider House Rules."
With the help of his nanny, six year old Washington Irving met President George Washington in NYC. Later in life he became friends with Presidents Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce. He coined the nickname "Gotham" for NYC. Irving was engaged once as a young man but she died before their marriage. Rumor has it writer Mary Shelley was interested in marrying him but he did not pursue it. He is buried at Sleepy Hollow cemetery in NY. He never married.
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Shirley Jackson was friends with Ralph Ellison. Her personal library contained over 100,000 books. She was a heavy smoker. Her husband was a constant philanderer and caused her much heartache. She died of heart failure in her sleep at the age of 48. Her husband then married a friend of his daughters.
Brian Jacques' real name is James, which is also his father and brother's name (strange). Jacques originally wrote his story "Redwall" for the children at a school for the blind.
P.D. stands for Phyllis Dorothy James.
Paulette Jiles never had children.
Crockett Johnson's real name was David Johnson Leisk. He was married to writer Ruth Krauss. He was good friends with Maurice Sendak.
Erica Jong was married four times.
Robert Jordan's real name was James Oliver Rigney, Jr. He was diagnosed with the disease Cardiomyopathy (heart muscle disease) in March 2006. The chances of surviving are slim. He started treatment for it in April 2006. He stated to his fans in a blog that he was going to beat it. He died in September of 2007, leaving behind an unfinished sci-fi series.
James Joyce's daughter suffered from schizophrenia. He was friends with William Butler Yeats and Samuel Beckett. He was an alcoholic. Throughout his life he suffered from glaucoma and endured endless eye surgeries. "Ulysses" was banned from the U.S. for 12 years after it was published. The book is considered one of the most difficult reads ever. To prove to the country she wasn't a "blond bimbo" Marilyn Monroe read "Ulysses" in 1955. (If she understood any of it nobody knows.) Joyce died after surgery for an ulcer. He was 58.
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Franz Kafka invented the "hard hat" for steel mill workers. He suffered from depression and insomnia. He had lovers but never married. He died of tuberculous in 1924. He was 40 years old. Sadly, Kafka's three younger sisters would die in concentration camps.
Ezra Jack Keats' real name is Jacob Ezra Keats. And surprise! he was not African American. He was a Polish Jew. He wanted to broke through racial barriers and publish books where the hero was a little black boy since that was almost unheard of in 1963.
John Keat's dad died from a fractured skull after being thrown from his horse. His mother and brother died from tuberculous. He fell in love with a girl named Fanny, he wrote her poetry and love letters. Although his love affair was cut short when he died from tuberculous at the age of 25. On request all his love letters were buried after his death.
Carolyn Keene does not exist. The name is a pseudonym that represents many authors that have written for the Nancy Drew mystery series over the years.
Helen Keller lost both her sight and hearing at 19 months old when she suffered from scarlet fever. Helen's family was bewildered and got in touch with Alexander Graham Bell, who at the time was working with deaf children. Anne Sullivan was sent to her house to teach her sign language through touch. Later Helen learned to read Braille in five languages. Mark Twain got Helen in touch with an oil mogul who would pay for her tuition to Radcliffe College. Anne was her companion until she died at the age of 70. Helen was a rebel; she fought for women's right to vote, civil rights and supported birth control. She traveled to nearly 40 countries. She was friends with Charlie Chaplin. She never married nor had children. She died at the age of 88.
Faye Kellerman is Jonathan Kellerman's wife. They are practicing Orthodox Jews. She is also the mother of writer Jesse Kellerman. She has three other children. The Kellerman's are the only married couple to appear on the N.Y. Times best-seller list at the same time for different books. Jonathan is a psychologist.
Jack Kerouac birth name was Jean-Louis de Kerouac. He had a brother that died at the age of nine from a fever. He was friends with poet Allen Ginsberg. He dropped out of Columbia. The original typewriter scroll of "On the Road" sold for over two million dollars. Jack was married three times. He had one child with his second wife.
M.E. Kerr's real name is Marijane Meaker.
Ken Kesey got the idea of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" after volunteering at a hospital to be examined after taking drugs such as LSD and cocaine. He used LSD in is private life and met up with Timothy Leary. He did five months in jail for possession of marijuana. He married his high school sweetheart and had three children with her. He also had an illegitimate daughter. In 1984 his son died in a car accident. He died at 66 from liver cancer.
Marian Keyes is a recovering alcoholic.
Sue Monk Kidd is a registered nurse.
Jamaica Kincaid's real name is Elaine Cynthia Potter Richardson.
Stephen King's father deserted him when he was two, leaving behind his mother and older brother. After the publication of Carrie in 1974 King's mother died of uterine cancer. He also wrote under the name Richard Bachman. He was an alcoholic and cocaine user until the late 80s. He is married to writer Tabitha King and has three children. Writers Owen King and Joe Hill are his sons. He has a daughter Naomi that is an openly gay minister. She is wheelchair-bound due to a chronic adrenaline hormone deficiency. King was hit by a van in 1999 and was severely injured. Recovery was slow going. King even announced he was retiring due to his injuries but it didn't stick. The driver of the van died from an overdose a year later on King's birthday. He has lived in Bangor, Maine for over 40 years. He owns the local radio station.
Sophie Kinsella also writes under the name Madeleine Wickham.
Judith Krantz lived to be 91. 1928-2019
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Madeleine L'Engle had three children. Two were her natural children and a third was adopted after friends of hers died. Her son Bion died in 1999 when he was 43.
Jhumpa Lahiri's real name is Nilanjana Sudeshna.
Since 1999 Wally Lamb has conducted a writing program at the York Correctional Institute for Women in Connecticut. He published two books of the inmates short stories. In 2003, right before the publication of their first book the prison filed a lawsuit against the women trying to sue for any profits they may make from the book. The prison also tried to cancel the program. After attracting the attention of the news the lawsuit was settled and the program continued.
Anne Lamott is a recovering alcoholic and drug user.
D.H. stands for David Herbert Lawrence. He ran off with a married woman and mother of three. He eventually married her. He was friends with Aldous Huxley. Throughout his life he suffered from pneumonia, influenza, tuberculous, and malaria. He died from tuberculous at the age of 44.
Harper Lee's nickname was Nelle. She was very close to Truman Capote. Since writing "To Kill A Mockingbird" she gave almost no interviews or public appearances. She started a second novel but never finished. She was close friends with Gregory Peck, who played Atticus Fitch in the movie of her novel. Peck's grandson is named after her. She never married or had children.
Gaston Leroux died from a urinary tract infection at age 58.
Doris Lessing's ex-husband Gottfried Lessing was murdered in 1979. She declined the offer to become a dame. She supported Communism and feminism.
Primo Levi was in Auschwitz for 11 months. He later suffered from depression. He kept his job at a Du Pont Company paint factory even after his books became well known. He jumped off his apartment building in 1987. He was 67. Fellow holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel said after his death "Levi died at Auschwitz forty years ago".
C.S. stands for Clive Staples Lewis. He was close friends with J.R.R. Tolkien. Lewis was known as "Jack" to his friends and family. He was a devote Christian. He fell in love with poet, Joy Davidson, and she became his muse. She was almost 20 years younger than him. He avoided marrying her because she was a divorced mother of two and was born Jewish, although she converted to Christianity after meeting Lewis. Christians among his circle of friends disapproved of the relationship. However, Davidson was diagnosed with breast cancer and Lewis married her in 1956. He was already in his late 50's at the time. His wife died from cancer three years later. Joy's first husband and father of her two boys, writer William Lindsey Gresham decided to allow Lewis to keep his sons with him in England. Lewis died on kidney failure on November 22, 1963. (Same day as Aldous Huxley and as JFK's assassination). He was seven days shy of his 65th birthday.
Sinclair Lewis' first name was actually Harry. Rumor has it that Lewis sold story plots to Jack London. Lewis was the first American to be awarded the Noble Peace Prize in Literature. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1926 for his book "Arrowsmith". His son, Wells (named after H.G. Wells) was killed in combat during WWII.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh was the wife of Charles Lindbergh. Her first child Charles Jr. was kidnapped and murdered at 20 months. She had 5 more children. After she died it was announced that Charles had three other children with a mistress. The main character in "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie is based on Anne.
Jean Little was born in Taiwan. She was partially blind from being born with scars on her corneas. As an adult she relied on the help of a service dog. She never married or had children.
Jack London was deserted by his father when he was 11. His mother died while he was still a child so then he was raised by an ex-slave. The house he was born in burned to the ground during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Rumor has it London pulled many people out of their burning homes. At one point he suffered from scurvy and lost his front four teeth. London was best friends with poet George Sterling. He died from a morphine overdose in 1916 at age 40.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was a true romantic. He courted his love for seven years and wrote her countless love letters begging her to marry him. She eventually gave in. They had six children together. A small fire started in their house and both Longfellow and his wife were burned. She died from her wounds and Longfellow was left with bad scars on his face. After that he never shaved his face again and he never got over his wife's death. He turned to opium to deal with his remorse.
H.P. stands for Howard Phillips Lovecraft. When he was three his father was put in an insane asylum. After high school Lovecraft had a nervous breakdown and contemplated suicide. When he was around 30 his mother was committed to the same hospital as his father. He died from cancer at the age of 46.
Lois Lowry was born in Hawaii. Was Originally named "Cena" after her Norwegian grandma but her grandma said she should have an "American" name. She lived in Japan with her family from 1948-1950. She had a sister named Helen that died from cancer in 1962 at 28 years old. "A Summer to Die" is about Helen. Lowry's son Grey died in a military fighter plane crash in 1995. He was 36 years old. She speaks about his death in her book "Looking Back".
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Norman Mailer supported the parole of a convicted murderer. After the man was released he killed another person. Mailer was bashed for his involvement. He also fought for Salman Rushdie who was exiled from Iran for writing his novel "Satanic Verses." He was married six times. He stabbed one of his wives at a party. She recovered and divorced him. One of his daughters was born mentally challenged.
Katherine Mansfield was born in New Zealand. In 1923 she died from tuberculosis in France at age 34.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is President Bill Clinton's favorite novel.
James Marshall was close friends with Maurice Sendak. He died at the age of 50 from a brain tumor.
Ann M. Martin wrote two books with Paula Danziger.
W. Somerset Maugham stuttered. His parents died when he was a child. He was raised by an uncle who sent him away to boarding school. He was bi-sexual. He was the highest paid author during the 1930s.
Ed McBain's real name was Salvatore Albert Lombino.
Cormac McCarthy was married three times. In 2007 his book "The Road" won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction. His book "No Country For Old Man" was adapted into a movie and won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2007.
Frank McCourt's father was an alcoholic. He had three siblings die during early childhood. He left school at 13. He fled Ireland at the age of 19. He served in the Korean war. He eventually became a school teacher.
Carson McCullers real first name was Lula. She was close friends with W.H. Auden, Truman Capote, and Tennessee Williams. She was bi-sexual. In 1945 Carson remarried her ex-husband Reeves McCullers. Later they both fell into a deep depression and Reeves tried to convince her that they both should kill themselves. She decided against it and left him. He killed himself by an overdose. She was always a sickly girl. Besides being an alcoholic she suffered from strokes brought on by rheumatic fever. After one stroke her left side was paralyzed. She died from a brain hemorrhage brought on by a final stroke at the age of 50.
Larry McMurtry owned an independent bookstore in Archer City, Texas, cats included. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1985 for his novel "Lonesome Dove". He also won an Oscar in 2006 for his adapted screenplay for "Brokeback Mountain". His second wife was writer Ken Kesey's widow. He died in 2021 at the age of 84.
Grace Metalious was married to her husband George from 1943-1958. They remarried in 1960 and were separated when she died in 1964. She was an alcoholic and died from cirrhosis of the liver on February 25, 1964. She was only 39 years old.
Stephenie Meyer uses all of her siblings names in her novels.
Singer Moby is nicknamed after his great-great-great-great uncle author Herman Melville who wrote "Moby-Dick." "Moby-Dick" is dedicated to writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. By the time Herman Melville died he was practically completely forgotten about. In his obituary they called him "Henry Melville".
Fern Michaels' real name is Mary Ruth Kuczkir.
James Michener asked to have his dialysis treatments stopped so he could pass away. He was 90.
Daniel Day-Lewis is married to Arthur Miller's daughter. Miller was married to Marilyn Monroe from 1956-1961. He was blacklisted in 1957 but the ruling was overturned in 1958. The "Crucible" was written to relate the Communist black listings that were going on in the 50s to the Salem witch trials. With his third wife he had a son born with Down Syndrome. He was placed in a hospital and forgotten about by Miller until Day-Lewis went to visit his son and reunited the two.
Caroline Miller was born in 1903. She was one of 11 children with which only seven lived into adulthood. Her father died in 1918 and her mother in 1920. She was cared for by her other sisters after her parents died. After high school she married her English teacher who was only six years older. She had three sons with him. She was friends with writer Julia Peterkin who got her in touch with an agent. Miller won the 1934 Pulitzer Prize for her first novel "Lamb in his Bosom". She only wrote one more book after her first. She married a second time and had two more children. After her second husband died in 1976 she became a reclusive in her Western North Carolina home. Her son Harvey died in 1986 at age 57. Miller died at age 88 in 1992.
Henry Miller's lover was writer Anaïs Nin. He is believed to have married six times. He had to legally fight for his work to be publish in America for most people believed it to be pornography. He appears in the film "Reds."
A.A. stands for Alan Alexander Milne. His son's name was Christopher Robin Milne. After he died "The Rolling Stones" lead guitarist bought his house and was later found dead there from drowning. After Milne's death his widow sold the rights to "Pooh" to the Disney company.
John Milton's first wife was almost half his age. She gave him four children. She died in 1652 after the birth of the last. His son would die at 15 months old. Two years after his wife's death Milton would suffer from glaucoma and go completely blind. He would remarry but his wife and new daughter would die four months after her birth. In 1660 Milton went into hiding due to his writings. When he emerged he married a third and final time. In 1928 a society for the blind was founded in Milton's name by Helen Keller.
Margaret Mitchell was born on November 8, 1900. Her brother Russell, died as an infant. In 1918 she was engaged to Lieutenant Clifford West Henry, however on October 17, 1918 he was mortally wounded in WWI. On January 29, 1919 her mother died from the 1918 flu pandemic. While working as a journalist for the Atlanta Journal she got to interview Rudolph Valentino. Mitchell won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for her novel "Gone With the Wind". The book was made into an Epic film in 1939, wining Best Picture. She was killed by a drunk driver on August 16, 1949. She was 48.
Molière's real name was Jean-Baptiste Poquelin. He had three children but only one lived to adulthood. He died from tuberculous at the age of 51.
L.M. stands for Lucy Maud Montgomery. She had the same birthday as Winston Churchill. After her mother died when she was 21 months old her father handed her over to her material grandparents. She grew up in Prince Edwards Island, Canada. She had two suitors that died in the Spanish Influenza of 1918. She also got the flu but survived. She did not marry until she was 37 years old. Montgomery had a son that died at birth. It was not a happy marriage and was plagued with depression. She died in 1942 from an apparent drug overdose. She was 67 years old. Although, there was no proof, it is believed that she took her own life by taking pills due to the note that was left behind.
Clement Clarke Moore had nine children from one wife, Catharine. One daughter named Emily died at 6 years old in 1828 and a daughter Charity died at age 14 in 1830. His wife also died in 1830, 33 years before him. His poem 'Twas the Night Before Christmas" was originally known as "A Visit From St. Nicholas" and at first was published anonymously. Over time his children had him publish a book of poetry which included the Christmas poem.
Sir Thomas More was beheaded on accusations of high-treason in 1535. He was canonized as a saint in 1935.
Toni Morrison's was born Chloe Anthony Wofford. She was the first black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Alice Munro lost a daughter a few hours after birth.
Robert Munsch considered becoming a priest. He suffers from OCD and manic depression. His wife was pregnant twice and both times gave birth to stillborn babies. This tragedy inspired him to write his best-selling book "Love You Forever." He now has adopted children.
The movie "Iris" was based on the life of Irish writer Iris Murdoch. In 1987 she became a Dame. Towards the end of her life she suffered from Alzheimer's, which at first she thought was writer's block. She was married to writer John Bayley. They had no children.
Walter Dean Myer's mother died when he was three so he was raised by a foster family. He dropped out of high school and joined the army at 17.
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Vladimir Nabokov's father was murdered by Russian assassins.
V.S stand for Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul. Mr. Naipaul was knighted in 1990. He has bragged in interviews about having sex with countless prostitutes.
Irene Nemirovsky was a well-known writer in Europe before World War II however once the war started she was no longer allowed to publish work because of her Jewish background. In 1942 she and her husband were separated from their two daughters and sent to Auschwitz. She would died there from typhus and her husband was put to death in the gas chambers. In 2004 her oldest daughter had her unfinished book "Suite Française" published. It went on to became a best-seller.
Pablo Neruda was born Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. His mother died two months after he was born. His first wife and only child, a daughter Malva left Spain and went to live in the Netherlands. He never saw either of them again. The child died at the age of eight from hydrocephalus. He was a very firm believer of Communism.
Friedrich Nietzsche supposedly suffered from diphtheria, dysentery, syphilis and migraines throughout his life. Some believe the syphilis brought on his madness and eventual death at 55. He never married or had children.
Frank Norris was born Benjamin Franklin Norris, Jr. He married in 1900, had a child in 1901 and died from a ruptured appendix in 1902. He was 32. "McTeague" is one of Stephen King's favorite books.
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Tim O'Brien is a Vietnam vet.
Brendan O'Carroll is one of 11 children. He dropped out of school at 12 years old. His first son Brendan Jr. died from spinal bifida just a few days after being born.
Flannery O'Connor got her first taste of fame at the age of five when she taught her chicken how to walk backwards. The local news thought it was a riot. In 1951 she was told she had lupus and would only live five more years. She would live for 15 more finally dying in 1964 at the age of 39. Her mother outlived her by over 30 years. Flannery had a best friend in which she exchanged over 300 letters with. Her friend killed herself in 1998.
Scott O'Dell was born Odell Gabriel Scott.
Eugene O'Neil had an older brother that died at the age of two from measles. His mother never got over the loss and relied on morphine to ease her depression. O'Neil was born in a hotel room. He was kicked out of Princeton for throwing a beer bottle through the school chairman's window. That chairman would become President Woodrow Wilson. He suffered from alcoholism and depression. His other older brother drank himself to death at the age of 45. O'Neil is portrayed by Jack Nicholson in the movie "Reds." He was married three times and had three children. His daughter married Charlie Chaplin. O'Neil never spoke to her again because she was only 18 and Chaplin was 54. (Their marriage lasted until his death. They had eight children together.) He had a very broken relationship with his two sons. One son was an alcoholic and committed suicide at the age of 40. His other son committed suicide from a heroin overdose. He died in a hotel room from a brain disease at the age of 65. It is rumored that his lasts words were, "Born in a hotel room, and Goddammit, died in one!"
Joyce Carol Oates is a member of Mensa. She was married to her husband for 45 years before he died in 2008.
George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair. Aldous Huxley was his French tutor. In the Spanish Civil War Orwell was almost killed when he was shot through the neck. He was friends with T. S. Eliot and E. M. Forster. He and his wife adopted a son in 1944. In 1945 his wife died after an operation to remove a tumor. "1984" was published in 1949. He would die in 1950 from tuberculous at age 46. Their young son was later raised by an aunt.
Amos Oz's mother committed suicide when he was 12.
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In 1999 Chuck Palahniuk's father was dating a woman he met through a personal ad. When her ex-boyfriend found out he killed her and Chuck's father. His murderer has be sentenced to death.
Tomie dePaola's whole name is Thomas Anthony dePaola.
Christopher Paolini graduated high school at age 15. Carl Hiaasen helped him get his book "Eragon" published in 2003. He was a best-selling author at the age of 19.
Although Peggy Parish died at age 61 in 1988 her nephew Herman Parish has taken her place as writer of the "Amelia Bedelia" books.
Dorothy Parker attempted suicide several times. She was an alcoholic. She married the same man twice, who ended up committing suicide. She was known as Dottie. She wrote the script for the 1937 film "A Star is Born." She left her estate to the NAACP.
Francine Pascal's husband John died from lung cancer on January 7, 1981. He was 48 years old. They were married for 16 years and had 3 daughters. She never remarried. Her oldest daughter Jamie died on February 22, 2008 from liver disease.
Boris Pasternak's family was close with composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, poet Rainer Maria Rilke, and writer Leo Tolstoy. Pasternak refused the Noble Prize for Literature in 1958. Singer Regina Spektor quotes Pasternak in her song "Apres Moi".
Ann Patchett took a writing class with Russell Banks. Anne was close friends and roommates with writer Lucy Grealy. After Grealy overdosed in 2002 Anne wrote a memoir called "Truth and Beauty."
Katherine Paterson was born in China. Her family was forced to leave after the Japanese invasion in 1937.
Before becoming famous James Patterson created company slogans.
Gary Paulsen was raised by his grandmother and aunts because both his parents were alcoholics. He is a professional dog sledder.
Tom Perrotta was a student of Tobias Wolff at Syracuse University.
Anne Perry was born Juliet Hulme in London, England. She was sent to South Africa as a child to recover from tuberculous. She moved to New Zealand with her family when she was 13. While in New Zealand she befriended a girl name Pauline. They planned out a whole future together. However, when hearing they would be separated they planned to kill Pauline's mother. On June 22, 1954 Anne and her friend beat her mother to death with a brick. They escaped the death penalty due to the fact they were teenagers. Both were sentenced to jail. After five years they both were released on a condition that they would never contact each other for the rest of their lives. Anne flew to England and became a flight attendant. The events of the murder are portrayed in the film, "Heavenly Creatures" starring Kate Winslet as Anne.
Julia Peterkin was born on Halloween in 1880. Her mother died shortly after her birth. She was friends with fellow writer Carl Sandburg. Peterkin married a plantation owner in 1903 and in 1904 she gave birth to her only child, a son William. Her father was a surgeon and delivered his grandson. Afterward, her father asked Peterkin's husband if he wished to have more children. Her husband and father then chose to sterilize Julia so she could no longer conceive. This was a man's decision that effected Julia greatly the rest of her life. She won the 1929 Pulitzer Prize in fiction for her novel "Scarlet Sister Mary". She died at age 80 in 1961.
Elizabeth Peters' real name is Barbara Mertz.
Arthur Phillips was a winning champion on Jeopardy! in 1997.
Jodi Picoult was a writer for DC Comics' "Wonder Woman."
Wally Piper, author of "The Little Engine that Could," does not really exist. It's just a pseudonym used by publishing house Platt and Munk. The story is based on a similar tale written by Mary C. Jacobs called "The Pony Engine."
Robert Pirsig had an IQ of 170 at the age of nine and entered the University of Minnesota by the age of fifteen. His son Chris, was stabbed to death while being mugged in 1979.
Sylvia Plath's first suicide attempt was in her junior year at college. After that she was placed in a mental hospital and received electroshock therapy. She had a very rocky marriage to writer, Ted Hughes and killed herself after leaving her husband due to his affairs. Her son hung himself in 2009.
Edgar Allan Poe was born Edgar Poe in 1809. His father abandoned his family in 1810 and his mother later died from consumption in 1811. He was then raised by the Allans. His older brother died of alcoholism. Although, they put 21 on the marriage license Poe's bride was actually 13 (and his cousin.) Poe's wife was quite sick which caused him to drink heavily. After ten years of marriage and no children his wife died from tuberculous. This terrible loss lead him to became a full time drunk, losing job after job. Two years later Poe died the streets of Baltimore age age 40. No cause of death was ever determined as his medical records and death certificate have been lost.
Patricia Polacco has dyslexia. Polacco grew up on a farm that was once a stop on the Underground Railroad. She used to babysit Tom Hanks.
Katherine Anne Porter was born Callie Russel Porter. She had her name changed to match her paternal grandmother's name. Her mother died when she was two and which point she was raised by her grandma. Her grandmother died when she was eleven. She got married to an oil man when she was 16. He was very physically abusive towards her. After a couple of years she escaped and changed her name. In 1915, she was diagnosed with tuberculous and spent two years in a hospital. In 1918 she was in love but almost died after catching the "influenza." She was one of the few people that recovered from the illness. 500,000 people across the country died, including her love. She was an acquaintance of Diego Rivera. She was married briefly a few times. She never had any children but supposedly had a number of miscarriages and at least one stillborn. She lived to be 90.
Chaim Potok's real name was Herman Harold Potok. He served in the U.S. Army as a chaplain in South Korea from 1955-1957. Potok never had children. He died from a brain tumor in 2002.
Beatrix Potter was educated by governesses. She rarely saw any other children including her younger brother. Her parents were extremely lazy and lived off of a large inheritance. After her studies were complete she became a servant to her parents. She found an escape in writing children's books and after having her book published she planned to escape from her parents by marrying her publisher. However, he died from anemia before she could. She finally married at the age of 47. She had no children.
In 2007 Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He donated over a million dollars to finding a cure and asked fans to please contribute to the British charity: Alzheimer's Research UK. He died from the disease on March 12, 2015. He was 66 years old. He was an atheist.
E. Annie Proulx full name is Edna Annie Proulx. She has married and divorced three times.
Marcel Proust's father was a doctor studying the causes and cures of cholera. Marcel had very bad asthma. He was a homosexual. After Proust's parents died he inherited over six million dollars. He died at the age of 51.
Philip Pullman was only seven when his father died in a plane crash. He is an atheist.
Thomas Pynchon's middle name is Ruggles. He graduated high school at the age of 16.
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Anna Quindlen's mother died from cancer when she was 19.
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Ayn Rand was born Alisa Zinov'yevna Rosenbaum. She came to America from Russia at the age of 21. She worked in costume design for both MGM and RKO. She was a heavy smoker. Had an affair on her husband for 15 years. She created a philosophical system called Objectivism.
Ellen Raskin died at the age of 56.
Majorie Kinnan Rawlings moved to Florida when she was 32 and lived there for the rest of her life. Almost all of her writings take place in that state. She won the 1939 Pulitzer Prize for her novel "The Yearling." She was friends with fellow writer Zora Neale Hurston. Rawlings was unable to have children. She died from a stroke on December 14, 1953. She was 57years old. She left most her inheritance and land to the University of Florida in Gainsville.
Erich Maria Remarque was born Erich Paul Remark. He entered WWI at the age of 18. He was sent to Germany where he was injured by shrapnel. He was married three times. Twice to Ilsa Jeanne Zamboui. He married actress Paulette Goddard. No children from his marriages.
H. A. Rey stands for Hans Augusto. Hans and his wife, Margaret, were both Jewish and fled Paris during WWII on bicycles. With them they carried the manuscript of "Curious George"
Anne Rice's real name is Howard Allen O'Brien. (Don't ask. Her mother was a mad woman.) Anne gave birth to a daughter in 1966. However she would die of leukemia in 1972. She had a son (fellow novelist) Christopher in 1978. She slipped into a diabetic coma in 1998. In 2002 her husband died and her weight soared to over 250 lbs. She had gastric bypass surgery in 2003.
Rainer Maria Rilke's real first name is Rene. As a child Rainer's mother was so distraught by the loss of his sister that she started to dress him as a girl. This caused his parents' marriage to fall apart. He died from leukemia at the age of 51.
Nora Roberts' real name is Eleanor Marie Robertson. She sued fellow romance writer Janet Dailey for plagiarism.
Writer Thomas Rockwell is the son of painter Norman Rockwell.
Writer Edmond Rostand, best known for "Cyrano de Bergerac" died in the 1918 influenza epidemic.
Philip Roth's first wife died in a car accident in 1968. They were married nine years and had no children. Roth suffered a nervous breakdown in the late 80s.
J. K. Rowling's first name is Joanne. In 1990 her mother died from MS. In 1993 Rowling was unemployed and clinically depressed. She even contemplated suicide. Harry Potter was first published in England in 1997. It was bought and published by Scholastic Inc. in 1998. Her novels were the fastest selling books of all time. The 7th and final book in her HP series sold over 11 million books on its released date. All of her books have been made into films. Rowling is said to be worth more than $15 billion. She is the only writer ever to be worth that much. She got married in 2001 and has three children.
Salmon Rushdie was once married to novelist Marianne Wiggins. He has been married four times. After writing his 1988 book "Satanic Verses" (which is about the prophet Muhammad) Iran vowed to have him killed. In 1989 a bomb went off in a hotel he was staying in. He went into hiding after that. To this day he still is reminded by the country that they want him dead.
Cynthia Rylant's father died when she was 13. She grew up in a house with no electricity, running water or car.
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Louis Sachar makes a cameo appearance in the movie version of his book "Holes."
Antoine de Saint Exupéry's father died when he was three. In 1935 he was flying a plane for more than 19 hours when it crashed in the Sahara desert. He survived despite extreme dehydration. In 1944 he flew into the air and was never seen alive again. He was 44 years old. In 2000 a deep sea diver discovered part of his plane.
J.D. Salinger stands for Jerome David Salinger. Salinger dated Oona O'Neill, the daughter of Eugene O'Neill. There are 237 "Goddamns" in "The Catcher in the Rye." He vowed never to sell the movie rights (not even to Steven Spielberg, who asked permission.) He lived a very reclusive life, hardly ever giving interviews or appearing in public. He hadn't had anything published since 1965. He was married three times and once the wives have children he ignored them. He preferred the company of young, single girls who were childless.
John Sandford's real name is John Roswell Camp.
Jose Saramago's older brother died at the age of four. He is an atheist.
William Saroyan was an abusive alcoholic who was addicted to gambling. His ex-wife would later marry Walter Matthau.
Sir Walter Scott survived a bout of polio.
As a freshman at Syracuse University Alice Sebold was attacked and raped in a campus tunnel. Her attacker was later caught and convicted. She retells her tale in an autobiography "Lucky." She is a recovering heroin addict.
David Sedaris' sister is comedian Amy Sedaris. He suffers from O.C.D. He is a homosexual.
Hurbert Selby Jr. was a high school drop out. In 1947 he suffered from tuberculous which would effect his lungs for the rest of his life. At one point he even had to have surgery to remove a part of his lung which lead him to become addicted to painkillers and heroin.
Dr. Seuss' wife Helen Palmer committed suicide at age 68 in 1967. Palmer was quite physically ill and wanted the pain to stop. She also was aware that her husband was in love with another woman named Audrey Diamond. They were married 39 years and had no children. Seuss was devastated by his wife's decision however less than a year later he married Audrey . They remained married until his death in 1991.
At the age of 14 Anna Sewell fell and injured both her ankles. Due to mistreatment of her injuries she had to walk with the assistance of a cane for the remainder of her life. She relied on horses to carry her most places which is where her great love for the animal came from. Her only novel was "Black Beauty." She was so frail that she recited the plot to her mother who typed it up. She died at the age of 58 from hepatitis, just five months after her book was published.
William Shakespeare married a woman eight years older than him. She was three months pregnant at the time. He had a son Hamnet, that died at the age of eleven.
Alice Sheldon was born in 1915. She wrote sci-fi novels under the alias James Tiptree Jr. There is a James Tiptree Jr. award now given out in that genre. On May 19, 1987 Sheldon took the life of her sick 84-year old husband and then her own. They were found dead holding each other in bed. Years before she had made a suicide pact with her husband once their health started to fail. The suicide note she left behind was dated years back, in 1979.
Sidney Sheldon's real name was Sidney Schechtel. He had bipolar disorder and attempted suicide at the age of 17. In the 1960's Sheldon wrote for the show "I Dream of Jeannie." His wife Jorja Curtright died from a heart attack in 1985. She was 61. They were married 30 years and had one daughter.
Mary Shelley's entire life was riddled with scandals and poor mental and physical health. Mary came from a pretty well off family. Her mother died after giving birth to her. When she was 17, Mary ran off with a married man, whose wife was pregnant, named Percy Shelley ultimately causing much friction between Mary and her father who basically disowned her over the adultery. In 1816 the pair got married after Percy's wife committed suicide by drowning. Furthermore, after their marriage Mary's half sister, Fanny, who was in love with Percy killed herself at the age of 22. Mary and Percy's relationship was more of an open-marriage since both were not faithful to each other or believed in the the institution of marriage. More scandal, Mary's other sister Claire was not only having an affair with Percy Shelley but also with a married Lord Byron, which resulted in the birth of an illegitimate daughter. Frankenstein was published in 1818. Shelley gave birth to four children, although only one child, a son would live to adulthood. Percy died in a ship wreck in 1822. In 1828 she suffered small pox but recovered. However, in 1851 she died from a brain tumor at age 53.
Lionel Shriver's real name is Margaret Ann Shriver.
Anne Rivers Siddons' real first name is Sybil.
Shel Silverstein wrote the music and lyrics for the Johnny Cash song "A Boy Named Sue." He won a grammy in 1970. Shel's first wife died five years after giving birth to their daughter Shanna. Shanna would then be raised by friends of the family. She died from a brain aneurysm at the age of 11. He was also known as Uncle Shelby. He drew for "Playboy" before writing kids poetry books. Shel died from a heart attack at the age of 68. He is survived by a son Matthew who was born 1983.
Neil Simon's first name was Marvin. He had married five times. He never got over the death of his first wife Joan, who died of bone cancer in 1973. Close friends with Bob Fosse, Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner.
Upton Sinclair's father was an alcoholic that owned a liquor store.
Betty Smith's first name was Elizabeth.
Dodie Smith wrote "101 Dalmations". She never had children. She left writer Julian Barnes all of her writing rights.
Susan Sontag's real name was Susan Rosenblatt. She had a long time relationship with photographer Annie Leibovitz.
Nicholas Sparks had a sister that died at the age of 34.
Muriel Spark became a Dame in 1993.
Dr. Benjamin Spock's book "Baby and Child Care" has outsold every nonfiction book except the Bible. Dr. Spock's grandson Peter, committed suicide by jumping off a building. He was 22 and suffered from schizophrenia.
Johanna Spyri's husband and only child, a son both died in 1884.
So far Danielle Steel has been married five times. Her choices in men include a heroin addict and a convicted rapist. She's had seven children. She had a son named Nicholas that committed suicide in 1997 after a life of bipolar disease and drug addition. She has her own perfume called "Danielle" sold by Elizabeth Arden.
Gertrude Stein was close friends with Matisse, Picasso, Hemingway and Thornton Wilder. Stein was a lesbian and had a lifelong relationship with Alice B. Toklas.
John Steinbeck dropped out of Stanford University. He was married three times. His son John Jr. died when he was only 44. He wrote a book called "The Other Side of Eden," which is about his strained relationship with his alcoholic father.
Mattie Stepanek was born with a very rare and aggressive form of muscular dystrophy. He had a sister and two brothers that died from the disease. He wrote five books of poetry and helped Jerry Lewis host his MD marathon. He died at the age of 13.
Robert Louis Stevenson was close friends with Henry James. He suffered from bouts of tuberculosis throughout his life. He died from a stroke at the age of 44.
R.L. Stine stands for Robert Lawrence. In the 1990's when the series "Goosebumps" by R.L. Stine was at the height of its fame Scholastic was selling over four millions copies a month. The Series also was made into two movies.
Bram Stoker's first name was Abraham.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's mother died when she was five. Stowe had an infant son, Samuel, that died of cholera in 1849. Another son, Henry, drowned when he was 19 in 1857. Her son, Frederick, who was an alcoholic disappeared to California in 1871 and was never heard from again. He was 30 years old. Her daughter, Georgiana, died from septicemia when she was 47 in 1890. Her house was a stop on the "underground railroad." She was friends with George Eliot.
Peter Straub was nearly killed after been struck by a car when he was seven. His mother wanted him to become a priest.
William Styron's mother died when he was 14. His father had clinical depression, which William would suffer from later in life. He recalled his darkest days in the memoir, "Darkness Visible." He was friends with James Baldwin.
Jacqueline Susann admitted to using drugs as early as high school. She ran off to New York to start an acting career. After she couldn't find much work she married a man in hopes that he could boost her fame. She was never attracted to him and had countless affairs. She had a son named Guy who was born with Autism. Not being able to handle him she had Guy placed in a hospital. The truth about what happened to her son was never revealed until her death at age 56 from breast cancer. There are rumors that she may have been bisexual. She had said that "Valley of the Dolls," was based on real life stars such as Judy Garland and Ethel Merman. She made a cameo appearance in the film version, but supposedly hated how the film came out. She was known to have rifts with fellow writers Truman Capote and Gore Vidal.
Jonathan Swift's father died seven months before he was born. He suffered from Ménière's disease, which is a disorder of the inner ear, symptoms include dizziness and loss of balance.
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Amy Tan's father and oldest brother both died within a year of each other from brain tumors. While attending Berkley her roommate was murdered. She caught lyme disease which still gives her seizures. He material grandmother committed suicide and her mother also attempted to. She suffers from mental illness which she says is clearly heredity in her family.
Booth Tarkington's first name was actually Newton. His is one of only four writers to ever win the Pultizer's Prize for fiction, twice. Once for "The Magnificent Ambersons" and "Alice Adams". By the 1920's he began losing his eyesight. His only child, Laurel, died in 1923, at the age of 17.
William Makepeace Thackeray had a eight month old daughter that died. His wife suffered from depression and tried to drowned herself. She was in and out of hospitals. He died from a stroke at the age of 52. His wife outlived him by 30 years.
Dylan Thomas had asthma. He was an alcoholic.
After Hunter S. Thompson's father died when he was 14 his mother became a heavy drinker. After Hunter's wife gave birth to their only child she lost five more babies. (Three were miscarriages and two infants died shortly after birth.) Hunter was a drug addict. His nickname was "Gonzo." He was close friends with Bill Murray and Johnny Depp. Hunter shot himself while sitting at his typewriter. The only word on the paper was "counselor". He was on the phone with his second wife when he killed himself and his son and daughter-in-law were in the next room. He left behind this suicide note: ""No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun — for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax — This won't hurt."
Kay Thompson's real name was Catherine L. Fink. She was a voice coach for Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra. She was Liza Minnelli's godmother. She had no children so her two nieces now own the "Eloise" literary rights.
Henry David Thoreau's family owned a pencil factory. He was close friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne. He spent two years in a cabin in the wilderness. He died from tuberculosis at age 44.
J.R.R stands for John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. His father died in South Africa of rheumatic fever when he was three. His mother died from diabetes when he was 12. He fought in World War I. After the war he got a job with the Oxford English Dictionary. He was a professor at Oxford University. He was friends with C.S. Lewis and W. H. Auden. He has many book characters based Lewis and vice versa. He was a devout Christian.
Leo Tolstoy's parents both died when he was very young. His daughter Marya died from pneumonia in 1906. She was 37. His infant son Pyotr died in 1873 from croup. His son Nicolas died in 1875 from meningitis. He was 10 months old. Varvara died within an hour of her birth in 1875. Alexis died from quinsy in 1886 at age four. His son Ivan died from scarlet fever in 1895 at age seven. A year before he died Tolstoy had a correspondence with Gandhi. He was a vegetarian. He was not a fan of "Shakespeare."
John Kennedy Toole was known as "Ken" to his friends and family. He had a very close relationship with his mother, he being the only child. He had his masters from Columbia. He taught at Hunter College. He sent his manuscript to Simon and Schuster in the early 1960s but was rejected. He quit teaching after that and became an alcoholic. He disappeared in January of 1969 after having a fight with his mother. He was found dead in his car in March of that year. He had committed suicide by inhaling gas fumes. It was not until 1980 that "A Confederacy of Dunces" was finally published by his relentless mother. A year later, in 1981, Toole was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his novel.
Sue Townsend suffered terribly from diabetes in her later years. She received a kidney transplant from her son in 2009 and later went blind. She died in 2014.
P.L. Travers never married. She adopted a son from Ireland. She was very disappointed with the final cut of Disney's version of her book "Mary Poppins" despite it making her a millionaire. She died at 96.
Margaret Truman was the only child of Harry Truman.
Scott Turow is the president of the Authors Guild (as of 2011).
Mark Twain's real name was Samuel Clemens. His father died when he was 11. He was out of seven children, three of whom died during childhood. He had a nineteen year old brother that died in a boat explosion. His first son died of diphtheria at 19 months. He then had three daughters, only one lived outside her twenties. One daughter died of meningitis and another from drowning in a tub after having a seizure. He was close friends with Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. Twain made plenty of money through his writings, but he lost a great deal through poor investments.
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Leon Uris' second wife shot herself to death.
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Jules Verne was shot in the leg by his 25 year old nephew. His shooter spent the rest of his life in an asylum.
Kurt Vonnegut's mother committed suicide with sleeping pills on Mother's Day in 1944. He was a POW in WWII. Vonnegut raised seven children. Three of the kids were his sister's whom he adopted after her death.
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Ayelet Waldman is married to writer Michael Chabon. She has bipolar disorder.
As a child Alice Walker was shot with a BB gun which made her blind in one eye. In 1967 she was married to a white, Jewish lawyer which in Mississippi this was quite a stir-up. She later would have a relationship with singer Tracy Chapman.
During her childhood Jeannette Walls lived in periods of homelessness. She never had children.
Wendy Wasserstein died from cancer at the age of 55. She was a single mom of a 6 year old girl.
Evelyn Waugh had seven children. He had an infant daughter, Mary, that died in 1940.
H. G. Wells stands for Herbert George. He was briefly married to his cousin. He left her for one of his students. He had multiple affairs, even some producing a child. One of his mistresses was feminist Margaret Sanger. His wife never left him.
Eudora Welty never married or had children. She lived to be 92 years old, outliving her entire family, which included her parents and four siblings. Her older brother Christian, died at three months old on August 7, 1906. Her younger sister died at birth on January 26, 1924. Her younger brother Walter died at 43 from advanced arthritis on January 9, 1959. Her younger brother Edward died from a brain infection on January 24, 1966 at age 53, four days after her mother died from a stroke.
Nathanael West was close friends with F. Scott Fitzgerald. While vacationing in Mexico with his wife he got word that Fitzgerald had died. He then sped back to California to attend the funeral. Unfortunately, on the way he crashed his car, killing both him and his wife. He died one day after Fitzgerald on December 22, 1940. He was 37 years old.
Edith Wharton was friends with Henry James, Sinclair Lewis and Theodore Roosevelt. Her husband suffered from severe depression. She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in fiction for "The Age of Innocence" in 1921.
E.B. stands for Elwyn Brooks White. Friends and family called him "Andy". He suffered from Alzheimer's towards the end of his life. He died at 86.
T.H. White was gay, agnostic, and a heavy drinker.
Elie Wiesel was born in Transylvania. He was sent to a concentration camp in 1944. Wiesel's mother, father, and younger sister were killed during the holocaust. He became a U.S. citizen in 1955. In 1986 he won the Noble Peace Prize. In 2006 he was knighted by the Queen of England.
Oscar Wilde's younger sister died at age eight of meningitis. The girl he was in love with ended up marrying Bram Stoker. Wilde was sentenced to two years in prison for homosexual behavior with male prostitutes. While in prison his right ear drum burst. After his time in jail his wife and two sons had very little contact with Wilde. Wilde died of cerebral meningitis at the age of 46 in 1900. Wilde died in a Paris hotel room and supposedly his last words were "Either this wallpaper goes...or I do". He was financially broke at the time.
Laura Ingalls Wilder became a teacher at 16. She married a man ten years her senior. She had a new born son that died in 1889. Her books became a hit television show called "Little House on the Prairie".
Thornton Wilder was a twin with a stillborn sibling. He was often bullied in school for his intelligence. Wilder spoke multiple languages. He became friends with Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Willa Cather. Only his closest friends knew he was homosexual. In 1928 he won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel "The Bridge of San Luis Rey". He also won a Pulitzer for his play "Our Town". He died of heart failure in 1975 at age 78.
Tennessee Williams had a sister with schizophrenia. Her parents allowed a lobotomy to be performed, thinking this would cure her. The surgery left her incapacitated. This fact is believed to have lead Williams to become a heavy drinker and dependent on amphetamines and barbiturates. He was gay and had many unstable affairs. Suffered from sever depression throughout his life. He had a nervous breakdown in 1969. He died by choking on a medicine bottle cap while under the influence of drugs.
Thomas Wolfe had three siblings that died young. His sister Leslie died as an infant, his brother Grover died at age 12 from typhoid fever and his brother Benjamin died at age 26. Wolfe wrote "Look Homeward, Angel" for his brother Ben. It published 11 days before the stock market crash of 1929, He was known for handing in extremely large drafts that had to be greatly edited down in order to be appealing to the public. He died from tuberculosis at the age of 37. He never married and never had children.
After the divorce of Tobias Wolff's parents his mother married a very abusive man that beat both him and her. He served in the Vietnam war. He has taught at both Syracuse and Stanford University. Some of his students include authors Jay McInerney, Tom Perrotta, George Saunders, and Alice Sebold.
Virginia Woolf's mother died when she was 13. Two years later her half-sister Stella died which led to the first of Virginia's several nervous breakdowns. She had a half sister that was mentally disabled and was institutionalized in 1891. After the death of her father Woolf was briefly institutionalized. As children she and her sister Vanessa were sexually abused by their half-brothers George and Gerald. Her brother died at age 26. She was related to William Makepeace Thackeray. She was bi-sexual. She never had children. She drown herself in 1941 at the age of 59. She left her husband (married in 1912) a suicide note that read, "I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. I don't think two people could have been happier 'til this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been. V."
Herman Wouk had a son, Abraham that died in a tragic accident as a child. His book "War and Remembrance" is dedicated to him. Wouk lived to be 103 years old.
Richard Wright father was illiterate and an alcoholic. When his mother got ill both him and his brother were place in an orphanage. His uncle was murdered in a hate crime. He moved around so often he rarely attended school and was an autodidact. He died from a heart attack in 1960 at age 52.
Elizabeth Wurtzel had suffered from depression since she was ten years old. She attempted suicide multiple times. She was fired from her newspaper job for plagiarism. The movie made about her memoir "Prozac Nation" was not released in movie theaters due to her disliking the way the movie turned out and her outspoken remarks after the attacks on 9/11. She was a lawyer. She died from breast cancer at 52 in 2020.
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Carlos Ruiz Zafon died from colon cancer on June 19, 2020. He was 55 years old.
When Paul Zindel was two his father ran off with his mistress. This may have explained why many of his novels dealt with dark subjects and abandonment.
